No 226 KELP BURNERS.

No  226. KELP  BURNING.

        Everyone knows about kelp burning. It was supposed to have made the Lairds rich, and, when it collapsed, so did they. The crofters did the work, the Lairds got the money.

It came into its heyday when Napoleon Bonaparte and the French prevented the import by  the United Kingdom of much needed materials from the Baltic. So Britain had to produce it herself. 

  Kelp actually had many uses for a long time. Our father was oversman for the Kelp burners on Grice Ness of Whitehall in Stronsay when we were there. I remember the kelpers, arguements over whose stint was whose, fist fights now and then, father keeping order as best he could. It was   “a sair weet could dour hard job”, and crofters made a little contribution to their meagre earnings by working at the kelp when the sea weed was ashore, catching it before the next high tide took it all out again. A storm from the right direction brought in the bounty, piled high. It was discovered that soda and potash, important chemicals in the soap and glass industry, could be extracted from burning seaweed into kelp. Iodine, still used by surgeons, could be extracted from seaweed. In Caithness where were these kelp shores?

In the Journal of Peter Campbell of Achnacly there was, dated 1808, a page of payments made to Kelp burners. They were made on behalf of the Freswick Trustee, and I guess Sinclair of Freswick was in Trusteeship because of financial problems which were endemic with most Caithness Lairds. 

Freswick must have had a monopoly on the Caithness Kelp Shores from Dunbeath round to the Haven o’ Warse at Gills Bay, which was in any case the extent of his Estate holdings. Further west the kelp shores belonged to others. Of interest are the names of the burners and no doubt there are descendants still around, the names are familiar enough. The payments were made over a Stamp Receipt - taxation again - which I have omitted from the entries. The names of the payees would have been a foreman on each beach and he would have paid the others working there.

Example was, see below, Malcolm Ross in Duncansbay furnishing articles to the Kelpers of Duncansbay and Stroma.

                       

F.K.Trustee                 Jany 25^th,  1808.

James Corner, Kelpburner, Duncansby. paid him amount of

his acct. for burning Kelp on the Shores of Dunbeath   £6.02.09d

F.K.Trustee

Walter Dunnet & Gilbert Laird, paid them amount of an acct.

for burning Kelp on the Shores  of Duncansbay,

Crop 1807 per acct .                                       £   7.06.08¾d

F.K.Trustee

John Sinclair, Feur in Stroma,  paid him amt of an acct.

for burning Kelp on the Shore of Stroma.

per dischd. acct .                          £ 12.01.02¼ d

F.K.Trustee

Ben: Henderson & Alexr. Ogstone, Feurs in             Duncansbay,

paid them amt. of an acct. for burning Kelp on the Shore of

Duncansbay per discharged acct                  £  9.12.05d

F.K.Trustee

John Manson, Girnell Man, Duncansbay, Cash given him per

Stamp receipt for paying freight of Boats for carrying

50 Bolls of Meal from Duncansbay to Thurso.                           £  2.10.00d

                        25 Jany. 1808.

.Freswick Trustee  paid William Thompson, mason, to acct for building

 the Store House of Duncansbay                 £27.04.03d

25^th Freswick Trustee paid Malcolm Ross, Mrcht in Duncansbay, Junr. of an acct for articles furnished to the Store House  of Duncansbay per discharged acct     .£ 0.16.1¼ d

25^th  F.K’s.Trustee paid William Thompson amount of an acct. for

burning  Kelp on the Shore of Warse, Crop 1807  . £2.10.00d

                       

Febr 16^th

F.K’s.Trustee paid Mr Ben: Calder of Mount Pleasant

the rent of his            Store House in Thurso                         £5.00.00d

Febr 20^th

F.K’s.Trustee paid Malcolm Ross, Merchant in Duncansbay

amount of an acct. for articles furnished the Kelpers of

Duncansbay and Stroma                                         £0.16.06½ d

F.K’s.Trustee paid John Manson, Girnalman at Duncansbay, for wood

& other Material furnished to the Store House of Duncansbay

per particular acct.                                       £16.13.04¼ d

Febr 20^th

F.K’s.Trustee paid John Manson, Girnal-man at Duncansbay

his wages for being Girnal-Man and for other articles furnished                                

to the Store House of Duncansbay per acct. & receipt.            £ 3.16.06d

F.W.Trustee

John Manson, Girnell Man, Duncansbay, Cash given him per

Stamp receipt for paying freight of Boats for carrying

50 Bolls of Meal from Duncansbay to Thurso.                           £  2.10.00d

Freswk paid George Brodie for giving to the Kelper Dunbeath            £ 5.00 00d

I keep in the reference to the Store Houses, both of Duncansbay and the one of Calder of Mount Pleasant in Thurso, though I do not know if they were solely for kelp if at all or for meal or grain. I do know that the kelp in Stronsay had to be safely stored in a building to keep it dry until shipping day. The Girnal of Duncansbay may well have held dry kelp, and Duncansbay of that time was later renamed the present John o’ Groats, not the cliffs.

