“The Emigrants” is a recently erected bronze statue in the village of Helmsdale. The following words are engraved on the plinth. 

“Commemorates the people of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, who in the face of great adversity, sought freedom, hope and justice beyond these shores. They and their descendants went forth and gave their enterprise and culture to the world.

This is their legacy.

Their voices will echo thro the empty straths and glens of their homeland.”

The ruins of old village of Badbea, where emigrants left Sutherland for the last time, are well worth a visit a few miles up the coast from Helmsdale.

So why did people come to live at Badbea?

Like many settlements along the coast Badbea grew as a result of the Highland Clearances. Before the Clearances, most people lived in sheltered glens. However, in the early 1800’s local landlords decided that creating sheep farms would be more profitable than collecting rent. People were forced off the land and many had to live in coastal townships like Badbea. You can see the effects of the Clearances today – empty glens and abandoned townships, coastal settlements and of course the sheep.

Deep water allowed ocean going vessels take the victims of the Clearances to the United States, Canada and Australia.

There is a virtual replica of Kildonan Church, Kildonan, Sutherland, in Kildonan Winnipeg, Canada, built in 1852.

Below is a picture of John Black the Winnipeg church’s first preacher in 1852…typical of the “Fire and Brimstone” Presbyterianism of the day….and doubtless preached similarly in Sutherland at that time.