Dr. James Coull
Scottish Studies, 7, (1963).
The more active crofters invariably have more than one croft, although these are seldom contiguous, and they may even be in different townships: thus one Achininver crofter has two crofts in Midfield, while one man has two at Torrincudigan and three in Talmine (Fig. 3). Significant in the south part of the district and in the Strath are the walls between the crofts - in its natural state the land was strewn with loose boulders. On the more broken terrain of Midfield and East Strathan, however, the crofts are not even fenced, and this is also found at Achininver where the land is actually still in unconsolidated strips.
The relationship of the houses of Melness to their crofts is something of a microcosm of crofting variety. Thus in Midtown and Skinnid, the nineteenth century movement of the houses upslope has actually divorced them from their crofts, for they are now sited on the opposite side of the road which runs at the head of the crofts; for the most part they have walled gardens attached which are little used. In Skinnid the houses are in aligned, groups of twos and threes, not always adjacent to their crofts. Talmine is a "two-storey" township (Fig. 3) - the road runs through it at about 150 feet O.D. and there are complete crofts above and below it, all with houses at the foot of the crofts. At Midfield, East Strathan (Fig. 4) and Port Vasgo the houses are in fairly close clusters, apart from the crofts in nooks of the more rugged terrain. Port Vasgo is especially noteworthy, as nearly all its inbye land is in the bottom of a glacial meltwater channel which cuts off the small rocky peninsula of Meall Mor; it is about 500 yards long and 70 yards wide.
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