From 1893 to 1913 in Rousam in Stronsay my grandfather David Pottinger had references in Wm Tait’s Diary of carting kelp for many Rousam Head crofters to the pier for onward shipping, and I think he stored it dry for them in part of the farm steading of The Bu’ of Rousam.

When burnt kelp was a heavy dense product, was only of importance to some, and it is a myth that it kept whole areas in gainfull and profitable employment.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

hi //  if you use this it will be an exercise in setting it all out !!! // will send fotos via Picasa of kelp burners // regards // morris //

The season must have started early as in 1896 Rousam was in the Diary “Apr 14 thur Carting ware to kelpers am - Carting ware to land pm.”

IRON HORSE NEWTONMORE

 

THE IRON HORSE Cottage at Newtonmore. Farm Museum

 

No 225. THE IRON HORSE. pb Groat 07.12.2012.

Many a crofter had a horse in the Barn, or the Stable. No feeding required, it was a British Anzani Iron Horse. I do not know when the Anzani Iron Horse was invented, but it has been around for a very long time now. No doubt there were other makes than Anzani, the Trusty comes to my mind. But it was a crofter’s machine par excellence. The Cub Cadet was another one, more of a very wee tractor.

 There is a good Iron Horse at Mary-Ann’s Cottage at Dunnet which I believe is still in working order. The Cottage is closed for the winter.

One lies at Newtonmore Farm Museum on the road South, well worth a visit in passing in its own right with much else of old farm machinery and bits and bobs. A good restaurant is there too for a quick coffee, or a comfort stop!!

They are to build a large new display shed there to incorporate the  material still in Kingussie Farm Museum, which is now closed to the public. Bob Powell, who is in charge of it all there and at Newtonmore, took me there for a look. Guess what, there was an old, very old indeed, simple threshing mill from Houston’s Mill at John o’ Groats. Saved from the scrap heap, thankfully.

 It had been built by McKidd in Thurso Foundry in 1841, and is by a wide margin the oldest threshing mill I know of. On both sides of it were many names and signatures written with an old joiner’s lead pencil. Difficult to read, faint, but perhaps if scanned with an ultra violet light the names can be brought back to life. I think every one now long gone in Groats must have left their mark. 

Like at Hendrie Geddes Mill in Mey in Feb 14^th 1664, where there was a bit of nonsense with a lassy having her clothes lifted by young Jon Geddes, to the great amusement of others there, Groats Mill must have been a warm and snug meeting place for locals in an evening.  No doubt at all behaviour would have been much better by Houston’s time!!!

Life is well displayed at Newtonmore of days not too long gone, thatched houses, old  implements, a garden plot growing tatties and kale and much else. The illustration shown is of the Iron Horse there.

Vintage Machinery Clubs usually have a few at their Shows, sometimes in their own right, sometimes as an adjunct to a County Show or a Vintage Machinery Show. There is annually one at John o’ Groats..

.

There are still ploughing matches held entirely of Iron Horses at work. I opened up a few on the computer and put on my ear phones to listen to the old sound of working Iron  Horses. Fascinating to watch and a good illustration in its own right of a part of what crofting must have been like yesterday.

  They were very workable on a croft, supplanting a horse or even a cow or two for ploughing. The economics of that was to be able to keep another cow and to have a calf to sell. The cow could provide more milk to make into cheese or butter.

The Iron Horses I have seen mostly had a plough body attached but there were other uses to which they could be adapted. Later ones could be seen with rubber tyres but iron wheels with spade lugs were the ones I remember.

Though I never worked one I think you could add such attachments as a small harrow, a drill ridger, a scuffler. There was one which had a small knife mower across the front, useful enough to cut a patch of hay. And no doubt other makes I cannot recall.

 I remember one that a knacky crofter had adapted to have a small drawbar and he had built himself a wee cairty to pull behind it. Did the job.

They were used by gardeners who sometimes had a small portion of ground in a village or town and worked as a Market Gardener, making a slender living. There was one in Wick just to the Parish Kirk side of where the Norseman Hotel now stands, or possibly the Hotel  now stands on top of it. Danny Morrison’s Bus from Castletown via Barrock, Greenland and Lyth stopped just beside it on arriving at Wick so we could admire the constant changing of the very neat rows of various vegetables, sold on the spot and as fresh as you could get.

