"Tha e air a dhol don fhaochaig – He has gone to the whelk shell" – Inequality in the Land of the Gael.

Summary

Poverty is relative. In the 17th century, Gaels of Scotland's Highlands and Islands inhabited a surprisingly equal society. Many Chiefs and most junior nobles in the clan system lived in dwellings little grander than that of the average Highlander, with equally few possessions. More importantly, all Gaels were inheritors of an ancient culture of aristocratic origin to which they had rights of access. Few individuals had much; but fewer had nothing.

During the course of the 18th and 19th centuries this position of economic and cultural equality was eroded to the extent that ordinary members of Gaelic society came to be seen as desperately poor as the upper orders of their society became more remote. As a result of this new relationship, physical hunger was coupled with an intellectual and cultural hunger. This paper aims to explore how this increasing inequality played out across the physical and cultural landscape of Gaeldom.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Perspectives on the Rural and Urban Poor: Great Britain 1550-1950   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 409