REAL RIGHTS - Timespan

REAL RIGHTS - Timespan
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*In Scots Law, ‘Real Rights’ are rights in ‘things’ such as property and land and based on Roman law principles.
‘
tradition is not to preserve the ashes but to pass on the flame’
[1]
Real Rights pursues alternative narratives to map the history of our parish of Kildonan, in East Sutherland,  and examines the policies, mythologies and economic and political ideologies which have shaped its subsequent (under)development. Redefining this heritage, and the process of its historicisation, departs from a dogmatic and singular understanding of heritage embedded in modernist values, to activate it for emancipatory future potentials and to question dominant systems of knowledge.
We consider our history through the intersection of colonialism and climate change to investigate land ownership and management, and the fishing and leisure industries, to understand how these legacies reverberate in our present conjuncture. Real Rights moves between the molecular and the macro, including the technical modifications of soil and the architecture of Scot’s Law.
Real Rights breaks from the romanticised image of the Highlands as sublime empty landscapes of brooding heather and mighty stags, and considers the economic and political imperatives which justifies the mythologisation of the Highlands as a singular place of leisure, and the complex entanglement of cultural identity with power, ideology and state. We confront the truth that our region has profited from the extraction of earth’s natural resources and the exploitation of colonised peoples and discuss geo-specific reparations which need to be actioned.  We question the Scottish ancestry industry and its role in promoting a mono-economic tourism strategy for the Highlands, while ignoring the colonial genesis of the Scottish diaspora and marketing a fetishistic national identity.
We investigate land ownership and management at three major periods of disruption and fundamental shifts in society, to question how we are governed by archaic laws written to protect the gentry and why
‘Scotland continues to be stuck with the most concentrated, most inequitable, most unreformed and most undemocratic land ownership system in the entire developed world’
[2]
; the expansion of regional agricultural provinces in the later Iron Age to part-feudal landlord tenancies of the early 19th century; the implementation of the crofting lot system, which was developed centuries earlier and transplanted into the plantations in the West Indian colonies; land agitations of the late 19th century and estate sell offs at the beginning of the 20th century.
The fishing and agricultural industries are analysed through their asymmetric divisions of labour and ownership and the complex legislation which acts against sustainable practice and common ownership models. The story of trade and migration in Europe and across the Atlantic, and Kildonan’s position in this network, is told through three locally excavated shards of pottery from three different periods.
Working in partnership with nine European partners, we have faithfully reconstructed three digital models from archaeological, archival and theoretical evidence; Iron Age Roundhouse Settlement (500BC-500AD); Highland Clearances Longhouse Settlement 1813 and Helmsdale Fishing Village 1890, as part of digital heritage research project Connected Culture and Natural Heritage in a Northern Environment (CINE). These models visualise the societal conditions across these periods and are a tool to think through broader questions of climate change and colonialism. This research is led by questions about the impact of digital heritage on engagement, participation and education, and how it can contribute to our constituents’ actively taking a role in producing culture, far from pure spectacle and consumption.
Real Rights is instructed by Walter Benjamin’s model in
Theses on the Philosophy of History
; history cannot be complete or understood in relation to only itself, but exists as a constellation of past and present with immediate interruptions of revolutionary possibility (
jetztzeit)
, not as a progressive trajectory of continuum. If tradition needs to be rescued from a ‘conformism that is about to overpower it’ [3], Real Rights seizes a multiplicity of images from the past to set them alight for the future.
Real Rights will be activated by a series of multidisciplinary workshops, discussions and responses throughout the project.
[1] Proverb attributed to composer Gustav Mahler.
[2] Jim Hunter
Scottish land reform to date: By European standards, a pretty dismal record,
2013
[3] Walter Benjamin, ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’ (1940) in Illuminations, ed. and with intro. by Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn, New York 1968, p. 255.
Helmsdale map 1817
Plan of Ground Allotted to Fishermen by W. Forbes, 1817.
Sutherland Estates (NLS)
A plan commissioned by the landowners of Sutherland Estate, depicting the newly created crofting settlements of Gartymore, West Helmsdale and Navidale, on the coast near Helmsdale.

The division of land at the time of the Highland Clearances was under the strict control of the estate, with each crofter allocated a 2-3 acre strip of land or “lot” for growing hay and grass. The land on the coast was allocated alphabetically according to the displaced or “transplanted” tenants by surname, with little regard for the quality of the ground; it was a lottery whether a crofter ended up with poor stony soil or more fertile soil.

“In the early 17th century the Scottish Privy Council were contemplating internal plantation projects in Sutherland and Caithness to support territorial expansion. Sir Robert Gordon, tutor of Sutherland, recommended to the minor John, fourteenth earl of Sutherland, a territorial expansion into Strathnaver with a policy of fratinization with the locals to alienate them from the Mackay chief. In Addition, he advocated the transplantation of Sutherland men into the district. In a sense, these proposals were characteristic of micro- and macro-plantation intended for civilising purposes.”

“The administration of the Scottish Highlands and Borders and Gaelic Ireland represented an evolving and interconnecting “civilising” laboratory of the British Frontier and imperial policy, given the “vital corridor” between the regions on both sides of the Irish sea.”

Brochard, T. (2019) Plantation: It's Process in Relation to Scotland’s Atlantic Communities, 1590s-1630s. Journal of the North Atlantic.
Kelp (Laminaria hyperborea)
An aquatic plant specimen harvested at low tide and in shallow waters.

Harvesting kelp from the shore in the early 19th century was a landowner led industry. The kelp was burned to produce an alkaline product (kelp ash) which was used to bleach linen and to assist in the manufacture of glass and soap. Unsurprisingly, the tenantry did not get rich on kelp. Even when kelp was fetching £20 per ton, Hebridean kelpers’ wages averaged only £2 per ton. There was a kelp industry at Helmsdale from the late 18th to the early 19thc centuries.
Proverb attributed to Gustav Mahler
Six-row Barley (Hordeum vulgare, Alt. name, Bere Barley).
Illustrated by Fenella Gabrysch
Bere Barley was the first crop to be grown by settled farming communities in Kildonan and it continued to be grown until the Highland Clearances. It was an extremely important subsistence crop and the dried grain was used to make illicit whiskey in the hills of Kildonan.

“The general appearance of this parish, like many other parishes in the county, is mountainous. The “Iligh” river, following its sinuous course, has a length of considerably over 30 miles, and in that distance has only a fall of 770 feet. The valley of the “Iligh,” or Kildonan Strath, comprises the chief arable land of the parish. The area of the parish is 138,407 acres, of which 169 are foreshore and 3922 water. The predominant rocks are granite, sylite, and gneiss. The soil of the Strath is light and fertile and the present Duke of Sutherland is sole proprietor.
(Loth, County of Sutherland, OSA, Vol. VI, 1793)

“The soil is generally good, and the arable part of it is constant culture, producing a crop every year, as far back is the memory of the old men of even their fathers. All the tacksmen and tenants have one half of their arable land in bear, and the other half in oats and peafe. The bear land gets two furrows and is manured, but that for the oats and peafe gets only one furrow without manure; so that the land is manured every second year. The ordinary manure, and what answers best for bear is sea-ware….The great dependence of the farmers, therefore, is upon the bear, of which the parish yields nearly 3000 bolls yearly.
(Loth, County of Sutherland, OSA, Vol. VI, 1793)

“Bere barley is perhaps less cultivated now than formerly, as the quality used as bread-corn has been much diminished, whilst the immense taxation which is laid upon it in malting, brewing, and distillation, has contributed to depress its market value.”
(General Report of the Agriculture of Scotland, Sir John Sinclair, Bart.,1814)

“In districts near the sea, where sea-weed is abundant, that valuable manure is sometimes applied to the barley crop after it is above the ground, more especially where turnips have been drawn and consumed elsewhere; but no other top-dressing is customary in Scotland. In the higher parts of the country, lands that have undergone a summer fallow, are sometimes manured and sown with barely, or rather with big or bear; but commonly dung is given in the first place for rearing a crop of turnips, after which manure is not necessary.”
(General Report of the Agriculture of Scotland, Sir John Sinclair, Bart.,1814)
Ryegrass (Lolium perenne).
Illustrated by Fenella Gabrysch
Ryegrass was sewn to improve peaty soil to grow crops and to provide pasture for sheep. The reclamation of land in Kildonan in the 19th century depended on these hardy perennial grasses and its use on the coast was vital to the sustainability of the crofting settlements. The rent for land was increased as the soil quality improved through the hard work and perseverance of the crofting tenant. This work involved clearing stones and fertilising the ground using seaweed and manure. The landowner benefited from the crofters toil who had to incur the increased increments without complaint or dispute.

