Melness, a Crofting Community on the North Coast of Sutherland"

Dr. James Coull
Scottish Studies, 7, (1963).

Used by Kind Permission of Dr Coull

When the picture finally becomes known in detail through the investigations of the first Crofters Commission in the last decade of the nineteenth century, Note 3 Click Here it shows the usual prevalence of small men associated with the society of extremes of the West Highlands: in the Melness district were 90 crofts, from 1 to 6 acres in arable extent, the average being only 2 to 3 acres. In all, it was a situation of obvious land hunger. The crofts were grouped in 13 townships (Fig. 1), but most of them were in groups of 2 to 4, and only Skinnid, Talmine and Midtown had over 10 crofts. All the crofts of the district shared a common grazing of over 10,000 acres which extended some five miles, westward on the Moine plateau; and in addition Midtown, Skinnid, Port Vasgo and Achininver had small township commons of their own. Skinnid also had some cultivated land on the common - the old lazy-beds which were held in run-rig are still visible. The crofts, townships and common grazings are unaltered to-day, although the way of life of the people has greatly changed.

As almost everywhere, the standards of crofting husbandry here have never impressed favourably. The insecurity of tenants under the tacksman system still discouraged progress at the end of the eighteenth century, although by this time potatoes had become the main crop, and much seaweed was carried up from the beach to supplement manure as fertiliser; indeed seaweed was so valuable that trips were made by boat to the island of Eilean Roan and up the Kyle to collect additional supplies. However, in 1840, croft land was still in poor heart - and it was unfenced and generally undrained, and never rested from a potatoes - bere - oats rotation: the bere yielded only about four-fold and the oats two-fold (N.S.A. 1845: 179). Again at the end of the nineteenth century, the frequency of corn marigold and charlock (See Picture Below) in the corn was remarked (Edwards-Moss 1888: 80) - also the fact that most of the work was done by women.

Memories of the early years of this century record practices which have now completely disappeared. Thus hay was cut by the crofters on the township in Skinnid, and divided into heaps, and each crofter had to select his own one while his back was turned; it was also the custom of at least some of the crofters at this to break in some of the outrun within their crofts in winter with the spade - an exceedingly laborious task with the stony compacted soils. It was frequent too for two neighbours to team up and each provide a horse for a plough pair and bere was grown till the inter-war years.

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