[23] Compiled partly from evidence submitted to Deer Forest Commission
of 1892 (see Minute of Evidence, vol. ii., 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 Milles 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, Swordle-mhor, and Swordle-chorrach, with an
aggregate area of about 3000 acres, were divested of their crofting
population, and thrown into a single sheep farm. Swordle-chaol 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, 17-1/2 ft. wide,
and 7-1/2 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 £50. 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 Milles Riddell
was the proprietor responsible for clearing the Swordles as well as the
Ben Hiant townships.[24]
[24] See Note C in Appendices.
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.