Earliest evidence of habitation are still visible in Strathrusdale at the eastern end of the Strath, where there are a number of stone circles, which formed the base of Pictish roundhouses.

During the late 18th century, great change swept the Highlands when landowners realised that more income could be generated by clearing areas farmed by tenant crofters to make way for sheep.

Strathrusdale became the focus of the clearance policy in 1792 when on the 27th of July the inhabitants of the strath gathered for a wedding in the area where a plot was devised to drive away all the sheep, and by implication all the sheep-farmers.

This issue had arisen when, in May 1792, the brothers Captain Allan and Alexander Cameron who were leasing the neighbouring lands of Kildermorie from Hector Munro, 8th laird of Novar had driven away the cattle belonging to the Strathrusdale people.

[3] The Lord Advocate wrote to the Home Secretary Henry Dundas reporting that sheep farming was very unpopular in the Highlands, as it "tended to remove the inhabitants from their small possessions and dwelling houses".