A special place

In the background is Digro, a small croft in Rousay. It sits high on the hillside, four hundred feet above sea level.

In the nineteenth century James Leonard, a stone mason lived here with his wife Hannah. His father had built the original croft and begun the cultivation of what was basically heathery moorland. His son James continued to work the land and was able to use his skills as a stone mason to improve and extend the house. The couple had 14 children.

In 1883 the Napier Commission sat in Kirkwall and heard testimony from Orcadian crofters about their lives and conditions of work. James Leonard led the Rousay crofters, giving evidence of
the harsh regime imposed on them by their laird, General Burroughs. Burroughs was the only one of the Orkney lairds who did not agree to refrain from retaliation against anyone who spoke out against him.
Following the commission, he evicted James and his family.


Unable to find accommodation on Rousay they had to leave the island. They moved to Oban, where James set himself up in business as a coal merchant. He was obviously enterprising and determined. He was successful in business and became the owner of the first motor car in Oban. But he would never return to live in Rousay.

In the foreground is a memorial, erected in 2001, in memory of James.

The inscription reads:
Erected by the people of Rousay 
in memory of James Leonard of Digro 1835 - 1913
who was evicted because of the evidence he gave
to the Royal Commission
which led to the 1886 Crofters Act.
"I will not be cowed down by landlordism....
We are telling only the truth."