052 THE SCOTTISH Highlander. - 13v.; 1885-98. - Inverness : Scottish Highlander Office. - 55cm. - Weekly. Vol.1 is 36cm. From vol.2 title enlarged to "Scottish Highlander and North of Scotland Advertiser." FM 909.
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By Melanie Manwaring-McKay
The first issue of The Scottish Highlander was published on Friday evening of the 17th July 1885 in Inverness. The timing of bringing a new newspaper to the Highlands, to join an already thriving news industry, was no accident. An election had been called, and Charles Fraser-Mackintosh was standing as the candidate (‘the Advanced Liberal and Land Reform Candidate’ as The Scottish Highlander describes him) for Inverness County, having previously been the MP for Inverness Burghs. Furthermore, Land Reform was a hot topic. The newspaper’s editor, Alexander Mackenzie, was a political ally of Fraser-Mackintosh’s and a very influential figure in the land agitations. The Scottish Highlander firmly established itself as a campaigning publication in its inaugural issue. |
Fraser-Mackintosh was standing in high regard in the crofting communities in the West Highlands and Islands. He had been instrumental in bringing about The Napier Commission to investigate Crofters’ rights and had sat on the Commission the previous year. Alexander Mackenzie was also a familiar face in the isles having been helping crofters prepare for the Commission; and in the establishment of the Highland Land League Reform Association (HLLRA). The 1885 election was to be particularly important for crofters as the franchise had been extended and crofters had a ’new-born privilege’ to vote.
Mackenzie states that the object of his new publication was ‘in a bold and independent spirit, to advocate the rights and promote the interests of the Highland people.’ Of the paper’s 16 pages much is given over to Land Reform, with many pieces supporting the cause. For example, Mackenzie writes that townspeople should be more concerned about evictions, as evictions led to migration to Inverness and Glasgow leading to reduction in wages, inflated rentals and beggars and paupers in these places. He said that in a recent enquiry it was found that of the 800 paupers in Inverness, 600 were there as a result of evictions, and that Highlanders were dragged to destruction in one-room houses in Glasgow ‘while their places in the country are occupied by sheep and deer.
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Throughout, there is also an impression of a strong Land League Reform movement across the country. The LLRA in Edinburgh were gathering subscriptions for five South Uist prisoners there, who as civil prisoners could get better food than the prison fare but couldn’t afford it. Even the Scottish Land league of America was raising money for Scottish crofters.
The HLLRA were formed in February 1883 in London. Fraser-Mackintosh was one of the numerous vice-presidents. The Association’s first Highlands and Islands branch was constituted at Glendale on 5th December 1883 and by June 1884 there was a membership of around 5000.[1] As well as much in the way of support and congratulation for the new paper itself from various quarters, there is also a lot of stated support for Fraser-Mackintosh in the forthcoming election. Reports from Glenelg, North Uist, South Uist, and Broadford for example state that Fraser-Mackintosh is their preferred candidate. It was announced in the paper that Fraser-Mackintosh will visit the Western Isles on an electioneering trip once the men have returned from the East Coast fishing in September. He does do this on the steam-yacht Carlotta, accompanied by Alexander Mackenzie’s youthful son, Hector Rose Mackenzie, who reports Fraser-Mackintosh’s hero’s welcome in both later editions of The Scottish Highlander and in a serialisation in The Celtic Magazine.[2] |
Hector Rose Mackenzie
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The steam yacht Carlotta which Charles Fraser Mackintosh used on his electioneering trip to the Western Isles.
Gaelic features in the paper – with a ‘Gaelic Department’ and also a report on the 14th Assembly of the Gaelic Society of Inverness. Fraser-Mackintosh also contributes to the paper with the first in a serialisation called Letters of Two Centuries where he shows his cultural and intellectual credentials.[3] The paper is funded by subscriptions and there are also two pages of adverts. Readers are invited for example, to purchase some steam power aerated water manufactured in Inverness. Perhaps one could read The Scottish Highlander with a ‘Sarasparilla’, ‘Phospho’ or ‘pick-me-up’.
The Battle of the BraesThe Battle of the Braes was a pivot moment in the whole Land Ownership and Reform debate. Crofters who had remained in Skye in the 1880s were dealt a serious blow when they were denied access to what had once been common grazing land by landowner Lord Macdonald, effectively destroying their means of earning a living and feeding their families. In defiance of the ban, the crofters of Braes began to form an organised movement, grazing their livestock on the hill known as Ben Lee, and withholding their rents. The ringleaders were quickly identified, their eviction papers drawn up and additional sheriff officers and police were brought in to carry out the evictions. The a bloody clash on Skye on 19th of April 1882 played a vital role in land reform in Scotland in the following decades.
Am Baile's virtual exhibition explores the events leading up to the battle, the battle itself, the aftermath, and its legacy. |
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Discovery Point Search the Scottish Highlander on the Am Baile Newspaper Index by clicking the link below.
Read Ian Stewart's article on ‘Of crofters, Celts and claymores: The Celtic Magazine and the Highland cultural nationalist movement, 1875-1888’
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Bibliography
Mackenzie, Hector Rose Yachting and Electioneering in the Hebrides, (Inverness: A & W Mackenzie, 1887) Fraser Mackintosh, Charles, Letters of Two Centuries chiefly connected with Inverness and the Highlands from 1616 to 1815 (Inverness: A. & W. Mackenzie, 1890) [1] Private Source. [2] Also published as a book: Hector Rose Mackenzie, Yachting and Electioneering in the Hebrides, (Inverness: A & W Mackenzie, 1887), FM3257. [3] Published as a book Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, Letters of Two Centuries chiefly connected with Inverness and the Highlands from 1616 to 1815 (Inverness: A. & W. Mackenzie, 1890) 
Photograph courtesy of Am Baile
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