Dr. James Coull
Scottish Studies, 7, (1963).
The few crofters who keep 3 or 4 cows have up to 10 cattle beasts with heifers and calves. Most of the cash income from cattle is now realised by selling of calves, which avoids the problem of feeding them in winter. Cattle are now mostly black polls, of the Aberdeen-Angus breed, the old Highland beasts having disappeared completely, and the objective is now beef cattle for market, little thought being given to home milk production; milk is regularly brought from Lairg - for part of the year even for those who still have cows. No bulls are now kept in the district, though formerly there were several. All crofters now depend on the bull kept at Melness House farm.
The Melness district has a big common grazing (over 10,000 acres) in relation to its size, but the part inside the hill fence, which the sheep graze in winter along with the croft land, is heavily punished now. Even in summer this part has not much vegetation - the grass is in tufts, separated by bare patches. There are some patches of bracken on the common, but drainage is so poor that it is not a serious pest.
Skinnid has a township common of 81 acres on the wing-shaped promontory which gives the township its name; it is irregular rocky terrain which provides good shelter for sheep in winter, and has also been dusted with wind-borne sand which supports a much better sward than the general common. Two cattle per croft are allowed on this common in summer, in contrast with the other townships where cattle are either put to the hill or tethered on the crofts during the cropping season. The other township commons are of little significance now: the Midtown one (18 acres) is on coastal sand dunes and is almost all covered by marram, while at Achininver the township common (25 acres) lies on the hill between the township and the ring fence, but is also rather barren; at Port Vasgo, the cliff-top common on the Meall Mor promontory is rather better, but is only 17 acres in extent.
Ancilliaries and Services to Crofting
Productive occupations are limited to work on the land, apart from lobster fishing, in which there are only two small boats engaged, one at Talmine and the other at Port Vasgo; both have two-man crews. Before World War I, almost every family had its own boat for the inshore line fishing, but this subsequently declined. The great gale of January 1953 damaged most of the boats remaining on the beaches so badly that it almost ended the inshore fishing, although a limited amount still continues. Two of the crofters work full-time on the farm at Melness House, apart from the busy croft seasons of sowing and harvesting.
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