George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland
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George Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland KG, PC, known as Viscount Trentham from 1758 to 1786, as Earl Gower from 1786 to 1803 and as the Marquess of Stafford from 1803 to 1833, was an English politician, diplomat, landowner and patron of the arts from the Leveson-Gower family. He was the wealthiest man in Britain during the latter part of his life. He remains a controversial figure for his role in the Highland Clearances.
George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland
George Leveson-Gower by Thomas Lawrence, 1800.
Lancaster House (previously called Stafford House).
Monument to First Duke of Sutherland on Ben Bhraggie near Golspie
Highland Clearances
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The Highland Clearances were the forced evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860.
Ruined croft houses on Fuaigh Mòr in Loch Roag. The island was cleared of its inhabitants in 1841 and is now used only for grazing sheep.
The remains of old run rig strips beside Loch Eynort, Isle of Skye
Ruins of the Badbea longhouses with the 1911 monument in the background
Ormaig was once the principal settlement on the Isle of Ulva near Mull. It had been inhabited since prehistoric times, until it was cleared by Francis William Clark in the mid-19th century.