“That the arcanum of profitable husbandry is, to increase and to preserve the fertility of the soil by every possible means, and never to strain and exhaust its vigour and fertility by overcropping.”
(General Report of the Agriculture of Scotland, Sir John Sinclair, Bart.,1814)

“Universally, the various seeds of artificial grasses are carefully mixed on the barn or granary floor, by repeated and industrious turning, and in the proportion intended for use. They are sown by hand, from a sheet fixed across the shoulder, and usually by what care called three casts to each ordinary ridge of land of fifteen or eighteen feet in breaths.”

(General Report of the Agriculture of Scotland, Sir John Sinclair, Bart.,1814)

“At least one-half of nearly every farm in the north-east of Scotland is in grass, which is cut, or pastured; and the grass most esteemed and most depended upon in Scotland generally is rye grass (Lotium perenne). But general regret is expressed that it does out in two or three years, and gives place to what is called “natural” or cultivated grasses, having an unsightly appearance and a less nourishing character.”
(History of the Process of Agricultural Science in Great Britain by Thomas Jamieson, 1911)
Sphagnum Moss (Sphagnum).
Illustrated by Fenella Gabrysch
The most extensive type of organic soil in the uplands is peat made from the partly decomposed and compacted remains of plants such as Sphagnum mosses and Eriophorum vaginatum. Vast areas of land in the Highlands are blanketed with peat including the extensive Flow Country in Caithness and Sutherland. The deep peat locks in large stores of carbon, which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. The Flow Country is currently being considered as a potential World Heritage Site on account of its unparalleled blanket bog habitat. Sphagnum was used in Lapland as bedding for children and it was used in WW1 as an antiseptic for wounds.

“This little plant rises about two or three inches from the ground; its branches are generally simple, and furnished, as well as the stalk, with a soft down between the leaves.”
(The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica by Patrick Brown, M.D., 1756)

“Peatlands are a type of wetlands which are among the most valuable ecosystems on Earth: they are critical for preserving global biodiversity, provide safe drinking water, minimise flood risk and help address climate change.”

“Peatlands are the largest natural terrestrial carbon store; the area covered by near natural peatland worldwide (>3 million km2) sequesters 0.37 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year – storing more carbon than all other vegetation types in the world combined.”

“Damaged peatlands are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, annually releasing almost 6% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Peatland restoration can therefore bring significant emissions reductions.”

“Countries are encouraged to include peatland restoration in their commitments to global international agreements, including the Paris Agreement on climate change.”
Iron Age Roundhouse 500BC-500AD: Kildonan, Sutherland
Iron Age Roundhouse 500BC-500AD: Kildonan, Sutherland
from
CINE GATE
on
Vimeo
.
‘European opulence… has been nourished with the blood of slaves and it comes directly from the soil and from the subsoil of that under-developed world.’
[1]
On 5th August 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert landed at St John’s Harbour, Newfoundland. He had in his possession two magical documents… It was the second document which Gilbert possessed which had the real alchemical powers; a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth granting him ‘all the soil of all such lands, countries and territories so to be discovered … with full power to dispose thereof, and of every part thereof in fee simple or otherwise, according to the order of the Laws of England’.
[2]
This grant of fee allowed Gilbert to transform unowned land into private property. One simple ritual was required to complete the transformation – the surveying of the land. Gilbert’s tiny fleet of four ships included several surveyors, who immediately began to measure and map the area. Gilbert went down with his ship on the return voyage, but the colony survived and expanded, and was followed by many other English (and then British) colonies in the next century. The emerging practices of private property and colonial territory are seen as one and the same.
[3]
The conception of land as property developed in conjunction with other forms of property that were central to the functioning of colonial trade and settlement, including slavery. For instance, the analogy between cargo and land as equivalent forms of property lay at the basis of Torrens’ arguments for a system of land registration; the analogy between human cargo and inanimate forms of cargo lay at the basis of the treatment of slaves as chattels in English and American law. Mapping the logics of propertisation and their emergence in conjunction with racial ideologies across different colonial regimes illuminates how the specificities of land holding systems and property law, along with particular racial ideologies converged in the settlement enterprises of other colonial powers.
[4]
Scotland
Scotland  has a population of around 5.5 million people, and a land area (excluding seabed) of around 80,000km. Roughly 20% of people live in rural Scotland, which includes 118 inhabited islands and covers 94% of Scotland’s land area. The remaining 6 per cent of land is urban and occupied by 82% of the population.
Responsibility for Scotland’s system of land tenure (below) and administration lie largely with the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Parliament has some responsibility for land-based taxes, although most tax-raising powers remain reserved to the UK Parliament. Anti-corruption laws are also reserved. The European Parliament has an important influence on land use regulation.
Scotland has an independent judiciary. Disputes about land are usually resolved in the ordinary Scottish Courts and Tribunals System. Some matters may be dealt with by the Lands Tribunal, and some matters relating to agriculture and crofting may be dealt with in the Scottish Land Court.
Scotland’s system of land tenure has three main components
[5]
Property laws governing how land is owned;
Regulations governing how land is used;
Non-statutory public sector measures which try to influence how land is owned and used in the public interest.
Land and property rights can be conceptually divided into use rights, control rights and transfer rights.
[6]
Different people have (or share) different ‘bundles of rights’ over land, so that land tenure is often more complicated than the division above. For example, the public have access rights over most of Scotland’s land, whether it is private or state-owned. The general principle in Scots Law is that “the owner of land owns everything above and below land”.
[7]
However, the Crown often retains certain mineral and salmon fishing rights over land which is privately owned, and certain below-ground rights can be ‘reserved’ by previous private owners when land is sold or transferred.
Scotland has two primary categories of land tenure:
Private lands, whose owners may be private individuals or legal entities;
State lands, whose owners are a public body of some description. That body could be national (for example Forestry Commission Scotland) or local (for example local authorities).
Some land is owned directly by the public body which manages it.
Some land is owned by legal entities wholly owned by a public body.
Some land is owned by a statutory officeholder (for example a Scottish Minister)
Crofting tenure is a third, distinct form of land tenure found mostly in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, which provides tenancies with secure legal rights of occupation and use over land, and rights of succession and purchase.
[8]
Around 25 % of land mass in the Highlands and Islands is under crofting tenure.
[9]
Very little remains of Scotland’s historic common lands. Much has been incorporated into private estates, and evidence of former commons are often hard to find.
[10]
Common grazings, which are areas of land used by a number of crofters or others who have grazing rights on that land, are one of the few remaining examples.
[11]
Daniel, P. (2018)
Towards Land Ownership Transparency in Scotland.
Greenock: Community Land Scotland.
Sutherland
A review of the agriculture of the County of Sutherland by the Highland and Agricultural Society in 1880 provides a detailed analysis of the hierarchical structure of land ownership and the unchanging and archaic system of leasing that led to resistance and the land reform movement.
The parliamentary Return of Owners of Lands and Heritages in Scotland, compiled in 1872-3, shows the number and scale of land ownership in Sutherland.
“In Sutherland there are 433 owners of land, the total area of whose property is estimated at 1,299,253 acres, and the gross annual property value at £71,494,7s. Of owners of land whose property extends to or exceeds 1 acre, it claims 85, while of owners of 100 acres and upwards it has only 23. Eleven properties exceed 1000 acres in extent and three Sutherland land owners draw over £1000 a year from land in that country.” (pg. 1)
Of the 433 owners recorded, only 11 owned over 1000 acres and only 3 of the Sutherland land owners had a yearly income of over £1000. The entry for the Duke of Sutherland’s stands out at an estimated 1,176,343 acres grossing a yearly income of £56,395/13/0. An analysis of the percentage shows that over 95% of land holdings were under 20 acres.
Estimated Acreage
Gross Annual Value £
Duke of Sutherland
1,176,343
53,395 13 0
E. C. Sutherland-Walker, Esq. of Skibo,
20,000
3,231 14 0
Sir James Matheson of the Lews of Achany,
18,490
1, 812 10 0
SubTotals
1,204,833
61, 439 17 0
Other 430 landowners
94,420
10,054 10 0
Totals
1,299,253
71,494  7 0
“….the Duke of Sutherland owns the whole of the county whose name it bears. His Grace’s dominas in the far north have no limits. He in fact not only owns by several times the largest landed property in the United Kingdom, but possesses more than nine-tenths of the fifth largest county in Scotland.” (pg. 2)
The crofting tenants, who had been displaced from their farms in Kildonan, had taken up leases of land on the coast. The terrain was steep and hilly and they had to work hard to improve the sandy soil for growing crops and fodder for their animals.
“In 1853, there were at that time in the county of Sutherland 2680 crofters. Of these there were 557 in the parishes of Assynt, Eddrachilles, and the western portion of Durness: 704 in Farr, Tongue, eastern portion of Durness, and the part of Reay in Sutherland; 785 in Dornoch, Creich, Lairg and Rogart; and 634 in Clyne, Golspie, Kildonan and Loth……They have no leases, and pay from 15s. to 20s. of rent per arable per arable acre, including hill grazings….” (pg. 87)
The typical “19-year” lease had not changed since before the Clearances and it became a symbol of the unfair treatment of the crofters. The agricultural society’s report alludes to the fact that many of the crofters were
“tenants-at-will
” with no contractual arrangements with the land owners. It would be hard enough to resist possible eviction or to dispute rent increases with a lease, but without one it was impossible.
“There is little variety in the duration of leases in this county, nineteen years being the general term. All farmers and a few crofters possess leases for nineteen years or a shorter period, but the greater mass of the latter are merely tenants-at-will, with yearly possession from Whitsunday to Whitsunday, the rent being payable in advance at Martimas.” pg. 88)
The soil was an important commodity and it’s capability to generate income from the land owners changed over time with fluctuating markets and the exploitation of resources and demand for commodities.
“Around Helmsdale the soil is light and but fertile, while along the Kildonan Strath there are several small haughs of similar soil, with rather less sand, that yield good crops of oats and turnips. The soil on the higher banks along this strath consists of reddish gritty sand and peat-earth, in which are embedded numerous detached pieces of granite rock or pudding stone.” (pg. 15)
In the last 20 years, land reform has been on Scotland’s policy agenda and the debate around land ownership and management continues to reverberate. Highland communities have taken a more direct role in instigating change through land buyouts and sustainable management methods.
Macdonald, J. (1880) On the Agriculture of the County of Sutherland, transactions of The Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland,
Fourth Series, Vol. XII, 1880
[1]
Frantz Fanon (1968)
The Wretched of the Earth
, Constance Farrington, trans, Grove Press: New York, p 96
[2]
David Quinn et al. New American World: A Documentary History of North America to 1612 (New York: Arno Press, volume III, 1979) pp 267-8.
[3]
Jones, Henry (2019) ‘Property, territory, and colonialism : an international legal history of enclosure.’, Legal studies., 39 (2). pp. 187-203.
[4]
Bhannar, B. (2018)
Colonial Lives of Property: Law, Land, and Racial Regimes of Ownership.
Duke University Press: North Carolina
[5]
Land Reform Review Group, The Land of Scotland and the Common Good Report of the Land Reform Review Group, (Edinburgh: Scottish Government, 2014)
[6]
FAO, Land Tenure and Rural Development FAO Land Tenure Studies 3, (Rome: FAO, 2002).
[7]
Land Reform Review Group, 2014: 53
[8]
Scottish Government, Crofting in Scotland, www.gov.scot/Topics/farmingrural/Rural/crofting-policy.
[9]
Scottish Crofting Federation, www.crofting.org.
[10]
A. Wightman, R. Callander and G. Boyd, Common Land in Scotland Securing the Commons No. 8, (Caledonia Centre for Social Development, 2003).
[11]
Wightman et al, 2003:9.
Summons of Removal issued by Sutherland Estate to Alex Ross, John Gordon and others, 4 April 1810.
Sutherland Estates (NLS)
Transcription:

