article: People living in Staffin were in dispute with landowners because of rent rises, insecurity of tenure and the eviction of families from land. The unrest was part of a wider period of land rights struggles known as the Crofters' War. Staffin Community Trust is working with Atlas Arts on the project. The organisations have selected sculptor Henry Castle and design collective, Lateral North, to work on the project to create a contemporary work of art. They were selected from more than 40 applications from all over the world. Lateral North's previous work includes a Scottish exhibition at the Venice International Architectural Biennale last year. It involved a virtual reality experience of Boreraig on Skye using mobile phones fitted inside mock animal heads Bath-born Castle is involved in a long-term project at Rubislaw Quarry in Aberdeen and, since early 2015, he has been working on a body of work to develop a site-specific sculpture at The Forest of Dean. Castle was elected to the Royal British Society of Sculptors earlier this year. Tom Smith of Lateral North and Castle visited Skye last week. Smith said: "We are delighted to be involved in a commission which represents such a significant period in the history of the Highlands and Islands. "From initial conversations with Staffin residents, we have realised the strong relationship and extensive understanding the community has of its crofting history. "By delving deeper into the stories of Staffin we hope to uncover significant moments which have taken place during the crofters' uprising and produce a body of research that is reflective of its people and place." Castle said: "My recent visit to Staffin has revealed to me a particular sense of this very strong community, which embodies a living history of its past. "Through thorough research and personal experience of spending time in Staffin, I look forward to developing a body of work which celebrates and explores aspects of the place in a way which is as fresh to this unique community as it is to those who know little or nothing about its history." Dugald Ross, of Staffin Community Trust, said the community was awaiting with interest the outcome of the artists' research. Emma Nicolson, director of Atlas Arts, said the artists would respond "sensitively and imaginatively" to the task of creating a memorial. Waged throughout much of the 1800s, the wider Crofters' War was a dispute between landowners and communities distressed by high rents, their lack of rights to land, or facing eviction to make way for large-scale farming operations. The process of moving families out of inland areas where they had raised cattle for generations to coastal fringes of large estates, or abroad to territories in Canada, had started with the Highland Clearances in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Both the clearances and the "war" were marked by violent clashes between people facing eviction and landowners and the authorities. One of the bloodiest incidents of the later unrest was the Battle of the Braes on Skye in 1882. After being attacked with stones by a crowd of men and
summary: Artists have been selected to take forward plans for a memorial to recall a crofters' uprising in the north east of Skye more than 130 years ago.