Bernera Riot

The Bernera Riot occurred in 1874, on the island of Great Bernera, in Scotland in response to the Highland Clearances. The use of the term 'Bernera Riot' correctly relates to the court case which exposed the maltreatment of the peasant classes in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and exposed the corruption that was inherent in the landowning class. The 'riot' was not fought in the streets or in the fields but in the Scots Lawcourts. It is notable as the first successful legal challenge to nineteenth century Landlordism in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and was the catalyst for future resistance in what became known as the Crofters War. Modern land reform in Scotland has its roots in the outcome of this event.

Great Bernera (Beàrnaraigh Mòr) is an island in Loch Roag, off the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. It is fairly close to Lewis, but it was not until 1953 that a bridge was built, after the islanders threatened to dynamite the hillside to create a causeway. Bernera was a crofting community at the time of the riot but today that form of land-holding is rapidly diminishing.

The whole of north west Scotland suffered from the Highland Clearance over a period of a hundred years or more. Although much lamented in Gaelic song, and literature, in very few places did they meet a stiff resistance - Bernera was one of the first places to challenge the authorities, and Skye was another, where the Battle of the Braes took place.

Sir James Matheson having bought the island of Lewis, also took charge of adjoining Bernera, and appointed a solicitor, Donald Munro to be his factor. Munro was perceived as being heavy-handed, and his evictions were naturally unpopular. As there was no security of tenure for the peasants and the vast majority were illiterate Munro had authority to issue very harsh and sweeping edicts.

The Bernera islanders had their summer grazings on mainland Lewis taken away from them in 1850 in favour of a new sporting estate known as the Uig deer forest. Furthermore, they were forced to construct dykes at their own expense as a new boundary between their stock and the sporting estate. In time this area was considered not large enough for the sporting estate and in 1872 Munro issued a notice that even this new smaller grazings area would be taken from the Bernera people and their ancient grazings rights would disappear altogether. The islanders naturally had enough and made a stance against this tyranny.

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