A tale of two crofts

 Recently Amazon have issued the published book by Anne Beer called "A tale of two crofts", tracking two branches of Mackays in Sutherland around the Lairg and Rogart area and then also abroad.

This is a good collection of thoughts and family history with an insight into crofting in Sutherland after the clearances.

How much? The price of toilets in the north?

 Recent quote from the mother in law....

"How is it we can spend 2.5 Billion on a vertical space travel site in Sutherland but we cannot find the money to keep the toilets open at places like Durness! I cannot understand it!"


and the Answer please...? 


Council are putting aside 2.5 million. The 2.5 billion relates to the overall project.

 BBC response to recent announcement

Guardian on same topic

Its a Grand Tour...of Sutherland

Spotted in various places in Sutherland last week were the three from  The Grand Tour, Clarkson May and whats his name. ( Hammond.)

Meet the neighbours...

When the new neighbours came to town we were wondering what they may be like? What interests they might have and would they be good neighbours?

What makes a good neighbour?

They arrived recently and with a few more added to the offspring they already had, I hoped they will not be noisy. They settled in quickly.

Strange how we have got accustomed to their habits. They have really become part of the community. But I don't like it when they come in to my garden and lounged around...you got to draw the line somewhere. How will I tell them that they are upsetting that their approach is not to our liking? Would it be too forward to raise the issue?

I remember last year a party of French students stopped on route on their holiday travels and as it was a nice day thought they would sit on the grass to have a very European lunch. They kindly asked if they could sit in the garden for lunch. Because I was taken aback I had said yes without realising it. You could tell they were continental...wanting to sit on the grass... chequered cloth... eating French stick bread in Sutherland.

Well the French students had a good relaxing lunch and set off South. It was a first for these parts. We often get strange glances as we eat out in the garden in Sutherland. Our garden table from B & Q Huntington has been well used.

That reminds me I must get some paint and stop the enset of rust.

But as for the new neighbours they continually eat out and have taken to eat in our garden without a request to us for approval!

Well maybe we will have to tolerate their different habits... I suppose they havent carried out any damage and it does increase the numbers in the community.

Here is the proof of their anticts.

The neighbours...

Sheep Rustlers in Sutherland ?

Two weeks ago this headline took front pages news in the Northern Times. Apparantly its not the first time over the last twenty years that unaccounted high losses of sheep have been noted and recorded in the Bonar Bridge/Rogart area. Strange how no bones were found.

Seasons in the sun...

The Sutherland broom is fully yellow as we near the end of May. I think it flowered a few weeks later than the last few years. It has been a wet spring and this may have delayed the flowering.

Marking the lambs
Our Saturday walk took us to parts never before viewed. Most crofters here have marked their lambs ready for the hill again. I helped some one last week to mark his flock. The separating and counting, the "branding" and other unmentionable aspects! Marking lambs is a diary marker of the year on the croft. Its the recognition of spring new life the lengthening of the day and a shaking off of the winter and its darkness. Where you live does have an effect on you. Living in the city the winter is just colder. The central heating keeps things constant. In the Highlands? The wet is wetter and for longer. The wind seems sharper the darkness deeper. But the spring time does come.

I have often felt that Lairg as a place shows off the extremes of the Scottish weather. When its cloudy and grey Lairg seems desolate depressed dying on its feet a miserable place. But in the sun it rises like the butterfly from its crusty skin in to beauty and life. When the sun shines on the water at Lairg and the granite of the dam sparkles its the place to admire.

Yet conversations in the last week or so excite me regarding the life of the Church here in Sutherland.

Yes there are historic trenches, misunderstandings but, there are meeting of various church brands there are people praying and equipping themselves for something. There is an expectation of something good. Its like the spring is turning the broom yellow after it lay dormant for so long.

"The fig tree is budding the vine beareth fruit..." will soon come to pass.

As we walked up the hill we came across the signpost clearly marked as Lettie's Grave. Its indicated on the map but I do not know anything about him. I saw him because there is reference to Earl of lettie.
Have you ever got that fascination to find out about something. The curiosity gets the better of me and I commit to find out who he was and what he did in Sutherland. This will be at the same time as I search out for mission work of the 17, 18 and 19 Century in Sutherland. There is a lost heritage in the Highlands, of those reaching the people of the North for the gospel. I dont suppose Lettie was a missionary but he may of spoken to a mission worker many years ago.

Scottish Baptists were working in the Highlands before the Free churches existed! and that will surprise a few in the Highlands and further a field.

Anyway Dornoch library Northern Times I am coming your way.

Was this Letties house or just a sheep fank (pen, stell). Map indicates a sheep fold but the stone work and door posts and lintels suggest otherwise.

I will get to the music bit ...read on.

Near Lettie's grave. Who was he Earl of lettie?

Ben Bhraggie

Monument to the Duke of Sutherland.

A business man in Sheepfarming or possibly a nonfriendly landlord?