A' Chomraich APPLECROSS the Sanctuary
A'Chomraich
A
GLIMPSE OF
HISTORY
The Sanctuary
A' Chomraich APPLECROSS The Sanctuary
A GLIMPSE OF HISTORY
©
IM
1999
Applecross Historical Society
CONTENTS
page
BACKGROUND1
LIFESTYLE & RELIGION4
EARLY HISTORY8
SCOTLAND A NATION!12
AFTER THE LAY ABBOTS14
PAGAN APPLECROSS15
THE MACKENZIE LAIRDS16
CONCLUSION18
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS19
PREFACE
It is always difficult for those of us who are naturally prolix to confine our enthusiasms and when we do something suffers.
However, I prepared this little paper initially at the request of Judith Fish, to give passers by just a glimpse of my fascination for the little peninsula of Applecross which is, in its history, a microcosm of Scotland as a whole.
The fascination has been mine since I opened my eyes in the little house across the water from the hotel and has remained with me during enforced absence in many strange places. It will continue until I close them for the last time.
If, in your visit, you get just a touch of this fascination and perhaps also of the sense of anger that the distinctive past of this area has been disregarded, not least by those who should know better and are local, I shall be well rewarded.
I am indebted to THE APPLECROSS HISTORICAL SOCIETY for their endorsement of the contents of the booklet. Income from sales goes to their funds.
Ian Mackenzie ©December 1999Toscaig
Reprinted 2003, 2009
APPLECROSS, A BRIEF LOOK AT PAST AND
PRESENT
THROUGH THE EYES OF THOSE BORN BETWEEN
THE WARS
Those who see the remote peninsula for the first time as we near the end of the 20th Century may find it hard to envisage the changes in lifestyle effected in the course of a lifetime from the years before the last war. I do not know of any other part of the Scottish mainland that has seen such dramatic movement in that time.
Long after most of the country and, in particular, the towns and villages on the western seaboard, had adapted from access by sea to the twin benefits of sound roads and accessible railways, Applecross depended on the traditional sea-ways with MacBrayne's Stornoway mailboat to Kyle and Mallaig as the main carrier for both passengers and goods. This vessel lay off the pier at Milton and was attended by a large rowing boat. The whole operation was somewhat precarious in bad conditions.
An advantage of the service was that in the summer a passenger could catch the boat coming from Stornoway at three o'clock in the morning and arrive in Glasgow via Mallaig and the West Highland railway line at two in the afternoon. A less attractive feature was that, at any time of year, indifferent conditions could prevent the ferryboat from making contact so the unfortunate passengers for Applecross got a 'free' trip across the Minch to Stornoway and back again. Also, the steamer did not call at Applecross on the winter run from Stornoway to Kyle so those wishing to go to Kyle boarded the steamer at Applecross in the afternoon for a double trip across the Minch, never the most placid of waters. Personal experience
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reminds that the delights of that otherwise fine Lewis town soon palled when there was time to kill between nine in the evening and midnight while nursing a sorely tried digestive system and waiting to repeat the trip!
It was a big step forward when, in the mid fifties, we got our own boat plying between Toscaig and Kyle of Lochalsh. A further twenty years, during which the population on the north coast haemorrhaged away almost to extinction, were to elapse before the opening of the road round the north coast to Shieldaig. This is the north coast community that in 1884 supported four hundred souls.
Although the famous Bealach nam Bo was completed as one of the last of the Parliamentary roads in 1822 it was not, nor is it yet, a certain means of access in all weathers. Until the early fifties the gravel surface made maintenance a challenge and the winter snows, which can still block the road in a very short time, were being removed laboriously by squads of men using shovels. If adverse conditions persisted the road had to be abandoned, sometimes for weeks on end.
The Bealach, Applecross.
There are steeper sections of road in Britain but the Bealach retains its place in the Guinness Book of Records
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on the strength of the height of ascent to over two thousand feet in just over five miles from sea level.
When we see today's sophisticated road maintenance equipment including an efficient snow blower and, from time to time, bitumen-laying equipment, it is interesting to note that when the writer's grandfather had the contract for the upkeep of the road from Toscaig to Russel in the years before the first war the annual sum involved was £50!
