Voices Over the Water

This is the story of the Scottish Highlanders and their clan chiefs torn apart by a rapidly changing world--feeling their trust betrayed, many Highlanders faced famine and poverty, or emigration to the New World--while some of their overlords squeezed revenue by any means necessary from these beautiful, unforgiving hills.  Those that escaped the Highland Clearances faced new hardships as well as opportunities, though still bearing the scars of their bitter struggle; this is the legacy that their descendants still wrestle with today. For some, the history is still unknown, and for others, the history becomes fantasy.

And for others of Scottish descent, the clearance story is so powerful that it becomes an assumed part of their family history. Scottish heritage is celebrated worldwide today--what are the relics of Highland culture? What has been reinvented? And where does the real tradition end and the myth begin?