Rosal and the Strathnaver Clearances

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Strathnaver is notorious as the scene of the some of the most brutal Highland Clearances. This walk visits the sad remains of Rosal which was once one of many thriving villages in the Strath. Interpretative boards help visitors to imagine life as it would once have been here, a task made easier by one Donald Macleod, a native of the village who wrote about his life here.

Terrain

Forest track and path; the section around Rosal village is across grassy pastures where markers need to be followed closely.

Public Transport

None to start.

Start

Rosal forest car park. Open start point in Google Maps for directions.

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Walk Description

Stage 1

Strathnaver is now remote even by Sutherland standards, but the drive along the Strath reveals a much more fertile landscape than the northern coast, and one dotted with prehistoric and later remains that give evidence that, for 7000 years of its history, many more people lived here. This walk visits the site of the township of Rosal, one of many in the Strath which were cleared in the nineteenth century to make way for sheep farms. The car park for Rosal down a long track off the B871 just east of its junction with the B873 at Syre. Here there is a picnic area.

Photo shows the river further down Strath Naver.

Stage 2

Begin by following the track into the forestry plantations. The path on the left just beyond the gate is used on the return. Continue along the track until a tall marker post with a blue footprint marker (and marked Rosal 100m) is reached. Turn left onto a path here - the post can be a little misleading in that it may suggest going straight on, which is actually part of a much longer cycle route. Follow the up through the trees to reach a junction and a clearing; keep right here (the path on the left is the return path). An information board is soon reached together with a gate giving access to the site of Rosal township, now a wide sheep pasture enclosed by forestry. The villagers were given notice to quit by the Countess of Sutherland's factor, Patrick Sellar, in 1814. The land was to be turned over to sheep, made profitable by the industrial revolution and the growth of the textile industry in the north of England.

Stage 3

Go through the gate into the pasture. The path around Rosal is made uncertain by the many sheep paths, but is marked by posts, so head from one post to the next. The walk heads round in a clockwise direction, beginning by going straight ahead uphill to the next board. The houses had just a few courses of stones, with the main part of the walls and roof being made of turf built onto a cruck-frame, so the remains are insubstantial. Look out for the next marker post and board as there are frequent changes of direction.

Stage 4

After a dog-leg to the left the route winds uphill and to the right, over to the far side of the clearing. In amongst the houses are far older remains such as soutterains, bronze age cairns and hut circles, which tell that Rosal had been inhabited for thousands of years. As the path winds back downhill there is a section of duckboard leading to where peats were dug - the route doesn't cross this but instead goes left at this point.

Stage 5

The route then leads back along the lower part of the village to return to the gate where you entered earlier. As many as 15,000 people were cleared from the Sutherland estates, but it was Patrick Sellar's clearances in Strathnaver that became the most notorious. In another village close to Rosal his men torched the houses to prevent the residents returning to them, and in one the 92-year old Margaret MacKay was inside at the time. Although rescued from the flames by her daughter Margaret died, and Sellar eventually was tried in Inverness for crimes including culpable homicide and arson. He was aquitted.

Stage 6

Leave Rosal through the gate but at the next junction where you came up through the woods on the left follow the path straight ahead. Continue following the waymarkers through the trees; the path eventually descends back to the track beside the gate and the entrance to the forest at the start of the walk; turn right to return to the car. Having been driven from the Strath most residents were forced to resettle on the infertile coastal strip, in villages such as Poulouriscaig which can be visited on another walk. Life on the coast was hard and thousands eventually emigrated, seeking a new life overseas free from the influence of landowners.

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Rosal and the Strathnaver Clearances

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