Until the coast road was opened in 1975, the peninsula was split north and south. The only connection from Applecross village to what were sixty years ago thriving hamlets dotted from Lonbain to Kinloch was a footpath suitable only for walkers, horseback, cycle or motorcycle. This path, which can still be traced, most notably in the section over the 'Gualainn' or shoulder from Cruary to Sand, was constructed primarily to enable landlords to obtain access to their stalking and shooting ground. A look at the ordnance map (Landranger 24) will show other similar paths heading for the hills all over the peninsula and many of these, although sadly in need of clearance and repair, are good walking for the reasonably fit. The normal countryside courtesies should be observed, particularly during the deer stalking season.
The coast road mentioned above was completed much too late for those generations of crofters who had wrung a precarious living from the land.
There were many reasons for the delay in providing this basic need which was identified in the evidence given to the Napier Commission report of 1884. Then Alexander Livingston of Fearnabeg pointed out in his information that there were about 400 people living on the north coast. The report led to the establishing of the Crofters' Commission which gave crofters security of tenure for the first time.
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The welcome sight, today, of renovated and new housing gives the lie to those who said, during discussions about the lack of a road, that the new road would not keep people in the locality.
The landlord of the time had a fine reputation as a caring laird as had his family who owned Applecross from 1864 when Henry, Lord Middleton bought the estate from the Duke of Leeds, to 1929. The family had provided paths between the townships and separated the township grazings by sheep fences. Yet the Napier Commission report quotes Livingston as stating that the road had been refused by the landowners.
There are lessons to be learned, not least by those of us who remember the clear lack of unanimity in the community when communications were being discussed in the period after the last war. The option of providing our own boat service between Toscaig and Kyle was undoubtedly the cheapest and thus welcomed by a cash strapped government. However there were others. The most obvious was a road round the north coast. But some favoured a low level road from Toscaig round the coast to Russel, shorter, and, for the people in the south of the peninsula, more suitable.
The MOD development at Sand was the eventual catalyst for the new coast road, some twenty years later, although the direct labour undertaken by the council (and the cash restraints) may be observed in the first seven miles of switchback road from Kinloch to Kenmore over difficult terrain.
LIFESTYLE & RELIGION
The population was predominantly Gaelic speaking and churchgoing. The 1931 census showed over 75% of the people as Gaelic speaking. (In 1971, of the mainland only
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Applecross and Stoer had a Gaelic speaking population of over 50%).
It is worth noting that in 1930 there were three Presbyterian churches in Applecross. To encapsulate the reasons for this is outwith the scope of this paper although, with a devolved Scottish Parliament, it is worth reminding ourselves that the major split from the Established Church in 1843 (the Disruption) which was more fully supported in the Highlands than elsewhere came about, in some degree, because of a lack of sensitivity on the part of the post 1707 united government. The opposition faced by the Free Church, which split from the established church, as it tackled the huge task of providing churches and manses is well recorded. In Applecross the Church at Camusterrach, now the Church of Scotland building, was built with the assistance of the local women who laboured with the men to provide a place of worship.
ClachanChurch
In 1893 there was a secession from the Free Church to form the Free Presbyterian Church. Tragically the latter was split further in recent times on a further point of principle. In 1900 the bulk of the Free Church united with the United Presbyterian Church leaving a minority to keep the Free Church identity. Finally in 1929 the Church of Scotland joined with the United Free Church to form the national but spiritually independent Church.
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Confused? No wonder. However it is well to remember that the Highlander takes his religion seriously, some might say joylessly, and that the individual factions still hold their convictions sincerely and fearlessly. In contrast to the days of my youth, however, there is much more tolerance of your neighbour's views but it is sad that, where there is much more in common than separating the Churches, they are emptying across the country for want of support and there is no doubt that the divisions hasten this.
Fishing Boat ha
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On the south of the peninsula the few cars using the gravelled roads belonged to the local doctor, minister, farm manager and grocers. There were three grocers' shops, two butchers, a baker, post office, and shoemaker. The grocers sent their vans round the villages and visiting tinkers plied their tinsmith trade. The latter also provided transport with their spring carts to assist the crofters with seasonal work. They gained access to the remote crofts at Collieghillie and Ardbain negotiating the narrow 'Cadha cumhang' by the simple expedient of removing the cart wheels from their axle and carrying the cart sideways down the slope!
In the thirties the estate with its deer forest, salmon river, home farm and associated activities was the main employer of labour with a full complement of farm workers, dairymaids and cattlemen, shepherds, gamekeepers, gardeners, joiners, housekeepers, support staff, boatmen and fishermen. In the ten years before the last war Applecross enjoyed stability and a measure of prosperity. The independent crofters/fishermen in the little villages with their natural harbours fished for white fish and herring in their season and those who adapted to the wartime demand for herring enjoyed success.
