“THE LAST DEER OF BEANN DORAN.”
A note to a poem, with this title, by John Hay Allan, Esq., relates,
that in former times the barony of Glen Urcha was celebrated for the
number and the superior race of its deer. When the chieftains
relinquished their ancient character and their ancient sports, and sheep
were introduced into the country, the want of protection, and the
antipathy of the deer to the intruding animals, gradually expelled the
former from the face of the country, and obliged them to retire to the
most remote recesses of the mountains. Contracted in their haunts from
corrai to corrai, the deer of Glen Urcha at length wholly confined
themselves to Beann Doran, a mountain near the solitary wilds of Glen
Lyon, and the vast and desolate mosses which stretch from the Black
Mount to Loch Ranach. In this retreat they continued for several years;
their dwelling was in a lonely corrai at the back of the hill, and they
were never seen in the surrounding country, except in the deepest
severity of winter, when, forced by hunger and the snow, a straggler
ventured down into the straiths. But the hostility which had banished
them from their ancient range, did not respect their last retreat. The
sheep continually encroached upon their bounds, and contracted their
resources of subsistence. Deprived of the protection of the laird, those
which ventured from their haunt were cut off without mercy or fair
chase; while want of range, and the inroads of poachers, continually
diminished their numbers, till at length the race became extinct.
About the time of the disappearance of the deer from these wilds, an
immense stag was one evening seen standing upon the side of Beann
Donachan. He remained for some time quietly gazing towards the lake, and
at length slowly descended the hill, and was crossing the road at
Stronnmilchon, when he was discovered by some herdsmen of the hamlet.
They immediately pursued him with their cooleys; and the alarm being
given, the whole straith, men, women, and children, gathered out to the
pursuit. The noble animal held them a severe chase till, as he passed
through the copse on the north side of Blairachuran, his antlers were
entangled in the boughs, he was overtaken by the pursuers, and
barbarously slaughtered by the united onset, and assault of dogs,
hay-forks, and “Sgian an Dubh.” When divided, he proved but a poor
reward for the fatigue; for he was so old, that his flesh was scarcely
eatable. From that time the deer were seen no more in Beann Doran; and
none now appear in Glen Urcha, except when, in a hard winter, a solitary
stag wanders out of the forest of Dalness, and passes down Glen Strae or
Corrai Fhuar.
The same cause which had extirpated the deer from Glen Urcha has equally
acted in most part of the Highlands. Wherever the sheep appear, their
numbers begin to decrease, and at length they become totally extinct.
The reasons of this apparently singular consequence is, the closeness
with which the sheep feed, and which, where they abound, so consumes the
pasturage, as not to leave sufficient for the deer: still more is it
owing to the unconquerable antipathy which these animals have for the
former. This dislike is so great, that they cannot endure the smell of
their wool, and never mix with them in the most remote situations, or
where there is the most ample pasturage for both. They have no
abhorrence of this kind to cattle, but, where large herds of these are
kept, will feed and lie among the stirks and steers with the greatest
familiarity.
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