They may seem less brutal than the events intheHighlandsbutthe Lowland clearances were just as effective at displacing country dwellers: by 1820 an entire social class of cottars - peasant farmers who had a traditional claim on land in return for rent or service to a landlord and who made up a third of the population - simply disappeared.
There is no doubt the market has slowed and that prices and speed of sales have been affected intheHighlandsbut it has not been hit as hard as other areas of the country.
But 25 ministers and their congregations (mainly from the west highlands and the islands but with support in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh) refused to go into the United Free Church.