I LOOK forward to the publication of Highland Herald by David Ross exploring the issues highlighted today ("The 'Highland Herald' reveals some of the real stories behind Scots headlines", The Herald", October 15) with particular reference to the controversy over the Clearances.
To my understanding, the Highlands were systematically cleared in the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellions as a form of punishment but gathered haste in the changed circumstances of the early 19th century aided and abetted by unscrupulous landowners and, let it be said, not a few of the remaining feudal clan chiefs.
The Lowlands were deemed necessary to be cleared for agricultural purposes to grow crops and rear livestock at the onset of the new industrial age and growing centres of population.
As regards the works of John Prebble, copies of which I have in my possession, I stand by what he has written on the above and Culloden for that matter. His writings are eminently suitable for such amateur and lay historians as myself.
John Macnab,
175 Grahamsdyke Street, Laurieston, Falkirk.
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