Caen Highland Township - 1813

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the inhabitants of many small farming communities in the Scottish Highlands were forced to leave their homes. Under the guise of improvement landlords drove out traditional subsistence farmers and created a much less densely occupied landscape. One of the communities affected by this process of ‘clearance’ was the township of Caen in Sutherland. Caen was located in the lower part of the Strath of Kildonan. This area was cleared particularly brutally by representatives of the Duke of Sutherland between 1813 and 1819. Several families resisted the clearances and soldiers were sent from Fort George to maintain order. Today only a few foundations indicate where a thriving farming community once stood. This reconstruction shows the Caen township as it may have looked in 1813, just before the families who lived and worked here were forced out from the Strath of Kildonan. Project collaboration with University of St Andrews and Timespan Museum and Archive as part of the CINE project.

Sarah Kennedy, Iain Oliver, John McCaffrey, Alan Miller

Keir Strickland (University of Highlands and Islands), Jacquie Aitken (Timespan)

Recent excavations (including a community dig) have revealed much about the people who lived at Caen before the Clearances. This archaeological material was combined with nineteenth-century maps and documents to inform the reconstruction of Caen in 1813. The project received extensive advice from Jacquie Aitken (Heritage Officer for Timespan), as well as drawing on the research of Keir Strickland (University of the Highlands and Islands).

A digital landscape was created using survey data and height map. Models were created in 3D modelling programs and imported into UNREAL (a cross-platform game engine for creating virtual worlds). The models were then scaled, orientated and assembled. The landscapes were populated with flora and fauna. Where applicable, models of characters and animals were imported and animated.