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Melness, a Crofting Community on the North Coast of Sutherland"
Dr. James Coull
Scottish Studies, 7, (1963).
Used by Kind Permission of Dr Coull
No detail of the settlement pattern in Melness emerges until 1678, for which year there is a Judicial Rent Roll of the Estate preserved (Mackay 1906: 473). This shows a variety of status of the tenantry recorded, and does suggest a healthier range of society than the present crofting community possesses. There are five big tenants (probably though not quoted as such), who pay 300, 150, 100, 80 and 80 in annual rent; the latter three rents were paid by tenants settled at Strathan, while the former two came from tenants at Melness House and Skinnid. In addition there was a smaller tenant at Achinahuagh (paying 45 merks), and the only small tenants recorded are at Midtown - one paying 12 merks and three paying 6 merks. Doubtless this does not represent the whole population - presumably the bigger tenants had sub-tenants who paid them rents just as those of Midtown paid theirs direct to Lord Reay: the Roy Map (1747-55) also suggests this for it also shows in all eight groups of Houses, including (for example) nine buildings at Skinnid, and also settlements at Port Vasgo and four settlements in Strathmelness.
From the later eighteenth century the position becomes a good deal clearer: by this time the forces which were to change the old order were already gathering momentum, and a society already in transition can be discerned.
Another rent roll of the Reay Estate for 1789 (Mackay 1906: 477, 478) again shows big tenants at Strathan and Melness House, while there is still one tenant at Achinahuagh. But Skinnid - biggest of the modern townships - is recorded as having 21 tenants: Lord Reay had taken over the direct administration of the township, and this may well be an instance of the elimination of the middleman tacksman. At the same time there seems to have been severe pressure on the small tenantry: the records cases of oppression of the small tenantry by tacksmen in Tongue Parish (O.S.A. 1792: 529), Click Here for The O.S.A for Tongue Parish which includes Melness. and on the Reay Estate tenants' services had varied between 20 and 120 days per year (Adam 1921: 12), but had recently been commuted to money rents. Another trend was the subdivision of holdings to accommodate a growing population - an instance of the very frequent reaction of the Highland tenantry to the problem of increasing numbers.
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