The highland clearances was not particularly pleasant, but frankly, it had to be done, in much the same way that slavery had to be abolished in the United States. The American civil war was hardly a pleasant experience either but a modern country in the ninenteenth century cannot have a race based chattel slavery system. In the same way, a modern country cannot have chattel feudalism, which was what Highland society was. I wish it hadnt had to come down to the Clearances, but frankly Highland society was not going to give up on it on its own, no more than the south would give up its slaves voluntarily.
And on a more pragmatic note, the vast bulk of the atrocities of the Clearances were committed by lowland Scots, (who hated the Highlanders) rather than the English.