ABSTRACT
Until the events of 1792 in Easter Ross – which raised a spectre of ‘Insurrection’ in the minds of the local gentry – there had been extraordinarily little report of resistance to the invading sheep. It was in precisely the same district that a much more thorough, concerted and dangerous resistance sprang forth in the middle months of 1792. The events were of a scale to cause extreme anxiety among the landed proprietors of Ross-shire. The broad context of the Ross-shire Insurrection was the pincer-like invasion of sheep into the Highland economy. The resources of law and order in Easter Ross were organised by Donald Macleod of Geanies, whose family provided leadership in the district over many generations. There is ample evidence to substantiate Gordon’s perception of the tension that existed in Ross-shire in 1792 between the tenants-in-possession and the landlords bent on reorganising their estates.
