Success for Galloway activists as history book back in print

History buffs and land reform activists in Dumfries and Galloway are celebrating following the success of an online petition to get a book about the Lowland Clearances back in print.

The Lowland Clearances, written by former BBC journalists Peter Aitchison and Andrew Cassell, was the subject of a talk by the authors at a sold out event organised by local history group The Glenkens Story in New Galloway’s CatStrand last November.

The books outlines how, long before the Highland Clearances, there had been an uprising in Galloway against the first of the Lowland Clearances in 1724.  As the authors explained, the impact of the Lowland Clearances combined with that of the Highland Clearances mean we should describe this period of history as “the Scottish Clearances”.

Although forgotten now, across lowland Scotland, from Berwickshire to Aberdeenshire and from Galloway to Renfrewshire, thousands of people were cleared from the land by…

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