George Cranstoun Esquire advocate Sheriff Depute of the shire of Sutherland, to (Blank) my officers in that part Generally and Severally specially Constituted

Greeting,

For as much as it is humbly meant and shown to me by Alexander Ross, Tacksman or Principal Tenant of Navidale, Cain and others aforementioned lying in the Parishes of Loth & Kildonan and County of Sutherland that by the act of Sederunt of the Lords of Council and Session dated the fourteenth day of December seventeen hundred and fifty six Entitled Act anent Removings, it is provided that it shall be lawful /

lawfull to the Heritor or other Setter of the Tack in his option either to use the order prescribed by the Act of Parliament made in the year fifteen hundred and fifty five entitled Act anent the Warning of Tenants and thereupon to pursue a Removing and Ejection or to bring his action of Removing against the tenants before the Judge Ordinary and such action being called before the Judge Ordinary at least forty days before the Term of Whitsunday shall be held equal to a Warning exacted in terms of the forsaid Act and the Judge shall thereupon proceed to determine the Removing in terms of that Act in /

in the same manner as if a Warning had been executed in terms of the aforesaid Act of Parliament And True it is that John Gordon, in Cain, Elizabeth Sutherland mother to the said John Gordon there, George Mackay, in Cainmore, Robert Gunn, Gilbert Mitchell, James Mackenzie, George Mackenzie, Ann Polson, Charlotte MacLeod, John Murray, Joseph Mitchell, John Sutherland and Bessy Macleod all in Navidale or in parts or pendicles thereto belonging and all movable tenants at the Will of the Pursuer from their respective possessions and Occupation and although the Pursuer intends to have them removed therefrom at the term of Whitsunday next Yet they mean as /

mean as the Pursuer is informed to keep violent possession and will not remove unless compelled. Therefore the said John Gordon, Elizabeth Sutherland, George McKay, Robert Gunn, Gilbert Mitchell, James Mackenzie, George Mackenzie, Ann Polson, Charlotte Macleod, John Murray, Joseph Mitchell, John Sutherland and Bessy MacLeod, Defenders Ought and Should be Decerned and Ordained by Decreet and Sentence of me or my Substitute to flit and Remove themselves, Wives Bairns family, servants Subtenants and Cottars Defenders and whole goods and effects furth and from the possession of the said Lands and others at the terms of Removal after mentioned viz from the Houses Gardens and Grass at the time of Whitsunday Eighteen hundred /

/ hundred and ten and from the arable land under crop at the Separation of crop Eighteen hundred and ten from the Ground and to leave the same Void and ridd to the end the Pursuer or others in his name may at the forsaid respective terms enter thereto and peaceably Bruik and enjoy the same in all coming hereafter Conform to the Laws and daily practice of Scotland used and observed in the like cases. Therefore my will is and I command and charge you that you in his Majesty's name and authority and mine lawfully summon warn and charge the said John Gordon, Elisabeth Sutherland, George McKay, Robert Gunn, Gilbert Mitchell, James Mackenzie, George Mackenzie, Ann Polson, Charlotte MacLeod, John Murray, Joseph Mitchell, John Sutherland, and Bessy MacLeod, Defenders personally or at their respective dwelling places to appear before me or my Substitute at Dornoch at Ordinary Court place thereof the thirtieth day of March current in the house of Cain with continuation of days to answer at the Instance of this and pursuant in the matter labelled with certification as I give according to Justice etc. The which to do etc. Given under the hand of the Clerk of Court at Dornoch the Seventh day of March 1810.

Dornoch 30th March 1810 [signed] Wm Taylor Sh Clk
Lodged with execution with [signed] Wm Taylor
Dornoch 4 April 1810 Sh Sub Judge

The Pursuer compearing by Hugh Leslie writer as his procr as per lawful mandate who produced summons and execution against the Defenders and craved decreet and the Defenders being called and all failing to compear.

The Sheriff holds the Defenders as confessed and decerns against them in the Removing in terms of the Lybell.

Rob Mackid


SC9/7/60/ Bundle 1810E
Item A
Transcribed by Brain Adams, 2011.
Soil Map of Kildonan and Helmsdale, 2016
Scottish Soil Maps
Minutes of Evidence from the Helmsdale Meeting of the Napier Commission, October 6 1883. Lord Napier and Ettrick, K.T., Chairman. Angus Sutherland, Teacher in the Glasgow Academy (aged 30) examined.
Minutes of Evidence from the Helmsdale Meeting of the Napier Commission, October 6 1883. Lord Napier and Ettrick, K.T., Chairman. Angus Sutherland, Teacher in the Glasgow Academy (aged 30) examined.

Read the reports here: The Napier Commission

Transcription:

38215. The Chairman. What is your connection with this place? I am a crofter’s son here. I have been brought up here, and I always visit the place annually, and spend two months of every year in it.

38216. Is your father living, and in the occupation of a croft? Yes.

38217. Have you been elected a delegate by the people of this place? I was elected a delegate by the people of this place in the month of March, at a meeting publicly convened.

38218. Do you represent other townships besides this, or this place alone? I was delegated to read a statement on behalf of the parishes of Loth and Kildonan.

38219. Will you be so good as to read that statement?

Angus Sutherland’s response:

Our grievances had their origin in the years 1814-19. In the year 1815, when many natives of the parish were fighting for their country at Waterloo, their homes were being burned in Kildonan Strath by those who had the management of the Sutherland estate. During the period above referred to, the people of the parish of Kildonan, numbering 1574 souls, were ejected from their holdings, and their houses burned to the ground under circumstances of the greatest hardship and cruelty-the houses in many instances having been set on fire while the people were still in them.

