The Sutherland Estate, 1850-1920 (Aristocratic Decline, Estate Management and Land Reform)

From the mid-nineteenth century until the end of WWI, the Sutherland Estate was the largest landed estate in western Europe; at 1.1 million acres, the ducal family owned almost the entire county of Sutherland as well as a further 30,000 acres in England. The estate was owned by the dukes of Sutherland, who were among the richest patrician landowners of the period; from the early nineteenth century, however, the family were shadowed by their reputation as great clearance landlords, something that would come back to haunt them throughout the coming decades. This book:*studies the workings of the estate management and policy formation in the face of challenges from their crofting tenants, the land reform lobby and government agencies; *asks whether the ducal family experienced a ‘decline and fall’ as argued for the British aristocracy generally in the period;*examines a crucial period of Highland history from the neglected perspective of an estate, using estate papers, newspapers, crofter sources, and government records.The Sutherland estate was the largest and most infamous clearance estate in Britain and this book will appeal to history scholars and general readers interested in estate management and the decline of the aristocracy.