Crofting

Crofters provided a last link to the historic inhabitants of the land farming on a subsistence basis from Neolithic times, steeped in Gaelic culture and the Kirk but aware of their links to the pre-Christian past and part Viking heritage.

HIstorically in townships on large sub-let tacksman’s farms, and following the Clearances of the early 18th century in ever smaller coastal sites, the people would annually harvest oats, hay and tatties with a ‘kailyard’ for household veg. There would be a few sheep, a cow and follower (off-spring of the cow), chickens and occasionally goats and a pig or two.

Tilling of the ground would be carried out by the cas chrom (foot plough) later replaced by horse-drawn ploughs. Lazybeds and rig types of ridge and furrow cultivation pre-dated crofting but the communal nature of tasks such as ploughing, harvesting, peat-cutting and gathering of seaweed to fertilise the land continued through the crofting era until fairly recently.

Resistance in Coigach

The inhumane nature of the Highland Clearances, the pressure of a growing population and repeated periods of famine led not only to emigration and displacement but growing unrest. In Coigach, the factor Andrew Scott was already on record as believing emigration and sheep ranching were the solutions to poverty and overpopulation. The famine of 1846-47 only served to reinforce this view and plans were made for further clearances. The landowner planned to move 90 tenants from Badenscallie farm to Badentarbet and then create a large sheep farm at Badenscallie which included all the townships up the loch to Culnacraig. Many people were going to lose part of their hill grazing but 18 were to lose everything. Some were persuaded to relinquish their tenancies and be re-settled but a significant number refused to be moved.

 Over an 18-month period in 1852-53 Sherriff’s officers attempted to serve eviction writs on no fewer than 5 occasions. Each time they were repelled, suffering varying degrees of indignity including the burning of the writs and then being stripped before they were sent on their way.

The resistance was notable for 3 reasons: firstly it was successful and secondly it was mainly led by women notably Mary Macleod, Anna Bhan and Katy Macleod Campbell. Katy was singled out as the ringleader and consequently suffered at the hands of the estate. She was banned from living on estate land which forced her and her husband to build a house below the high tide and therefore prone to regular flooding. This is reputedly the ruin at the north end of the beach locally known as Cèit Mèarag’s (daughter of Mary) house. The adjacent building with its ‘hingin’ lum’ is one of the many salmon bothies around the coast.

Finally, the co-ordinated nature of the campaign, which attracted national media attention, marked a change in resistance that informed the Napier Commission, leading to the Crofting Act of 1886. This struggle continued beyond the Crofting and also foreshadowed the Crofting (Land) Wars of the 1880s.

Land Wars in Assynt

By the early 19th century there were 26 families living in the township of Clashmore in Assynt. An effort was made to increase productivity after the potato famine of the late 1840s with holdings re-arranged into crofts, and attempts made to lower the level of the loch. In the early 1870s a model farm was created at great expense by the Sutherland Estate. This involved taking a substantial area of the township, crofts and common grazing and attempting to demonstrate how improved agricultural practices would result in higher arable yields. Good crops were grown and the venture provided substantial local employment but hardly value for the money spent and land lost.

Despite the Crofting Act of 1886 there remained many disenfranchised people, particularly the landless cottars who had expected land rights which never materialised. As unrest grew in the 1880s the farm at Clashmore became the focus of anti-landlord resentment, with stock being driven onto the farm, walls knocked over and buildings set on fire.  The farm stock were rescued but many of the buildings were destroyed.  The steading was rebuilt with some fields being given back to the crofters and finally in 1909 the remainder of the farm was returned to the crofters, with some of the stone from the steading sold for building materials.

Despite the farm not being operational for over a century the large fields and field dykes are still clearly visible in the landscape along with the remains of some of the original buildings and the footings of some of the crofters’ houses.

It wasn’t until the early 1920s after the sacrifices of WW1, that a more equitable distribution of land was achieved.