By John-Paul Holden

It was in late 1819 that landowner George Steuart Mackenzie of Coul began the process of evicting tenants from their homes in Inverlael Glen on the shores of Loch Broom.

By February of the following year, in the teeth of winter, more than 50 families had been driven from the land their forebears had worked for generations.

Some headed south or colonised the lochside, escaping starvation by collecting shellfish from the shore.

Others settled in the hills between Loch Broom and Little Loch Broom, while many set off on a much longer journey across the Atlantic Ocean to America. In their place, flocks of sheep were moved in.

To this day, the fate of those who departed and the full story of what they and their ancestors built up at Inverlael have remained cloaked in mystery.

Now, two hundred years later, a project aimed at bringing the past to light has taken a major step forward after archaeologists were appointed to carry out specialist work which will help trace both the diaspora and the economic and social life of Balblair - a once thriving township in the area.

The project, called Lost Inverlael - Finding Balblair, is being led by Ullapool Museum and has a grant of £68,000 from Historic Environment Scotland alongside funding from Forestry & Land Scotland.

Duncan Mackenzie, an Ullapool-based stalker whose great, great grandparents were among those evicted, likened the archaeological task to a “detective story”, adding: “The only catch is it’s five to six hundred years old.”

“The evictions took place at Martinmas, in the middle of winter, to ensure the crofters wouldn’t try to stay,” he said. “My great, great grandparents fled to the other side of Loch Broom… and built a hovel near Clachan. There they lived off razor fish and other shellfish – mussels, whelks – which were taken from the saltings collected at low tide on the shores of Loch Broom.

“They would have scraped around while the potatoes that had been planted in their land rotted... It was a form of ethnic cleansing.”

Mr Mackenzie said building up a picture of the activity that was left behind would be just as vital as establishing what happened to the crofters who were cleared.

“At the bottom of Inverlael Glen was the township of Balblair – in Gaelic Baile Bhlair – which means Village of the Battle, or Village of the Fertile Plain,” he explained.

“Both work as names in this context so we just don’t know which was meant. We have lots of evidence of activity, of people moving back and forth through Inverlael Glen via the hill tracks to the north and east.

“There was also an anchorage for large boats at the head of Loch Broom, and for a long time, boats were bypassing Ullapool and going straight up to the head of the loch, to Balblair.

"At the easternmost extremity of the glen we have a place where we are hoping to find evidence of iron working at a place called Achadh Domhnuill an Gobha, or Donald the Blacksmith’s Site, which possibly tells us there was considerable industrial activity going on there.

“There is also evidence of a revetment, which is a feature used to race water, possibly for the purposes of driving an industrial activity such as iron working. I am hopeful that we can come up with more evidence for industrial metal work going on in the area before it was cleared.”

Alongside confirmed evidence of a corn drying kiln for barley which was malted during whisky production, there are clear indications the settlement at Inverlael was some way from the primitive conditions often associated with Highland life before the Clearances.

“The landowners here were not buying land in a place that wasn’t making money,” said Mr Mackenzie. “They bought it to increase their wealth. The occupiers of this land were much cleverer than we give them credit for.”

Over the next two years, the team at Ullapool Museum will oversee the investigation through community digs, archive research, genealogy workshops, activity days and interactive tours. Designers at Immersive Minds, collaborating with the Dig It! archaeology hub, will also use Minecraft to build a "topographically accurate interactive map" of Inverlael.

The wider work is being carried out with the support of Forestry & Land Scotland and its archaeologist Matt Ritchie.

Lynne McKeggie, joint director at Dingwall-based Highland Archaeology Services, which has the contract to carry out specialist archaeology work for Lost Inverlael-Finding Balblair, said: “We’re really excited about it. We love doing community archaeology projects. This one involves lots of digital technology and genealogy. It’s also a really good widespread project in the sense that it’s very multi-disciplinary.”

Project co-ordinator Helen Avenell, of Ullapool Museum, added: "This project will be an amazing opportunity for our local community to be part of a team unearthing and revealing the hidden history beneath our feet. We know there is a really important story to be told here about the significance of Inverlael and Balblair and its people.”

Anyone interested in getting involved, or who has information can visit www.craftingthepast.co.uk/inverlael.