Editing Sutherland (section)

===Highland Clearances===
{{main|Highland Clearances}}
[[File:Abandoned House in Glen Loth, Sutherland - geograph.org.uk - 6350227.jpg|thumb|Abandoned house in Glen [[Lothbeg|Loth]]]]
Sutherland, like other parts of the Highlands, was affected by the [[Highland Clearances]], the eviction of tenants from their homes and/or associated farmland in the 18th and 19th centuries century by the landowners. Typically, this was to make way for large sheep farms.  The Sutherland Estate (consisting of about two thirds of the county) had the largest scale clearances that occurred in the Highlands, much of this being carried out in 1812, 1814 and 1819–20. In this last period (the largest of the three listed), 1,068 families were evicted: representing an estimated 5,400 people. This population was provided with resettlement in coastal areas, with employment available in fishing or other industries. However, many instead moved to farms in Caithness or left Scotland to emigrate to Canada, the US or Australia.<ref name="Richards 2013">{{cite book|last1=Richards|first1=Eric|title=The Highland Clearances People, Landlords and Rural Turmoil|date=2000|publisher=Birlinn Limited|location=Edinburgh|isbn=978-1-78027-165-1|edition=2013}}</ref> The population has continued to decline since the mid-19th century.<ref name=VoB/>

One effect of the clearances was that it concentrated Gaelic speakers in the newly created fishing villages, so extending the survival of the language in these communities. The area on Sutherland's east coast around Golspie, Brora and [[Embo, Sutherland|Embo]] had its own dialect, [[East Sutherland Gaelic]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dorian |first1=Nancy C. |title=Investigating Variation: The effects of social organization and social setting |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |pages=40–42 |url=https://archive.org/details/investigatingvar0000dori/page/40/mode/2up?q=clearance |access-date=25 September 2024}}</ref> This was the last area on the east coast of Scotland where a Gaelic dialect was commonly spoken. Work by the linguist [[Nancy Dorian]] from the 1960s onwards studied the gradual decline of East Sutherland Gaelic.<ref>[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7647046783946085652] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110418021411/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7647046783946085652|date=18 April 2011}}</ref> The last known native speaker of the dialect died in 2020.<ref name="Wilma Ros">{{cite news |title=Wilma Ros, Eurabol, air bàsachadh |url=https://www.bbc.com/naidheachdan/42150024 |access-date=4 September 2018 |work=BBC Naidheachdan |date=28 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=ROSS |url=https://www.northern-times.co.uk/family-notices/death-notices/ross-aa110327-v1-27/ |website=Northern Times |access-date=10 November 2023 |language=en |date=2020}}</ref>