By present day standards and expectations life was hard but families were self supporting and resilient. Limited land availability for the crofters meant that the large families of the time accepted that some of their number had to move from the area to find work. Many emigrated to the Americas and Australasia, following the trend set at the time of the clearances in the early nineteenth century. As then, it was accepted that family members who left home might not be seen again in their native land. It is difficult for those of us used to the cheap and swift air travel of the present day to imagine the combination of stoic acceptance and sadness felt by those victims of change. If you doubt that racial memory lingers on, listen to the Highlander singing the hauntingly beautiful 'Emigrants' Song'. No need to know the language to pick up the nuances in translation:
'We shall get cattle and sheep, We shall get wheat on the fertile plain And the land will not be as dear As the heather of the North'
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Or the Canadian Boat Song with its English but equally expressive sentiments:
'When the bold kindred in the time long vanished Conquered the soil and fortified the keep No seer foretold the children would be banished That a degenerate lord might boast his sheep'
Do not be too surprised if the normally hospitable Highlander scrutinises you carefully when you settle in his country. Only recently a descendant of the Duke of Sutherland (English, as it happens but not alone in his disgraceful dealings with his tenants) was reported as saying about the Sutherland clearances in which, in the last years of the eighteenth century, the Duke uprooted an estimated eight thousand people in a resettlement fiasco, 'Of course, it was done in their best interests'!
Applecross fared better than most places but, as we shall see, did not escape unscathed.
EARLY HISTORY
Much of the information given here was set out in a draft paper understood to have been prepared by a native of Applecross, the late Kenneth MacRae F.S.A. Scotland.
I have been unable to establish why his scholarly work was not finalised and published. It has given me a number of pointers for further study.
The Old Statistical Account of 1792, written, as these accounts were, by the parish minister of the time, calls the name APPLECROSS 'a fanciful designation' and talks about apple trees planted in the shape of a cross by an ancient proprietor. While this may well have happened, the explanation has caused some confusion to the present day.
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The true explanation is that the name was Aber Crossan. It appears in the Annals of Tigheraac as 'Aporcrossan' in the 9th Century Latin.
The peninsula is known by its Gaelic name, 'A' Chomraich', the sanctuary, ever since, in 673, Maelrubha founded his Christian settlement there.
It was logical that the Irish Christians should seek to extend their influence into what was then the southernmost point of Pictish influence in the west of what we now call Scotland.
Columba, who founded the monastery of Iona in 563, is credited with reaching Inverness where he made his peace with the Pictish King Brudei. Some modern scholars now suggest that the influence of Columba in the north has been exaggerated because he was confused with other Christian workers. Be that as it may, it is certain that Maelrubha has been similarly credited with activity over a wide area, with references to his name from Oban to the Outer Isles.
It is likely that the arrival of Maelrubha in Applecross was a natural progression from the ground covered by his Christian predecessors and that the advance of Celtic Christianity into Pictland paved the way for the success of Kenneth MacAlpin's Scots in the ninth century.
Beul-aithris, or folklore, tells us that Maelrubha and his monks landed on the little island off Camusterrach now known as Saint Island. The sea journey from Bangor in Ireland was a long one and, no doubt, once the friendly Christian settlements were left behind the group would have approached with some caution. We can only imagine the circumstances in which the newcomers acquired the fine land between the river and Beinn a' Chlachain.
For some fifty nine years Maelrubha established his monastery and, using Applecross as his base, spread the
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gospel from Applecross to Lochbroom and into Easter Ross. He is notably remembered, among the many place names attributed to him, in Loch Maree where his island there was for many years a place of pilgrimage for those suffering from mental illness. Thomas Pennant who visited the place in 1772 stated that these unfortunates were forced to sip the holy water from the well and then dipped three times in the loch every day for three weeks. The practice was reported to have continued into the nineteenth century with the modification that sufferers were by 1838 being hauled round the island behind a rowing boat. We shall touch on superstitions again under the heading Pagan Applecross.
The district of Strath in Skye has a cemetery called Ashig which MacRae says was formerly Ashigmilruby. Ashig is the Gaelic for ferry and it is believed that Maelrubha built a church there which has long ago disappeared.