These burnings were carried on under the direction and supervision of Mr. Patrick Sellar, who was at that time under-factor on the estate, and who was also accepted tenant of the land from which the people were evicted, and which their ancestors had held from time immemorial. But we think it unnecessary to enlarge upon this phase of the historical “Kildonan burnings.”

There is abundance of contemporary literature testifying to the barbarity of the proceedings attending these clearances, and there are still living amongst us witnesses of them, and our own poverty and present grievances are due entirely to them. The immediate result of the clearance of this parish was that the entire population of close on 2000, who had previously in their possession and pretty equally divided 133,000 acres of land, were compressed into a space of about 3000 acres of the most barren and sterile land in the parish ; and the remaining 130,000 acres of land, were divided among six sheep farmers, who thus held on an average upwards of 20,000 acres. This division of the land has remained very much the same ever since.

The cultivated land in Kildonan Strath was allowed to go back to go back to a state of nature, and the green which succeeded to the crofters’ corn crops has formed the mainstay of the sheep farms ever since. The people of Kildonan, of course, got no compensation of any kind, though their houses which were their own absolute property, having been built entirely by themselves, were destroyed, and their labour in the reclamation of the land confiscated.
When they were expelled from their homes in Kildonan Strath, the only provision made for them was that the holdings of a few tenants at the seaside round about this neighbourhood were subdivided to such an extent that what then held by three or four families is now held by 200 families. There was no subdivision of holdings by the people themselves. Such a thing was never allowed. That matter has been always attended to by the proprietor, and the consequence is that we have smallest agricultural holdings in Scotland-from one to three acres-side by side with holdings of 44,000 acres.
Minutes of Evidence from the Helmsdale Meeting of the Napier Commission, October 6 1883. Lord Napier and Ettrick, K.T., Chairman. Angus Sutherland, Teacher in the Glasgow Academy (aged 30) examined.
Satirical cartoon reprinted from the Highland News, September 1917.
Leaflets issued by the Highland League for the Taxation of Land Values, 1918
Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading
Holden, A.E. (1952) Plant Life in the Scottish Highlands. Oliver & Boyd: Edinburgh, pp 175-176.
Holden, A.E. (1952) Plant Life in the Scottish Highlands. Oliver & Boyd: Edinburgh, pp 175-176.
A man and women collecting peat from their peat bank using a sledge and cart, late nineteenth century.
A family standing in front of their peat stack in West Helmsdale, c.1910.
Amilcar Cabral's experiments at Pessube's agronomic station, conducted between 1954-57. 11° 52° 22°N.15°35' 53"
Amilcar Cabral, an agronomist by trade, was a committed Pan-Africanist and Socialist who led the armed struggle that ended Portuguese colonialism in Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde. In 1952, he was appointed soil scientist to lead the ‘Experimental Agriculture Post for Forests and Agricultural Services’ by the Portugese state and used this role to undermine their colonial project and build anti-imperialist movements in Guinea-Bissau. His research and soil experiments make explicit how closely environmental violence is intertwined with political violence, specifically how a society based on subsistence agriculture, and the lives of indigenous cultivators, were transformed and denigrated to service Portuguese economic interests. Cabral studied and reported on environmental degradation and especially soil erosion resulting from intense cultivation of export commodities in Cabo Verde, Portuguese Guinea, and Angola.  He understood agronomy not merely as a scientific discipline but as a means to gain materialist and situated knowledge about peoples’ lived conditions under colonialism.
Soil Profiles from the Parish of Kildonan: coast (alluvial), hill (brown gley) and peat (peaty podzol).
Order of Service for the “Kildonan Clearances Centenary Demonstration” at Caen Park, Strath of Kildonan, 5 August 1914.

MacLeod, J. (1917) Highland Heroes of the Land Reform Movement. Highland News Publishing: Inverness. pgs. 49-53.

The 5th Seaforth Highlanders leaving for war at Kildonan Railway Station, 5 August 1914.
The Last Act
The demonstration that took place at Caen Park, in Kildonan on 5th August 1914, was on the same day as the Army was mobilised for war. The gathering brought together land reformers from all over the Highlands to commemorate the centenary of the evictions in Kildonan on the “Duke’s Country”. A reporter accompanied the well known figure of the Land Reform Movement, Mr Joseph MacLoed and the Gaelic singer Rod MacLeod. The reporter, Mr Hassan describes the scene at Helmsdale station.


“It was a staid and sober assemblage, nearly every one of whom could trace their connection with the brave men and women of Sutherland who were cast out of their home at the hat of the cruel ruler. Here at least 2000 reformers.”


In attendance were the two daughters of the former minister in Kildonan, the Rev. Alexander Sage, whose son Donald who had suffered the same fate as his parishioners and was removed from his mission house in Strathnaver.The first resolution was re-affirming the people’s right to the land which was moved by Joseph MacLeod. Later that day the local contingent of the 5th Seaforth Highlanders left from Kildonan and Helmsdale stations for Bedford and France
The Last Act
The demonstration that took place at Caen Park, in Kildonan on 5th August 1914, was on the same day as the Army was mobilised for war. The gathering brought together land reformers from all over the Highlands to commemorate the centenary of the evictions in Kildonan on the “Duke’s Country”. A reporter accompanied the well known figure of the Land Reform Movement, Mr Joseph MacLoed and the Gaelic singer Rod MacLeod. The reporter, Mr Hassan describes the scene at Helmsdale station.


“It was a staid and sober assemblage, nearly every one of whom could trace their connection with the brave men and women of Sutherland who were cast out of their home at the hat of the cruel ruler. Here at least 2000 reformers.”


In attendance were the two daughters of the former minister in Kildonan, the Rev. Alexander Sage, whose son Donald who had suffered the same fate as his parishioners and was removed from his mission house in Strathnaver.The first resolution was re-affirming the people’s right to the land which was moved by Joseph MacLeod. Later that day the local contingent of the 5th Seaforth Highlanders left from Kildonan and Helmsdale stations for Bedford and France.
Rodney, W. (Spring 1981) Plantation Society in Guyana. Review (Fernand Braudel Center), Vol. 4, No. 4 pp. 643-666
PDF download available >>> https://timespan.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/plantation-society-in-guyana.pdf
Martin Carter
Martin Carter’s first poetry collection published in 1951. Martin Carter was an anti-colonial Guyanese poet and activist. Lennox Pierre wrote in his preface to an early pamphlet of Carter’s poems issued by the West Indian Independence Party: “Here is genuine revolutionary proletarian poetry. Here is poetry that is intended not to be read in the drawing room but to be declaimed from the platform, in Trade Union Halls, at public meetings”.
European colonialism was both preceded and accompanied by expeditions that aimed at charting the territory and classifying its natural resources, in turn paving the way for occupation and exploitation. To be sure, the supposed discovery and subsequent naming and cataloguing of plants—which were of course already known to the indigenous population—disregarded
and obliterated existing indigenous plant names and botanical knowledge, imposing the Linnaean system of classification with its particular European rationality and universal ambitions.
Orlow, U. (2018)
Theatrum Botanicum.
Edited by Shela Sheikh and Uriel Orlow. Berlin: Sternberg Press.
Major advancements of Western medicine coincided with escalating global colonialism and bioprospecting for European pharmacopeia was an extremely profitable business. Colonialists both sought indigenous herbal medicine practices and erased them by implanting Western classification systems to universalise and rationalise the practices. Bush medicine was widely practiced in Guyana and the indigenous populations, Amerindians of Carib and Arawak language-families, exploited the medicinal properties of plants for centuries before European colonial forces arrived.
Native, biodiverse forests and crops were cleared to build the monocultural sugar plantations, to produce a lucrative plantation economy. Walter Rodney’s
Plantation Society in Guyana
and Jay Mandle,
Plantation Economy: Population and Economic Change in Guyana, 1838-19
detail the labour, trade and economy of the plantations under colonial rule and after independence in 1966.
Rhynchanthera grandiflora (Coqueliot)
Leaf infusion to soothe bronchial inflammation; one flower used as a cough syrup for nursing infants; flowers in a tisane for treating bronchitis and pneumonia.
Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh Herbarium Collection
Aciotis annua (Triana)
Used in the treatment of colds and coughs in NW Guyana.
Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh Herbarium Collection
Cordia polycephala (Black Sage)
Wood or stem is used for scrubbing the teeth; macerated leaves are used as a fish poison.
Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh Herbarium Collection
Carved Stone Bowl, Iron Age 500BD-500AD. Scanned by Open Virtual Worlds, University of St Andrews.
Iron ploughshare or ‘sock’, late 19th century.
Timespan Museum Collection.
Photography by Anyuta Gillespie.
The iron blade was made by a local blacksmith and attached to a wooden framed plough pulled by cattle or horses for cutting into the soil to make furrows for sewing seeds. The basic technology of the plough has remained unchanged for the past 4,000 years.

