Strathcarron () is a hamlet, in the

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, ''upland'' refers to a range of hills, typically from up to , while ''highland'' is usually reserved for range ...

council area of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Geography

It is situated at the head of the sea

loch ''Loch'' ( ) is a word meaning "lake" or "inlet, sea inlet" in Scottish Gaelic, Scottish and Irish Gaelic, subsequently borrowed into English. In Irish contexts, it often appears in the anglicized form "lough". A small loch is sometimes calle ...

, Loch Carron, between the rivers, River Carron and River Taodail, in

Wester Ross Wester Ross () is an area of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland in the council area of Highland. The area is loosely defined, and has never been used as a formal administrative region in its own right, but is generally regarded as lying to th ...

Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...

Climate

Amenities

It has a hotel called the Strathcarron Hotel and the Strathcarron railway station.

History

The following account is not disputed, but it refers to a different Strathcarron located to the west of Bonar Bridge, about 20 miles north west of Tain. The Strathcarron of this page is some 72 miles west of Tain. In 1854 (before the railway) travel would have been very challenging. In the spring of 1854, one of the most notorious incidents of resistance to the

Highland Clearances The Highland Clearances ( , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulted from Scottish Agricultural R ...

took place at Greenyards in Strathcarron, when Major Robertson of Kindeace attempted to evict his tenants to make way for more profitable sheep farming. It was reported by ''

The Inverness Courier ''The Inverness Courier'' is a local, bi-weekly newspaper, published each Tuesday and Friday in Inverness, Scotland. It reports on issues in Inverness and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. It is the longest, continually running local newspa ...

'' that the Sheriff Taylor at the head of about thirty-five men traveled from

Tain Tain ( ) is a royal burgh and parish in the County of Ross, in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. Etymology The name derives from the nearby River Tain, the name of which comes from an Indo-European root meaning 'flow'. The Gaelic n ...

and arrived at Greenyards at about dawn. Their arrival was expected and they were met by a crowd of about 300 people, two thirds of whom were women. They were all apparently prepared to ''resist the execution of the law''. The women lined up at the front armed with stones and the men at the rear armed with sticks. The Sheriff tried to persuade them not to resist, as did Cummings who was the superintendent of the Ross-shire police. The sheriff reluctantly then had to use force and the police attacked the crowd and dispersed them. However, during the violence, fifteen or sixteen women were seriously hurt, some requiring medical treatment, as the police appeared to have used their batons with great force. The sheriff had served summonses on four tenants. The police tried to capture some of the men, but only captured five women. Sheriff Mackenzie later gave an account in which he said that the large number of people who had arrived to resist had been signaled to the spot by gun-shots. The women who had been captured were taken to the prison at Tain but they were released on bail the next day. The incident, which took place on 31 March 1854, became known as "The Massacre of the Rosses". There was afterwards universal feeling among the people of Ross-shire and Sutherlandshire that the sheriff's conduct was reckless and there was indignation and disgust at the brutality of the policemen on the women which had left pools of blood on the ground. One woman was reported to have died in this encounter.

Trivia

Strathcarron is home to indie-folk musicians The Ramisco Maki Maki Rocking Horse and Oak Hero.

References

Populated places in Ross and Cromarty 1854 in Scotland {{RossCromarty-geo-stub