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Aoineadh Mòr (Inniemore)

Aoineadh Mòr township survives as a testimony to the people evicted from their homes during the Highland Clearances.

The story of these evictions is brought to life through Mary Cameron. Mary gives a personal and vivid account of the flitting day - the day her family and village were forced to leave their homes.

Mary's story

The people of Aoineadh Mòr were tenant farmers. They rented the land they farmed from Christina Stewart, the new landowner. In 1824, Christina forced the villagers to leave their homes. The reason for this was simply profit; replacing tenants for sheep farming.

"When we got the 'summons to quit', we thought it was only for getting an increase of rent, and this we willingly offered; but permission to stay we got not."

"The hissing of the fire on the flag of the hearth as they were drowning it, reached my heart. We could not get even a bothy in the country; therefore we had nothing for it but to face the land of the strangers (The Lowlands)" Mary Cameron's eviction account to Minister Norman Macleod, in Glasgow (translated from Gaelic). Recorded in P. Gaskell (1968) Morvern Transformed.

The police arrived and began to move people from their homes. Mary's family had to make a difficult walk across the hills. At the top of Knock-nan-Carn (Hill of Cairns), they looked back on the destruction of their homes by the people who had forced them to leave.

Listen to Mary's story read by Anne Sinclair. Mary Cameron's account of the eviction of her family from Aoineadh Mòr can be heard in English and Gaelic.

Uncovering Aoineadh Mòr

Until recently the site was hidden in the undergrowth and trees of Lochaline Forest. In the 1990s, the trees were carefully removed. Today, you can walk among the remains of more than 22 stone buildings all enclosed by an earth bank known as a head-dyke.  

These buildings provide a picture of a community who reared cattle and grew crops on small sections of open land (the run rig system).  Many were houses where families, like Mary's, would have lived. Others were corn drying kilns and winnowing barns where they would work to prepare their crops after harvest.

Visiting Aoineadh Mòr

The exact location of Aoineadh Mòr is grid reference NM 656 519.

For full details of how to get here, please see Aoineadh Mòr.