Quote:
Originally Posted by Brettus
Haggis, is that REALLY the name of the "astle and if so was it owned by a once infamous outlaw that turned good or something?  |
Yep, really! Quite a story behind it too.
It's the ancestral home of the Duke of Sutherland. "Boo, hiss!"
Infamous, oh yes, definitely.
He was responsible for the Highland Clearances, when rich land owners evicted crofting families, destroying their homes in the process, in order to use the land for sheep farms in a massive scale. Think of it as 18th century ethnic cleansing - tens of thousands affected, and forced to restart their lives in America, Canada, Australia etc. with nothing to their names.
Such a nice bloke, lol. He commissioned a massive stone column with a statue of himself on top on the highest hill nearby so he could oversee his lands, but more so that his remaining tenants remembered to keep out of trouble or they would be next. It still stands despite numerous campaigns over the years to have it removed.