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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
A great change was wrought in the early nineteenth century in the settlement patterns of the Reay Country of North Sutherland by the removal of the inland small tenantry to the coasts, and the initiation of the crofting system by the parcelling out of the land of the small tenantry from the old pattern into permanent lots. This change was associated with the introduction of sheep-farming, infamous in Sutherland history, but also with other social and economic changes.
Lord Reay had got into financial difficulties and between 1811 and 1824 cleared his tenants from Strathmore Note 1 Click Here (at the head of Loch Hope) and around the head of the Kyle of Tongue to make way for sheep and to increase the rental. Many settlements figure in the 1789 rent-roll which are unknown now, and in many places are to be seen the marks of former cultivation.
Melness, along with other districts on the opposite side of the Kyle of Tongue such as Skerray and Far, was a recipient area for the people moved, and the result was the crowding of existing settlements, with the formation of some new ones. Thus by 1890 Skinnid had 31 crofts; and Midfield, East Strathan, Torrincudigan and Talmine appear by 1878, Note 2 Click Here apparently as creations of 1828-29. Midfield and East Strathan are notable in having their croft land on a series of ledges and slopes facing north - broken, exposed terrain which was only settled because of population pressure. Although this redistribution of people certainly caused hardship and stress, coming as it did when the population was increasing, it is noteworthy that at least some authorities consider that under changed economic conditions of the nineteenth century the way of life based on fishing and small holdings at the coast was more viable than stock-rearing inland; for small men (Adam 1921: 10).
Changes were occurring too in the social order. By 1840 the system had passed away completely in the parish and there were three big sheep farms in the south part of it (N.S.A. 1845: 177), while there was some movement of settlement towards the roads - tradition has it that about the mid-nineteenth century the houses of Midtown were moved up to the head of the crofts. The practice was growing too of housing the cattle in separate buildings - the old was declining, (See Picture Below) and does not come within the range of living memory in Melness. There were certainly some in the district - 116 are recorded in Tongue parish, which would give some 40 in Melness if they were in proportion to crofters.
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