This web site discusses the Highland Clearances. These were “the depopulation of the Highlands of Scotland between, roughly, 1785 and the late 1850s, by landowners evicting small farmers from their property and replacing them with huge sheep farms”.
The home page contains a sidebar on the left with links under Personalise, Search, and Information. Personalise permits the user to make Scrapbooks and Tours. After accessing an article, the user can push the Scrapbook button to put the title into their Scrapbook. Putting an article into the Scrapbook does not create a link back to the article. The user's Scrapbook can be organized into Tours. I was able to put together a Tour, but not edit it. I do not see the utility of all this, but I am sure someone can.
Search provides a box for searching keywords on the web site. Articles permits the user to find articles about the Clearances, which are subdivided into Artefacts, Events, Organisations, People, and Places. Parishes, Ports (which the emigrants sailed both to and from), and Destinations are also listed. People and Ships each have a search box for entering a particular name. No list of names if provided for the user to browse. Each ship has a brief article, and often a passenger list of emigrants. The lists are presented in a truncated form – the user must go to the bottom of the page and hit next to see more names from the list. The sidebar on the right contains a Search box, Advanced Options, Trees for Life, a news story, and logos of web awards.
Information has links to About Us, News, FAQ, Resources, Bookshop, Places to Visit, Trees for Life (collects money to plant trees), Links, and Contact Us. Bookshop provides links to relevant books sold at Amazon.com. Photographic Prints of places in Scotland are offered for sale on the site. Of the three links within Resources, one leads to an incorrect page, and one to an error message. The site has few advertisements, and asks for donations.
The site was last updated 9 November, 2005, and it shows. Some of the links on the Links page are dead. The latest News article is dated 26/03/05. The site is apparently not being maintained. It is not very easy to navigate; no links back to the home page are provided, so the user must use the back arrow key on their browser, or pick an entry from the left side bar if they want to do another search. The expertise of the editor of the site is unknown. The publisher, TeeTime Scotland, promotes golf vacations in Scotland. It is not clear to me from where the short articles and shipping records accessed through the site were taken. Presentation of the material is good, and the text is clear. The background is dark, with light lettering; it would be nice if a button was provided to reverse this. The site should be useful for people who are interested in the Highland Clearances, Scottish genealogy, or in Scottish emigration at that time. I would recommend the site for those users.
