The Emigrants

A day of driving and visiting today. We left Inverness mid-morning on the final push north, crossing the Black Isle and driving around the Dornoch Firth to visit the family grave... and then onto Golspie and Brora to see some living relatives!

We have to leave the coast road and head inland to reach the Strath at Helmsdale. But I wanted to have a look at this statue called The Emigrants, which commemorates the Highland Clearances.

I find it very moving. Father is striding ahead, trying to be brave about starting over, and making a new future, either as a fisherman or by boarding a boat bound for Canada. He's got a protective hand on his son's back, urging him forward. But Mother, holding her baby tightly to her, can't resist the pull of her home country and looks back.

Heartbreaking. I can't imagine what that moment of their lives must have been like.