The iron ploughshare was developed for the improved “Scotch Plough” which was effective on uneven ground. It was used by crofters on the stony hillside land allotted to them on the coast during the Highland Clearances. It was a labour intensive activity and the landowners adopted the unfair system of increasing the crofters’ rent as the land improved. It led to a land reform movement and the Crofting Holding Act in 1886.
Leathers’ Patent Improved Ozonator, c.1890.
Timespan Museum Collection.
Photography by Anyuta Gillespie.
These wall mounted devices were filled with ‘Ozone Generating Fluid’ to produce ozone vapour for air freshening and disinfection. Measurements: 11cm diameter x 25cm tall.

Ozone is a naturally occuring gas with strong oxidising properties that can be used to disinfect and create sterile environments free from undesirable odors and various pathogens. The ozone layer is a region of Earth's stratosphere that absorbs most of the Sun’s ultraviolet rays. The depletion of atmospheric ozone due to human activity, mainly burning fossil fuels and clearcutting of forests, have accelerated the greenhouse effect and caused global warming.
North Sea Oil Drill Bit, c.1980s
Timespan Museum Collection.
Photography by Anyuta Gillespie.
A drill bit is a rotating apparatus usually consisting of two or three cones made up of the hardest material (usually steel or tungsten) with sharp teeth for cutting into the rock or sediment. It is located at the tip of the drillstring and is used in oil and gas exploration.

The Beatrice Oil Field is a small oilfield consisting of three platforms located twenty four kilometers off the north east coast of Scotland. It began operations in 1980 and the process of decommissioning began in 2017. It has been replaced with offshore wind turbines which produce sustainable green energy for household use and has brought employment to the area.
Part of the Colony of Demerara From Mahaica Creek to Plantation Friendship, 1823. Joshua Bryant.
(The John Carter Brown Library)
The map iconography depicts an account of a slave uprising in the colony of Demerara, which broke out on the 18th of August, 1823. The cartographic elements include a compass rose, scales in miles and the location of roads, canals, and the different plantations. Small crosses mark the places where slaves' heads or bodies were displayed.

The linear strips of land mark the plantations within the colony of Demerara, bounded by the Demerary River to the west and the Atlantic Sea to the north. It bears similarities to the Scottish estate plans of the same period, and evidences that the ‘improved’ crofting layouts imposed on the hilly ground land along the coastal regions in East Sutherland, were transplanted to West Indian colonies.
Sutherland Chair, early 19th century. Scanned by Open Virtual Worlds, University of St Andrews
Sutherland Illustrated Guide Book, 1957
The County Council, (1957) ‘Sutherland Illustrated Guide Book’. Mearns Publications: Aberdeen.
Caen Longhouse Settlement
Cean Longhouse Settlement
from
CINE GATE
on
Vimeo
.
Trade and Migration
Pottery is one of the most useful diagnostic indicators of cultural change and the study of human activity in the past. The most useful attributes are the material and form indicating the methods of manufacture and date. The interpretation of pottery is based on detailed characterisation of the types present in any group, supported by comparisons between assemblages. This can lead to an understanding of the patterns of distribution and the modes of consumption and the ways in which populations interacted with material culture and each other.
Iron Age in Kildonan
As the Iron Age progressed through the first millennium BC, strong regional groupings emerged, reflected in styles of pottery, metal objects and settlement types. In some areas, ‘tribal’ states and kingdoms developed by the end of the first century BC.
Earlier studies of the British Iron Age tend to see foreign invasions as being responsible for the large-scale changes that took place during this period. Modern research has found little evidence to support these theories and the emphasis has switched towards mainly indigenous economic and social changes. However, archaeology can demonstrate that the trading and migratory networks between Britain and mainland Europe that had developed in the Bronze Age continued throughout the Iron Age.
The pottery found in Kildonan from this period was mostly handmade from local clay and fired in kilns or shallow pits.These vessels consisted of bowls, jars, beakers, cups and cooking pots. The lifestyle of Iron Age people was very labour intensive and far more sustainable by today’s standards; they made everything they needed and bartered with neighbouring communities for special items like flint arrowheads, iron axes and decorative jet bead necklaces. The appearance of new pottery styles and decoration can be interpreted as evidence for the arrival of new groups of people and ideas and improved agricultural practices.
Kildonan in the early nineteenth century
In 2013, Timepsan and Orkney College conducted an archaeological investigation of a pre-Clearances longhouse in Caen, in Kildonan. It had been inhabited up until the time of the Highland Clearances and was unoccupied by 1825. The excavation revealed many interesting objects, including a significant and diverse pottery assemblage. These discoveries greatly added to the limited body of information about the material culture of these upland subsistence farming communities in the North East Highlands.
An unusual find was made during the 2013 excavation, when a piece of pot was unearthed from the floor of the house, and was identified as a piece from a Mocha ware brose bowl, made in one of the Staffordshire potteries in the early 19
th
century. It was decorated with an unusual frond-like or ‘seaweed’ pattern, created from a chemical process using tobacco and iron oxide. The trade in pottery from the south, using Tobacco from the West Indies, is an example of the far reaching impact of the colonial trade, in the far north of Scotland.
Helmsdale in the nineteenth century
The herring fishing industry had reached its peak by the latter half of the nineteenth century and shipments of fish from Helmsdale had been transported as far as the West Indies, the Baltic and Europe. It brought some prosperity to the families involved in the industry and new opportunities for commercial trade and employment to the area. The established fishing communities on the Banffshire coast were encouraged to move to Helmsdale to take up employment with the numerous curers who had built fish processing yards along shore Street.
The area was opened up through improved roads and bridges built by the landowners to establish Helmsdale as a bustling port and encourage business to take up the generous ninety nine year leases on offer for lease by the landowners. By 1890, Helmsdale was a busy commercial centre with outlets selling the latest in decorative ceramics and domestic wares as demonstrated by the two different pieces of pottery from the Glasgow and Staffordshire potteries, unearthed from the old village rubbish ground adjacent to the harbour.
The Scottish trade in pottery was extensive and the industry relied on burning fossil fuels to fire thousands of kilns, releasing large quantities of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere. A study by Svante Arrhenius “
On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature on the ground
” was the first to quantify how carbon dioxide affects global temperature. A newspaper article in 1912 makes the link between the burning of fossil fuels and the cause of global warming.
“The furnaces of the world are now burning about 2,000,000,000 tons of coal a year. When this is burned, uniting with oxygen, it adds about 7,000,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere yearly. This tends to make the air a more effective for the earth to raise its temperature. The effects may be considerable in a few centuries.”
(Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 14 August 1912.)
It has taken nearly a hundred years since this article was written for the world to take climate change seriously and to lobby governments’ to take more stringent measures to combat the imminent threat.
Late Iron Age Pot Sherd from Kintradwell Broch, Loth. (NC 9193 0757)
Illustrated by archaeologist Cathy Dagg.
On loan to Timespan from Dunrobin Castle Museum.

Rim sherd with applied cordon, just below the rim, decorated with slanting incisions. The pot is 15.5cm in diameter at the mouth and broadens towards the body of the pot. The rim is square sectioned, slightly everted. The fabric is 5mm thick, dark, very hard and fine with a burnished surface. Radiocarbon dates from possibly contemporary material suggest a date of 135-235 AD.
Mocha ware bowl from Caen in the Strath of Kildonan, early 19th century. (ND 01292 17848).
Illustrated by archaeologist Cathy Dagg
Timespan Museum Collection.

Body and rim sherd of ‘Mocha’ ware. This is decorated in vertical bands of slip, in this case narrow black bands flanking a broad buff band. This broad band is further decorated with ‘dendritic’ patterns resembling moss or seaweed and created by dripping a coloured acidic solution onto the surface of the slip, which spreads out in random patterns. This bowl was straight-sided, with a deep foot and measured approximately 15cm in diameter. While some Scottish potteries produced Mocha ware, this example could have come all the way from Staffordshire in England and probably dates to 1800-1825.
Dished plate ‘Fibre’ pattern from Helmsdale, mid to late 19th century. (ND 02728 15288).
Illustrated by archaeologist Cathy Dagg
Timespan Museum Collection

Rim sherd of whiteware decorated with grey transfer ‘Fibre’ pattern. This pattern, also known as ‘seaweed’ was popular in England in the mid-19th century and was produced by at least two Clyde potteries, including Bell’s pottery of Glasgow. The slight bluish tint to the glaze suggests an early date around 1840s or 1850s, and the thickness of the body, 8mm, suggests everyday ware. The plate measures 23.5cm in diameter.
Dished plate, ‘Standard Willow’ from Helmsdale, mid to late nineteenth century. (ND 03145 15156).
Illustrated by archaeologist Cathy Dagg
Timespan Museum Collection

