A leader of the Highland Land League

Hector MacDonald (Eachann Mhic Neill) of Balemartine was one of the key `agitators` on Tiree during `The Crofters` War` in the 1880s. The `war` was about the unfair distribution of land amongst Tiree crofters, and resulted in aggressive occupation by some crofters and the consequential deployment of 290 marines and police. Similar agitations were occurring in the Highlands at that time and their efforts were rewarded with an Act of Parliament - the Crofters Act 1886 - which gave tenant crofters legal rights to fair rents and security of tenure for them and their descendents.