A three year project developed by Ullapool Museum to uncover the secrets and lives of the forgotten people of Balblair, Inverlael in Lochbroom.
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In the autumn of 1740, a Highland laird journeys to his west coast lands at Inverlael on the shores of Loch Broom to collect rents from his tenants. This annual visit from Sir Colin Mackenzie of Coul, 4th Baronet and Clerk of the Pipe in the Exchequer to the Scottish Crown, will be his last. Mackenzie catches an incurable fever and dies. His body is buried overlooking the River Lael within an elaborately carved stone sepulchre.
Some eighty years later, Sir Colin’s grandson makes a similar journey west. But instead of the annual rent collection, George Steuart Mackenzie of Coul 7th Baronet issues his tenants with a notice of immediate eviction. More than fifty five families are forced from the land their ancestors have lived and worked for generations. Many flee to rough hillside ground across Lochbroom, facing a distressing struggle to survive the onset of a harsh winter. Some families make the painful decision to emigrate. By 1825, the old township of Inverlael is populated only by sheep and a few Lowland shepherds.
Ullapool Museum is launching a project spanning three years to uncover the secrets and personal lives of the people from the forgotten township in Lochbroom.
This project will consist of Archaeological excavations of various locations across the site, with extensive surveying and community support to tell the story of the displaced people of Lochbroom during one of the largest mass exoduses in British History, which changed the landscape and culture of the Highlands forever.