Rim sherd, whiteware decorated with blue transfer ‘Standard Willow’ pattern. This popular pattern was produced by most potteries from 1810 onwards, although this example probably dates to later in the 19th century. The plate measured 18.5cm in diameter.
Creel Basket
Stop animation video of Lego roundhouse construction, John Whitfield, 2018.
Animation of digital roundhouse construction from archaeological ground plan by Sarah Kennedy
Netting Needle, early 20th century. Scanned by Open Virtual Worlds, University of St Andrews.
Ocean warming is speeding up
Berwyn, B. (2020) ‘Ocean Warming Is Speeding Up, with Devastating Consequences, Study Shows’, Inside Climate News, New York, 14 Jan. Available at: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14012020/ocean-heat-2019-warmest-year-argo-hurricanes-corals-marine-animals-heatwaves (Accessed 26.05.2020).
The sheep farms created by the Sutherland landowners during the Highland Clearances, covered about half the total area of the estate. The remodeling of the estate involved (re)moving the small farming tenants to the coast to work in the newly developed fishing industry at Helmsdale and to rent croft land on the steep hillsides on both sides of the village. The Strath of Kildonan was leased to six commercial sheep farmers from the south of Scotland. The price for sheep and wool rose dramatically in the 1790s and 1800s when trade with Spain was interrupted by war and in 1809 it already stood at twenty-five shillings a pound. This was industrialised agriculture and the local tenantry couldn’t compete with the capital-intensive, scientific and economically savvy sheep-farmers.
The fall came in the 1830s when wool prices shrank by a quarter and continued to slump over the next few decades, until the 1860s when new suppliers from New Zealand, Australia and Argentina came to dominate the market, putting an end to the prosperity made from sheep farming in the Highlands.
The advert on display promoting sporting holidays in Scotland, depicts shooting and fishing motifs and the stately Monarch stag, all of which came to represent the Highlands of the latter decades of the nineteenth century. Following the downturn in sheep farming estates had to diversify their sources of income and the trend towards game fishing, shooting and stalking began a long process of conversion from sheep farms to sporting leases.
The “sporting” exploits of the Royals at Balmoral were soon emulated across the Highlands starting with Loch Choire, Ben Armine and along the Helmsdale River. The popular travel diaries of Queen Victoria includes her trip to Dunrobin Castle in September 1872 where she records daily waggonette trips to nearby lochs and straths capturing the tranquil scenes in words and watercolor paintings. The myth of the “
lazy
” and “
primitive
” farming tenant of decades earlier, as deliberately perpetuated by the landowners, had given way to the diligent and gaily dressed Highland figure that was created for the occasion.
By the end of World War One there were attempts by the government to address the continuing state of depopulation and underdevelopment in the Highlands, through resettlement schemes aimed at ex-servicemen and women. The solution to the “Highland Problem” was to bring the work and the workers into effective relations. Such initiates would require public money and state aid to carry out development plans and the reconstruction of the Highlands. It advocated a vision of the Empire where the patriotism of the workers would be summoned to create regeneration in the Highlands of Scotland.
The Highlands and Islands Development Board (HIDB) was set up in 1965 to tackle these same issues and to offer financial support to develop initiatives that would bring jobs and economic opportunity to the Highlands through cornerstone industries, including tourism, oil fabrication and fish farming.
The HIDB produced a number of public information films to entice visitors to trek north to experience the wild and beautiful landscapes and the welcoming Highland hospitality of the people. The trend for tartans that had begun almost a hundred years earlier by royal approval was reborn and liberally garnished holiday guide books and souvenirs and gifts, for a new generation of travellers. Slogans like
“Hail Caledonia”
and “
Haste ye Back
” fitted a more flamboyant version of the Highlands that flaunted escapism and adventure.
Watson Lyall, J. (1912) The Sportsman’s and Tourist’s Guide to the Rivers, Lochs, Moors & Deer Forests of Scotland. London.
Advertisement for estate land for sale in Scotland.
Watson Lyall & Co. (1919) The Sportsman’s and Tourist’s Guide to the Rivers, Lochs, Moors & Deer Forests of Scotland. London.
Sutherland Land Sales 1919.

In the aftermath of WW1, the Duke of Sutherland, one of the wealthiest landowners in Scotland, faced ever-increasing taxation, most of which was based on his land holdings. Taxes had increased costs so much that by 1916 up to 40% tax applied to all who owned land worth £8 million or more. The Duke’s lands were worth far more than that amount.

In an attempt to ease his financial burdens, he disposed of his London house, and in 1919 sold off seven parts of his sporting estates in Sutherland, amounting to 115,000 acres. The sale included the village and harbour of Helmsdale, and the estate of Loth and West Helmsdale, as well as a belt of five adjacent estates running far inland from Dornoch on the east coast to Cambusmore, Rovie, Lairg and Shinness. The sale included the shootings and angling rights and each property came with a lodge. These tenancies dominated the rental rolls in much the same way as the sheep farms had previously done.
Knight, Frank and Rutley, Messrs. (1919) Portions of the Scottish Estates of His Grace the Duke and Earl of Sutherland, Edinburgh.
Fishing on the Helmsdale River, c.1940s
The roles of the ghillie and gamekeeper were essential for the management of the rivers and land of the sporting estate. They had the knowledge and experience to accompany the wealthy visitors on hunting and fishing expeditions, guiding them to the best spots. The control of deer numbers and salmon stock was managed through annual culling and the introduction of reared salmon from hatcheries.

The late 19th century “Toff” was characterised as a wealthy sporting type, who had arrived in the Highlands on the heels of Victoria and Albert and who had the money and time to pursue all that the Highlands had to offer. The mythology surrounding the sporting lifestyle in the far wilds of the rugged north was disseminated through the arts.

“The stag at eve had drunk his fill,
Where danced the moon on Moona’s rill;
And deep his midnight lair had made
In lone Glenartney’s hazel shae.”
(Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott)

There were rules and etiquette in the sporting field that were followed and although it was seen as a male dominated activity, there were a few exceptions and one woman in particular gained worldwide recognition for her art of fly tying.

Megan Boyd, an English-born woman who had come to Scotland as a child and settled near Brora, became an unlikely star of the angling world on account of her incredible fly-tying skills. Megan Boyd’s creations were sought after by anglers the world over who visited her modest cottage to place orders over a sixty year period. Preferring to work directly with anglers, Boyd never went into commercial fly production, and actively supported conservation efforts to preserve stocks of wild salmon in their native rivers.

References:

Hall, H. B. (1848) Highland Sports and Highland Quarters. George Rutledge & Co.: London.

Thomson, I. R. (1999) The Long Horizon. Beauly. Strathglass Books: Beauly.
Erskine, J. (1871) The Division of Rights pertaining to Hunting and Fishing. An Institute of the Law of Scotland. Bell & Bradfute: London. Vol. 1, pub. 1871.
Pollution of Rivers
The legislation in this area in the past was more concerned with the effects of pollution on the rights of fishing. It was often the case that several proprietors owned different stretches of river and each were entitled to receive the same quality of water and in the same condition to which it is enjoyed by the heritors above or upriver. Landowners could make full use of the waters flowing through their land, subject only to the condition that if it passed, impaired in quality and condition, there would be an infringement of legal rights.

The law makes allowances for impurities derived from natural causes, but not for artificial contaminants thrown upstream, passing through the estates further down the river. If a long lived manufactory happened to be located on a river there was the possibility that the owner’s rights could supersede the primary polluting legislation. The degree to which a pollutant would poison a river was more strictly dealt with and specifically “owners of gas-works, who permit any foul substance or liquid to flow into such waters, are subjected to a fine of £200, and £20 a day while the offence is continued. The Nucianes Removal (Scotland) Act of 1856 prohibited the poisoning of river water with gas, naphtha (a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture), vitriol (sulphuric acid) or dye-stuffs.”

The Salmon Fisheries’ Act of 1862 outlined legislation for the protection of the salmon fisheries which were a major part of the estate income in the mid to late nineteenth century. It’s not clear how the evidence was gathered and presented and it’s likely that the river board collected the polluted samples for presentation at the court of law. If attempts to remedy the situation were insufficient, it could lead to a conviction.

In 1869, a gold rush in Kildonan brought hundreds of miners to the area to find their fortune. The estate managed the activities through licensing and regulations and it was hoped that it would prove a fruitful financial experience. Unfortunately, the source of the gold was never found and there were complaints that the mining activities were polluting the river and affecting fish stocks. Within a year the gold rush had ended. It’s interesting to speculate the extent to which these extraction activities affected the river and how the estate justified it within the law and legislation.

