A very brief look at life in the Sutherland our ancestors knew

Most families in the parishes of Sutherland had a little land, and while some families were mere cotters or craftsmen, the majority constituted families with enough land to provide their main livelihood. Their attachment to the land was deep and strong.  They were a hardy and insular race, a mix of Norse and Gael. They mostly spoke Gaelic and those few who did understand English spoke it grammatically, though with the accent peculiar to most of the northern Highlanders.

Although sturdy and hardened by adverse conditions, because of poor living, they were ill nurtured and small in physique.  Statistics of prisoners captured in 1745 reveal that the average Highlander was only 5 feet 4 inches tall.

They were isolated from the outside world, by not only its indifference to them, but also the problem of communication created by their strange language. There was also the difficult transport problem until 1819 there was not a single road in the county.

Life in the parishes of Sutherland was very hard. The people were quiet, kindly and devout. The Statistical Account of Sutherland written in 1799 suggests that they were lazy – “much more inclined to idleness than to industry”.  Mr William Keith, Minister of Golspie parish, wrote . . . . “There are some instances of longevity, well might they live long, insofar as little labour, wholesome food, and the best of air, tend to prolong life”.

Sutherlanders were mostly very poor people. They were scattered across the parishes in tiny clachans, in huddled communities, small townships. They were extremely frugal, content with little, with their poor food, clothing and housing. Having never known many material comforts or possessions, they did not set any value on acquiring them. The small tenant had no lease and as the land was never to belong to him there was little incentive to improve it.

There was little money in circulation at this time and the problem of providing for the poor was always a difficult one. Harvests often failed and every spring, beggars would roam the country in search of food. As each parish was supposed to look after its own destitute and sick, badges were given to those individuals who, in the opinion of their local Kirk sessions, were entitled to beg.  In February 1741 the Presbytery of Dornoch minutes included: “Considering that the poor ought to be provided for against the approaching season of scarcity therefore in order there to agree to employ some workman to make badges for the poor of the respective parishes and that thereby they may be provided for within their own parishes and confined to them”.

The year 1782 was a disastrous one for the crofters. Severe weather in spring delayed the preparation of the ground and the sowing of the seed and, in the autumn, snow fell before the late harvest was gathered. In Sutherland, a great many cattle perished for want of fodder and by April of the following year, the people’s own food supplies were finished. Six thousand bolls of barley and rye were sent to relieve the situation.

In 1799, the rent for a small croft was between 4 shillings and 12 shillings a year. The rent would been paid to either the Countess of Sutherland, the largest landowner, of four lesser landlords who together owned the whole county. The landlord required the utmost submission from his tenants, Indeed, if you were a tenant of the Countess of Sutherland you had to ask her permission to marry!

A great many people in the parishes called themselves tradesmen, and at times they did work at their crafts as weavers, tailors, shoemakers, smiths, carpenters, coopers, etc.  However, they were all farmers first and craftsmen second. The many small communities of Sutherland struggled to live self-sufficiently on the resources of their immediate environment.

Stack of Peat

A crofter would have to build his own house and the many outbuildings, which even a small croft required. The walls consisted of stone (probably dry stone) to a height of two or three feet, surmounted by three to four feet of feal (turf); the roof was either a thin layer of wood or thatched with divot. There was no chimney and often no window, only a door. Inside the house usually contained three compartments, In the middle was the living room with a blazing peat fire filling the house with smoke. On the one side of this middle compartment was the sleeping room, and on the other the byre. This type of housing continued to be used until very late in nineteenth century when improvements began to be made and a more cottage style of house came into being.

All families in the parishes grew oats, barley and potatoes. From 1758 potatoes had become a principal part of the diet of the Highland people. By 1799 they were the chief subsistence during at least four months of the year. They grew vast quantities. They also had butter, cheese, milk and those on the coast had fish. Those who could afford to sometimes ate mutton and beef.

Most families kept at least one dairy cow to provide milk, cheese and butter. The herds of black beef cattle, which the Highlands specialised in, proved meat, leather and tallow. They also provided animals to pay over to the landlord as rent in kind. Some families may have kept a horse for the pulling of the plough and the carrying of the turfs but many did not. The wooden plough would also have been made at home. Most families also brewed their own beer and distilled their own whisky.

Their fuel was peat which they cut from an adjacent moss, a labour that took much of the summer and many hands. Usually supplies were conveniently near but the lack of roads meant that much time and labour went into transporting them from moss to croft. They would also gather and cut into stakes, moss fir, which gave a strong, though not a clear light, in winter nights. One crofting family would require some 18,000 peats per year! To have a large tidy peat stack situated beside the house was not simply a symbol of security against the coming winter but a source of family pride.  (Adapted from Murray Families of Sutherland, C F Stokes 1997)

Take a minute to look at some photographs of our beloved Sutherland

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