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Welcome back to This Day in Scottish History. I’m your host, Colin MacDonald. Today, we journey to the rugged slopes of the Isle of Skye, to a windswept corner called the Braes, where on or around April 17th, 1882, a band of determined crofters—tenant farmers—rose up in defiance of unjust evictions. The confrontation that followed, now known as the “Battle of the Braes,” would not only shake the quiet hills of Skye, but ripple across Scotland and beyond, sparking a movement that forever changed the face of land rights in the Highlands. And if you’d like to read more stories like this one, you’ll find plenty at bagtownclans.com/thisday. The link’s in the description!

Now, to understand the fury that ignited that April day, we need to step back into the troubled world of Highland crofting life in the 19th century. Decades after the Highland Clearances, the scars were still fresh. Whole communities had been uprooted to make way for more profitable sheep farming and game estates. Families were pushed to the rocky margins of the land, where the soil was poor and life was hard.

The Braes, nestled near Camustianavaig on Skye’s eastern coast, was one such community. For generations, the crofters there had relied on the grazing lands of nearby Ben Lee to sustain their cattle. But by the 1880s, the landlord—Lord MacDonald, an absentee aristocrat with vast holdings—had barred them from these pastures, fencing off the land for private use. Rents continued to rise, while the land grew ever more difficult to work.

Eventually, the crofters had had enough. In early 1882, they stopped paying rent in protest and demanded access to their traditional grazing lands. Their defiance wasn’t taken lightly. When Lord MacDonald sent a sheriff’s officer to serve eviction notices, the villagers confronted him in numbers—men, women, and children—and forced him to burn the documents on the spot. It was an act of resistance not seen in Skye for generations.

Angered by the defiance, the authorities responded with force. Around fifty police officers, many from Glasgow, were dispatched to the Braes to arrest those responsible. They arrived to find the narrow hill roads blocked and a crowd of nearly two hundred crofters standing firm. Armed with nothing more than sticks and stones, they refused to back down.

What followed was a brief but violent clash. Stones flew, police batons swung, and several people on both sides were injured. Five crofters were arrested and later fined, but in the eyes of the crofting communities, they were heroes. They had stood their ground—not just for themselves, but for generations of Highlanders whose rights had long been ignored.

The Battle of the Braes caught the attention of the national press, and public sympathy swung sharply in favour of the crofters. The image of city policemen beating poor farmers on a remote Scottish island struck a chord with many. The incident forced the government to take action.

Just a year later, in 1883, the Napier Commission was established to investigate the conditions of crofters and cottars across the Highlands and Islands. Though cautious in its findings, the commission laid the groundwork for meaningful reform. The most significant outcome came in 1886 with the passing of the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act. At long last, crofters were granted security of tenure, fair rent reviews, and the right to pass their land on to their heirs—transformative rights that had been denied for centuries.

And so, the little township of Braes became the unlikely spark that lit the fire of reform. The events there inspired other acts of resistance, like those in Glendale later that same year. Together, these grassroots movements pushed the Highland Land League into prominence, and their legacy echoes still in the landscapes and laws of modern Scotland.

Today, a simple cairn stands near Camustianavaig to mark the site of the battle—a quiet monument to the bravery of ordinary folk who refused to be silenced. The Battle of the Braes is a reminder that even in the face of power and privilege, the collective voice of a determined people can rewrite history.

Thank you for joining me today on This Day in Scottish History. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tale of resistance and reform, born from the heathered slopes of Skye. Don’t forget to visit my blog for more tales from Scotland’s past at bagtownclans.com/thisday. Until next time, I’m Colin MacDonald—Haste Ye Back!

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