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In the aftermath of Culloden, many Highland chieftains either sold their ancestral lands or looked for new ways to exploit the land to earn more money. The local populations - no longer required for warfare - were \'cleared\'. On some occasions, this process was amicable and peaceful but, on others, considerable violence was used with houses being burned above people\'s heads and ill members of families being left to die.Some landlords provided alternative employment for the population - fishing as opposed to crofting; other landlords assisted emigration to the New World; while others still did nothing. Previosly populous estates were turned over to sheep and deer. The most notorious clearances of the early eighteenth century occurred on the estates of the Duke of Sutherland, under his factor, Patrick Sellar.
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