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[Compiled partly from
evidence submitted to Deer Forest Commission of 1892 (see Minute of
Evidence, vol, 11., pp. 884-5 and pp. 912-3), and partly from notes of
conversations which the Editor has had with actual witnesses of the
incidents described.]
"Uaine gu'm mullach"
(green to their tops!). So Dr. Norman Macleod described the bens of
Ardnamurchan in his inimitable sketch, the "Emigrant Ship," and so they
appear even to this day. Their beautiful slopes show scarcely a vestige
of heather, but an abundance of rich, sweet grass of a quality eminently
suitable for pasturage.
As the steamboat
passenger sails northward through the Sound of Mull, he sees straight
ahead, and stretching at right angles across his course, a long range of
low hills culminating in a finely-shaped mass which seems to rise
abruptly from the edge of the sea. The hills are those of Ardnamurchan,
and the dominating pile is Ben Hiant, 1729 feet in height, and "green to
its top." Around the base of the mountain and for miles in every
direction the land is fair, fertile, and well adapted either for arable
or grazing purposes. It comprises the farm of Mingary, and, to-day, is
wholly under deer.
Down to the second decade
of last century it supported about twenty-six families, which were
distributed over the component townships of Coire-mhuilinn, Skinid,
Buarblaig, and Tornamona. At one sweep, the whole place was cleared, and
the grounds added to the adjacent sheep farm of Mingary. The evictions
were carried out in 1828, the process being attended with many acts of
heartless cruelty on the part of the laird's representatives. In one
case a half-witted woman who flatly refused to flit, was locked up in
her cottage, the door being barricaded on the outside by mason-work. She
was visited every morning to see if she had arrived at a tractable frame
of mind, but for days she held out. It was not until her slender store
of food was exhausted that she ceased to argue with the inevitable and
decided to capitulate. It is to cases of this character that Dr. John
MacLachlan, the Sweet Singer of Rahoy, referred in the lines
"An dall, an seann duine
san oinid
Toirt am mallachd air do bhuaireas."
(The blind, the aged, and
the imbecile calling curses on thy greed.) The proprietor at whose
instance these "removals" were carried out was Sir James Mules Riddell,
Bart. Of the dislodged families a few were given small patches of waste
land, some were given holdings in various townships on the estate—the
crofts of which were sub-divided for their accommodation—and some were
forced to seek sanctuary beyond the Atlantic.
Additional clearances
were effected on the Ardnamurchan estate in 1853, when Swordle-chaol,
Swordlemhor, and Swordle-chorrach, with an aggregate area of about 3000
acres, were divested of their crofting population, and thrown into a
single sheep farm. Swordlechaol was occupied by four tenants,
Swordle-mhor by six, and Swordle-chorrach by six. Five years previous to
the evictions, all the crofters came under a written obligation to the
proprietor to build new dwelling-houses. The walls were to be of stone
and lime, 40 ft. long, 17½ ft, wide, and 71 ft. high. The houses,
two-gabled, were to have each two rooms and a kitchen, with wooden
ceiling and floors, the kitchen alone to be floored with flags. By the
end of 1851 all the tenants had faithfully implemented their promise,
and the work of building was quite completed. Tradesmen had been
employed in every case, and the cost averaged from £45 to X50. When the
people were ejected, two years later, they received no compensation
whatever for their labours and outlays. They were not even permitted to
remove a door, a window, or a fixed cupboard. Some of the houses are
still intact in this year of grace, 1914, one being occupied by a
shepherd on Swordle farm, and another used as a byre. They compare
favourably as regards size, design, and workmanship with the best and
most modern crofter houses in the Ardnamurchan district. The Swordle
tenants were among the best-to-do on the estate, and not one of them
owed the proprietor a shilling in the way of arrears of rent. When cast
adrift, the majority of them were assigned "holdings" of one acre or so
in the rough lands of Sanna and Portuairk, where they had to start to
reclaim peatbogs and to build for themselves houses and steadings. Sir
James Miles Riddell was the proprietor responsible for clearing the
Swordles as well as the Ben Hiant townships.
Other places which he
divested of people and placed under sheep were Laga, held by eight
tenants, and Tarbert, which was in the hands of four.
About sixteen years ago
Ben Hiant, or Mingary, as well as the Swordles, Laga, Tarbert, and other
farms, was swept clean of sheep and Converted into a deer forest, the
preserve having a total area of 22,000 acres. The woolly ruminants met
with a retribution, direful and complete, and the native people viewed
the change with mild amusement. Sheep had been the means of ruining
their forefathers, whereas deer had never done them or their kinsfolk
the smallest injury.
The highest hill on the
estate of Ardnamurchan is Ben Hiant, the altitude of which is 1729 feet.
It may be described as an isolated peak. It forms no part of any
definite mountain range, although, when viewed from the sea, it seems to
blend with Ben an Leathaid and other local eminences. For the most part,
the elevation of the area embraced in the Ardnamurchan deer forest
varies from 600 feet or 700 feet to sea-level. |