The main sources of river pollution today come from sewage treatment works, factories and fish farming and diverse point pollution from nutrients and pesticides from farming and forestry, contaminated run-off from cities and towns and deposition of acid pollutants in the air. The impact is loss of diversity, silting of fish spawning grounds and adverse effects on human health. There is also the increasing concern about the presence of microplastics in river water and the impact of global warming and rising temperatures affecting fish health and breeding cycles.

References:

Erskine, J. (1871) The Division of Rights pertaining to Hunting and Fishing. An Institute of the Law of Scotland. Bell & Bradfute: London. Vol. 1, pub. 1871.
Print of an Atlantic Salmon from British Fresh Water Fishes, W. Mackenzie, 1879.
Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Salmon (Salmo salar)

The Atlantic Salmon is found in the arctic waters in the Northern Hemisphere. They live in the open sea feeding off herring, sand eels and mackerel and enter fresh water for spawning, which usually takes place from September to February. They are usually divided into two main groups: those that run in the early months between January to May, the spring fish; and those that return to the rivers from the sea in late summer and autumn. They enter the river fresh from the feeding grounds, ascending with the tide, displaying great perseverance as they travel upstream, swimming up rapids and leaping falls up to about ten feet in height. The salmon journey to the headwaters of the river, where they stay without feeding until the following autumn, when it spawns.

Recent and projected climate change presents considerable challenges to marine and freshwater populations. Rising ocean temperatures will have direct effects on spawning timing and the ability of early post-smolt survival. A more immediate concern is the historically low salmon stock and a lack of understanding about genetic and ecological adaptability of populations in relation to the likely rate(s) of environmental change.

References:

Jenkins, J. T. (1925) The Fishes of the British Isles: Both Fresh Water and Salt. Fredrick Warne & Co.: Edinburgh.

Todd, C. D. et al (2011) Atlantic Salmon responses to climate change in freshwater and marine environments. Atlantic Salmon Ecology. Wiley-Blackwell: Chicchister, UK.
Front cover of tourist brochure “Hail Caledonia: North to John o’ Groats” published by J. B. White, Dunbee, 1940s.
Watson Lyall, J. (1912) The Sportsman’s and Tourist’s Guide to the Rivers, Lochs, Moors & Deer Forests of Scotland. London.
Plan of Helmsdale for Lady Stafford, dated c.1815.
Sutherland Estate (NLS)
The historic fishing village of Helmsdale was planned and built by the Sutherland landowners at the time of the Highland Clearances to provide employment for the displaced farming tenants in Kildonan, who were more used to the plough than the oar of a boat.

ThIs early plan of the village dated 1815 shows the formal layout of the streets in a grid pattern, with the streets running horizontally to the river named after the landowners Sutherland estates and the streets running vertically named after their Staffordshire estates. The larger building plots along Shore Street were reserved for extensive fish curing yards which extended from the old Telford stone bridge to the east end of the harbour. The exploitation of sea resources placed Helmsdale, at one time, as one of the most important export fisheries in Scotland with large shipments of herring destined for domestic markets and Ireland and the slave plantations in the West Indies.

Helmsdale Harbour was built in 1818 as part of the Sutherland Estate improvements costing £1,600. The Countess of Sutherland describes these latest developments in a letter to her husband the Marquis, in a rather exaggerating tone.

“It has about six Herring establishments each with their Cooperages, so large, so well built, &
so full of people both men & women packing the casks of fish, that it looked more like a part of Liverpool than anything else, so handsome Are the buildings & so great the bustle.”
Certificate of Competency as Skipper of a vessel employed in the Fishing Industry awarded to Hugh Angus McKay, Shore Street, Helmsdale, 4th May 1911.
Timespan Archive Collection
Labour Division
Fishermen employed in the herring fisheries mainly worked for a particular curer (the person who owned a yard where fish were gutted, salted and packed in barrels) who advanced them the money to buy and repair fishing boats ready for the coming season. This meant that they had to reimburse the curers once the fishing season started. These contractual arrangements guaranteed the fishermen a price for their herring but discouraged local fishermen from moving into the curing business, as their income was controlled by the curers.

The first curing yard at Helmsdale was built in 1817 and was leased to the fish curers Landles and Redpath from the Scottish Borders. It wasn’t long before others followed suit and by the 1840s there were about a dozen curing yards were in operation with 264 boats tied contactually to them.

Almost all of the herring curing was done by females who travelled following the herring season around the Scottish coast. In Helmsdale the herring lassies were mainly drawn from neighbouring villages. These lassies gutted the fish at a rate of almost 50 per minute. The women who worked in the Scottish fishing industry, as herring gutters and packers, are rarely represented in employment or census records, often referring to them as “Fishwife” or “Fisherman’s wife or daughter.”

The masculine image of the industry conceals the reality which, by removing the men to sea, made them dependent on the work of the women ashore. Disputes over pay and working hours were common but with no legal backing it was difficult to take complaints forward. “The Stornoway Women's Suffrage Society” was set up in the early 1900s to protest and campaign for the island women, including those who worked in the fishing industry. The notion of a woman's rights to work and travel was normal in coastal communities, making it a simpler case for equal franchise. The Stornoway Town Council supported the motion to give women the vote, before the Representation of the People Act (1918) made it real.

References:

Banks, T. (2018) Deeds Not Words. Rural Nations Scotland CIC.

Thompson, P. (1985) Women in the Fishing: The Roots of Power between the Sexes. Cambridge University Press.
Labour Division
Fishermen employed in the herring fisheries mainly worked for a particular curer (the person who owned a yard where fish were gutted, salted and packed in barrels) who advanced them the money to buy and repair fishing boats ready for the coming season. This meant that they had to reimburse the curers once the fishing season started. These contractual arrangements guaranteed the fishermen a price for their herring but discouraged local fishermen from moving into the curing business, as their income was controlled by the curers.

The first curing yard at Helmsdale was built in 1817 and was leased to the fish curers Landles and Redpath from the Scottish Borders. It wasn’t long before others followed suit and by the 1840s there were about a dozen curing yards were in operation with 264 boats tied contactually to them.

Almost all of the herring curing was done by females who travelled following the herring season around the Scottish coast. In Helmsdale the herring lassies were mainly drawn from neighbouring villages. These lassies gutted the fish at a rate of almost 50 per minute. The women who worked in the Scottish fishing industry, as herring gutters and packers, are rarely represented in employment or census records, often referring to them as “Fishwife” or “Fisherman’s wife or daughter.”

The masculine image of the industry conceals the reality which, by removing the men to sea, made them dependent on the work of the women ashore. Disputes over pay and working hours were common but with no legal backing it was difficult to take complaints forward. “The Stornoway Women's Suffrage Society” was set up in the early 1900s to protest and campaign for the island women, including those who worked in the fishing industry. The notion of a woman's rights to work and travel was normal in coastal communities, making it a simpler case for equal franchise. The Stornoway Town Council supported the motion to give women the vote, before the Representation of the People Act (1918) made it real.

References:

Banks, T. (2018) Deeds Not Words. Rural Nations Scotland CIC.

Thompson, P. (1985) Women in the Fishing: The Roots of Power between the Sexes. Cambridge University Press.
A group of women gutting the herring at Helmsdale, c.1930s.
Labour Division
Fishermen employed in the herring fisheries mainly worked for a particular curer (the person who owned a yard where fish were gutted, salted and packed in barrels) who advanced them the money to buy and repair fishing boats ready for the coming season. This meant that they had to reimburse the curers once the fishing season started. These contractual arrangements guaranteed the fishermen a price for their herring but discouraged local fishermen from moving into the curing business, as their income was controlled by the curers.

The first curing yard at Helmsdale was built in 1817 and was leased to the fish curers Landles and Redpath from the Scottish Borders. It wasn’t long before others followed suit and by the 1840s there were about a dozen curing yards were in operation with 264 boats tied contactually to them.

Almost all of the herring curing was done by females who travelled following the herring season around the Scottish coast. In Helmsdale the herring lassies were mainly drawn from neighbouring villages. These lassies gutted the fish at a rate of almost 50 per minute. The women who worked in the Scottish fishing industry, as herring gutters and packers, are rarely represented in employment or census records, often referring to them as “Fishwife” or “Fisherman’s wife or daughter.”

The masculine image of the industry conceals the reality which, by removing the men to sea, made them dependent on the work of the women ashore. Disputes over pay and working hours were common but with no legal backing it was difficult to take complaints forward. “The Stornoway Women's Suffrage Society” was set up in the early 1900s to protest and campaign for the island women, including those who worked in the fishing industry. The notion of a woman's rights to work and travel was normal in coastal communities, making it a simpler case for equal franchise. The Stornoway Town Council supported the motion to give women the vote, before the Representation of the People Act (1918) made it real.

References:

Banks, T. (2018) Deeds Not Words. Rural Nations Scotland CIC.

