The Highland Clearances took place during the 18th and 19th centuries when land owners force-ably "removed", "evicted", "cleared" their tenants from their homes in the Scottish Highlands to make way for more profitable sheep farming. The clearances in Sutherland were particularly notorious.
The "Sutherland Estate" had since the 16th-century been owned by the Gordon Earls of Sutherland who in the early 18th-century had changed their surname to Sutherland so that they could be officially recognized as chiefs of the Clan Sutherland. These Gordon Earls of Sutherland were in fact descended from an heiress of the original Sutherland Earls of Sutherland by whom they succeeded to the Earldom in the early 16th-century. In 1766 Elizabeth, daughter of William, 18th Earl of of Sutherland succeeded as Countess of Sutherland. A countess being the female equivalent of an earl. In 1785 Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland married George Leveson Gower who was an Englishman and who was the Marquess of Stafford. A marquess being the next rank above an earl in the nobility. Elizabeth then became the Marchioness of Stafford which was the female equivalent title. The Staffords throughout the early 19th-century went about evicting thousands of their tenants by force to make way for more profitable sheep farming. Many went abroad and settled in the New World while others were relocated to villages on the coast where it was difficult to grow crops and where they were expected to create a fishing industry. In 1833 the Marquess and Marchioness of Stafford were elevated to the highest level in the nobility as Duke and Duchess of Sutherland. At it's height the Sutherland Estate covered the majority of the county of Sutherland and was in fact the largest landed estate in Britain.
However, prior to this there were other estates in the county of Sutherland that were owned by other families. Most notably the Reay Estate that was owned by Lord Reay, chief of the Clan Mackay and had been for centuries. The Reay Estate covered most of north-west Sutherland until 1829 when Eric MacKay, 7th Lord Reay moved abroad and sold his entire estate to the Staffords, it becoming part of their ever expanding Sutherland Estate. It wasn't until it was sold and became part of the Sutherland Estate that evictions started taking place on what was the Reay Estate. Another example is the Strathy Estate which included the village of Armadale and that was for centuries held by the MacKay of Strathy family (a junior branch of the MacKay chief's family), until 1790 when William Honeyman bought it from his maternal grandfather, John MacKay of Strathy. William Honeyman then took the judicial title of Lord Armadale. In 1813 Honeyman sold the Strathy Estate to the Staffords, thus it became part of the Sutherland Estate and evictions took place, although Honeyman himself had already carried out evictions and was one of the first in the Highlands to do so in favour of sheep farming.
The following is a list from 1829 that is found amongst the Sutherland Estate Papers in the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh (Ref: DEP.313/3367), that lists people on the "Reay Estate" who are to be "removed" if they do not pay their arrears. The Reay Estate passed from Lord Reay, chief of Clan Mackay to the Marquess of Stafford (later Duke of Sutherland) in 1829. The document is divided into three lists for the parishes of Eddrachillis, Durness and Tongue. (The modern spelling of settlements is given in brackets if different to that on the document of 1829).