The Highland potato famine lasted eleven years from 1846 to 1857. It is called a famine but is often described as being more of a failure of agriculture rather than a true famine. Just as in Ireland the potato crop was seriously damaged by the infection known as potato blight. However, the causes of the Highland people's dependence on the potato as its main food crop was even more obviously the result of politics than it was in Ireland. Patterns of land ownership and access were dramatically altered as a result of the Highland Clearances which started in the mid 18th century. Poor tenant farmers were pushed onto increasingly marginal land allowing wealthy landowners, often English in origin, to accumulate land for the then highly profitable sheep farming. This practice combined with the devastating blow of the potato blight triggered widespread malnutrition and eventually migration to the fats growing cities or further afield.
The Highlands were affect by the same Potato Famine that struck Ireland from 1845-50.
The people of the Highlands were mostly poor and had sufferd terribly from the effects of the Clearnces from the late 1700's onwards. They lived on the marginal lands and were considered of less value than sheep in many areas. the Famine brought about the establishment of the Destituation Boards in glasgow and Edinburgh. By 1847 there were widespread riots as people struggled to cope with limited food supplies.
There are recorded accounts of how people suffered from famine and eviction. One such account was toldby Seonaid Mhic Neacail who was born during this time and remembered the terrible suffering endured by people in the Highlands.
Even those living on the coastal fringes were effected as the land was poor and fishing could not be guarenteed to bring good returns. The Highland Famine is little mentioned in school text books, it is overshadowed by the Irish Famine and the Clearances.
During the 19th century, most poorer people in the Highlands of Scotland were very dependent on potatoes as a source of food, much like their counterparts in Ireland. The potato was one of the crops that would grow in poor conditions and in marginal coastal areas. In the Highlands as in Ireland, in 1846, potato crops were blighted by a fungal disease. Crops failed and the following winter was especially cold and weather conditions very severe the Highlands and Islands suffered badly. During 1847 naval vessels were used to distribute oatmeal and other supplies. In Wick, Cromarty and Invergordon there were protests about the export of grain from local harbours out of Scotland and troops were used to quash the protests. Crop failures continued into the 1850. The daily relief ration of oatmeal was set at 24 ounces(about 680 g) per man , 12 ounces (about 340 g) per woman and 8 ounces(about 230 g). per child . Tese were starvation rations. The Highland potato 'famine' is often ovrlooked because of the scale of the Great Famine in Ireland.
It was when the potatoes in Britain grew very big and ate everyone. The reason they grew so big was because all the farmers in Europe were bodybuilders and gave their steroids to the potatoes