Thompson, P. (1985) Women in the Fishing: The Roots of Power between the Sexes. Cambridge University Press.
Satirical illustration of Scotland as a woman carrying a creel of fish, by Lilian Lancaster, 1852-1939.
Labour Division
Fishermen employed in the herring fisheries mainly worked for a particular curer (the person who owned a yard where fish were gutted, salted and packed in barrels) who advanced them the money to buy and repair fishing boats ready for the coming season. This meant that they had to reimburse the curers once the fishing season started. These contractual arrangements guaranteed the fishermen a price for their herring but discouraged local fishermen from moving into the curing business, as their income was controlled by the curers.

The first curing yard at Helmsdale was built in 1817 and was leased to the fish curers Landles and Redpath from the Scottish Borders. It wasn’t long before others followed suit and by the 1840s there were about a dozen curing yards were in operation with 264 boats tied contactually to them.

Almost all of the herring curing was done by females who travelled following the herring season around the Scottish coast. In Helmsdale the herring lassies were mainly drawn from neighbouring villages. These lassies gutted the fish at a rate of almost 50 per minute. The women who worked in the Scottish fishing industry, as herring gutters and packers, are rarely represented in employment or census records, often referring to them as “Fishwife” or “Fisherman’s wife or daughter.”

The masculine image of the industry conceals the reality which, by removing the men to sea, made them dependent on the work of the women ashore. Disputes over pay and working hours were common but with no legal backing it was difficult to take complaints forward. “The Stornoway Women's Suffrage Society” was set up in the early 1900s to protest and campaign for the island women, including those who worked in the fishing industry. The notion of a woman's rights to work and travel was normal in coastal communities, making it a simpler case for equal franchise. The Stornoway Town Council supported the motion to give women the vote, before the Representation of the People Act (1918) made it real.

References:

Banks, T. (2018) Deeds Not Words. Rural Nations Scotland CIC.

Thompson, P. (1985) Women in the Fishing: The Roots of Power between the Sexes. Cambridge University Press.
A Treatise relating to the Laws of Fishing by Charles Stewart, Advocate. Handbook of the Laws of Scotland by James Lorimer, M.A., Advocate, 1869.
The legislation of herring fishing was for centuries a complicated and voluminous affair and early regulations did little to encourage its prosperity. A system of ill conceived bounties hampered the industry and controlled the season and methods of fishing. The Sea Fisheries’ Act 1868 set out the rights of fishermen of Britain and France giving exclusive rights to the fishmen of each country to fish within three miles from the coast of each “Kingdom”. There was free range to fish by any means and at any time beyond this zone.

“With regard to herrings….it shall be lawful to fish for and take herring and herring fry on all places on the coast of Scotland, and in any manner of way, and by mean of any kind of net having meshes of the size required by the law.”

The most important enactment of the law was to legalise trawling which had been prohibited previous to the Act. There were prohibitive measures for fishermen using a double net, which made it more difficult for undersized fish to escape the mesh.

The management of the Fisheries was entrusted to the Board of British White Herring Fisheries established in 1809. The board’s duties included regulating the quality branding of the herring, preventing the use of illegal nets and the supervision of the fishery officers stationed at the ports. There is no mention of benevolent funds for the families of fishermen lost at sea or anti-pollution measures.

Besides the ordinary methods of catching herrings by the drift net, fishermen also used fish traps and wicker baskets at the river mouth. These activities were allowed as long as they didn’t interfere with the entrance of salmon into the river.

References:

Stewart, C. (1869) Treatise relating to the Laws of Fishing. Gale and Making of Modern Law.
Herring boat
Helmsdale Harbour 1890
Print of an Atlantic Herring (Hareng commun) from La Pêche et les poissons, Paris, C. Delagrave, dated 1868.
Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Herring (Clupea harengus)
Atlantic herring are widely distributed throughout the north-east Atlantic, ranging from the Arctic ocean in the north to the English Channel in the south. Young herring are found close inshore or in sea lochs whilst the adult shoals generally occur further offshore. Herring stocks can be categorised by their different spawning areas and times. Different stocks tend to mix together for most of the year but during the spawning season they migrate to their separate spawning areas. Although herring can be found spawning in almost any month, around Scotland the majority spawn in the autumn, between August and October and Moray Firth is one of the nursery areas for the growing larvae.

According to Pennant “The great winter rendezvous of the herring is within the Arctic circle; there they continue for many months in order to recruit themselves after the fatigue of spawning.”

It was the predictable nature of the herring’s migratory path to the east coast waters that brought fleets of fishing boats to exploit and harvest this highly commercial resource. The lower quality herring were often destined for the slave plantations in the West Indies, where they provided a cheap source of nutritional food for the slaves. The Caledonian Canal shipping lists from the 1830s, records that boats from the port of Helmsdale were carrying cargoes of herring over to Ireland, where it was repacked on ships embarking on the long transatlantic voyage. From the 1850s the market was more towards the continent and the Baltic countries.

Herring are mainly caught by pelagic trawlers and purse seiners. The North Sea herring stock suffered a major collapse in the early 1970s, due to overfishing, which led to the fishery being completely closed from 1977 to 1980. The Scottish Association for Marine Science (SMAS) has predicted that herring may vanish from Scotland’s west coast waters by 2100 because of global warming. The herring may seek out the colder waters of the north.

References:

Pennant, T. (1790) A Tour of Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772. Benjamin White: London.
Sea Level Rise Predictive Map: Helmsdale’s Coastline 1890 - 2500
Sea level rise is one of the most severe impacts of climate change, with rising waters threatening to inundate small-islands and coastal regions by the end of the century. It is estimated that there could be a one metre rise by the end of the century and more than ten metres by 2500.The areas that will be most affected around Helmsdale will be the lower lying land along the coast, river and village.

It has been recorded that 12% of Scotland’s coastline is actively eroding landward which equates to over 440km of shore, the same distance between Edinburgh and John o’ Groats. The historic records show that there has been an overall 34% increase in erosion between c.1890s to 1970.

New legislation around flood risk management was implemented by an Act of Parliament in 2009 which directs local authorities to deliver a strategic approach to managing flood risk in the different administrative areas. The Highland Council has developed a “Flood Risk Management Plan” describing the actions required to manage the risk of flooding in vulnerable areas. It could be argued that these measures don’t go far enough and more action is required to combat the current threats of Climate Change around our coastlines in collaboration with local communities.

This information has been compiled using available predictive data for this area. For further information go to:
Scotland's Seas: towards understanding their state
Dynamic Coast: Scotland's Coastal Change Assessment
SEPA: Flood Risk Management Strategies
The Highland & Argyll Flood Risk local ManagementPlan
Watercolour depiction of Helmsdale and Castle, inset in Plan of Ground Allotted to Fishermen by W. Forbes, dated 1817.
Sutherland Estates (NLS)
Helmsdale castle is believed to have been built in 1488, as a hunting lodge, by Margaret Baillie, Countess of Sutherland. It takes the form of a traditional L-shaped tower house with a spiral staircase in the re-entrant angle. It was repaired by the Gordons of Navidale in 1616 and it appears on Blaeu’s 1654 map of the area. The castle went out of use and by 1858 it was in ruins.

The castle has a darker side to its history! The stone tower was the setting for an infamous murder plot with the perpetrators, led by Lady Isobel Sinclair, poisoning the drinks of her unsuspecting guests, the land owners of Sutherland, who later died. There is, however, a twist to the story, when another poison laced drink meant for the young Sutherland heir, is mistakenly drunk by Isobel’s son and he too dies, at his own mother’s hand. It is said that these tragic events inspired Shakespeare to write the tragic play Hamlet.
Ruins of Helmsdale Castle sitting above eroding coastline, dated c.1950s.
Timespan Archive Collection.
The effects of coastal erosion destabilised the seaward end of the building which broke away as the coast receded. Although there was local concern about the fate of the castle there doesn’t seem to have been any move to protect it from collapse. The local council’s remit was to prevent people from getting too near the unstable and unsafe stonework.
Demolition of Helmsdale Castle, dated 1970.
Margaret Polson (Timespan Archive Collection)
The last remaining walls of the castle were knocked down around 1970 to make way for a new road bridge. All that remains of the castle today is a carved stone fireplace lintel, now in Timespan Museum. It bears a carved exhortation in Latin with the wise words “If you wish to be wise, I enjoin you to observe six things. What you say, and about whom, where, to whom, how and when.”

The area of grassland next to the castle was used by crofters for grazing cows. The land was gifted by fish curer and merchant shipper George Couper, to the Helmsdale community, in the late 19th century, and it’s now used as the scenic setting for the famous Helmsdale Highland Games.
Highland Land League
Macleod, J. (1917). ‘Highland Heroes of the Land Reform Movement’. Inverness: Highland News Publishing Company, p.153.
Helmsdale Fishing Village 1890: Kildonan, Sutherland