Highland Land League

As a parliamentary force, it was dissipated by the Crofters' Act of 1886 and by the way the Liberal Party was seen to adopt Land League objectives.

The 1880s were also a time, however, of growing democracy and of government which was increasingly responsive to public opinion, particularly after the electoral reform Act of 1884.

Napier's report fell a long way short of addressing crofters' demands and it stimulated a new wave of protests.

c. 29) applied to croft tenure in an area which is now recognisable as a definition of the Highlands and Islands: that of the ancient counties of Argyll, Inverness-shire, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney and Shetland.

The Act failed however to address the issue of severely limited access to land, and crofters renewed their protest actions.

Some resources were put into development of the communications infrastructure of the Highlands and Islands (roads, railways, and harbours) and, in the early years of the 20th century the Congested Districts Board was able to push through the establishment of new crofting townships on Skye and in the Strathnaver area of Sutherland.

The new board's principal task was supposed to be that of pressing forward with land reform in the Highlands and Islands.

This organisation was a broadly left-wing group that sought the restoration of deer forests to public ownership, abolition of plural farms and the nationalisation of the land.

Also they resolved to resolutely defend crofters facing eviction by their landlords and they supported home rule for Scotland.

In August 1918 the new Land League had affiliated with the Labour Party, with four candidates for the 1918 general election being joint League-Labour.

When faced with new land raids the government responded by giving the Board of Agriculture the money and powers to do something like what had been promised.