.

 I did not know that gardener other than a Hello in passing, but he worked there for a very long time. No doubt some ancient Wicker could put a name to him.

No 224 Peter Campbell Recipes

No 224.  Crofter’s Kitchen.

Concious that a lot of what my Crofter’s Barn articles contains tends to be outdoors, though not all, and equally concious that Christmas is acoming near, I thought I might borrow for the ladies a few recipes from the ledger of Peter Campbell, Crofter and Tacksman  of Achnacly, Brubster, b1764, d1840, bd Reay.

These recipes, though in spare corners of his ancient 70 page ledger, were in a different hand to Peter’s very neat handwriting, and may well have been written by his sister Catherine, b April 1766. Their father was Wm Campbell in Inshes of Brubster, otherwise called Achnacly. He had no daughter called Catharine.

. Muriel Murray, of Castehill Heritage Society, transcribed the recipes for us out of the old Ledger. Sufficiently interested in the content, she is planning, as part of C.H.S.’s  2013 programme of traditional skills workshops, a participative event for aspiring bakers . These recipes and home cures will be put to the test by an accomplished home baker, while the vintage ingredients will be interpreted by a chemist and pharmacist!!    Will the result still be palatable to 21st century taste buds? Go to the CHS website for further details.

Ladies, accompanied of course by their husbands, should not miss this early in the New Year event. I think it may be Master Chef of the Year at Castlehill.!!

I have not tried any of the recipes so cannot as yet offer any conclusions, nor do I accept any responsibilties!! 

 I do remember most of the kitchen pots and pans in use, indeed used some of them myself including the Blacksmith Girdle which we still have.

The black stove illustrated was a miracle in itself, a place for everything and everything in its place!!

 Recipes from Peter Campbell’s ledger.

Lemon Biscuits

1 cup lard

3 eggs

3 cups white sugar

1 pint sweet milk

5 ts  oil of lemon    [ ts =teaspoons ]

3 ts baking amonia [ ts = teaspoons ]

 Put the milk, eggs, oil lemon, baking amonia together in the milk.

Roll Jelly Cake

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour,

3 eggs

1 teaspoonful baking powder

Tea cakes

Two cups of sugar

1 cup butter

1 cup sour milk

½ teaspoon soda

little nutmeg 

roll and cut in Cakes.

Fruit cake

butter, sugar, molasses, sweet milk, each 1 cup.

Currants 4 cups

Raisins 4 cups

4 eggs

2 teaspoonful baking powder

citron ½ lb

two nutmegs

cinnamon to taste. Bake two hours

Chocolate icing

Put into a saucepan half a lb of white sugar, two ounces of grated chocolate and about a gill of water. Stir until the mixture assumes of a thick cream.

A Parsian ?? favorite recipe

5 lb raisins    5 lb dried apples  and 5 gallons of water 

Put all together in a small cask or large earthen jar and let stand uncovered for 3 days, stirring occasionally from the bottom. At the end of that time bottle with half A teaspoonful of sugar and A stick of cinnamon in each bottle. Cork tightly and store in a  cool place.

Cure for dysentery

The egg is considered  one of the best remedies for Dysentery. Beaten up

slightly with or without sugar and swallowed at a gulp, it tends by its

emollient qualities to lessen the inflammation of the stomach and intestines.

Two or at most three eggs per day would be all that is required in ordinary cases.

Burdock Root

2 ounces (Burdock Root) in three pints of water, boiled down to a pint.

Let it cool and drink in the course of 2 days.

Of this tea you may drink about a pint in 24 hours.

To cure consumptive cough

Take three pints rain water,

half [ ½ lb ] pound raisins, chopped fine

3 tablespoonful of flax seed

Sweeten to A Syrup with honey and boil down to A quart.

Add 3 tablespoonsfull of Extract of Anise

Take A tablespoonsfull  eight times A day.

 Untitled     ( No idea what this was for. MP )

 ½ lb Mutton Tallow

1 Ounce of Camphor

1 Ounce Borax

1 Bar Toilet Soap

Paper

 

Onions for croup

Cut them in pieces, stew, fry or boil or bake with a small piece of pork or lard.

and Place A Bag at once upon the chest.

Cut a large onion in thick slices with Sugar Placed Between each slice,

 and as soon as the juices begin to flow…???

To keep eggs

One Bushel quick lime

2 oz salt

½ lb cream of tartar.   Mix

Hair Wash

1 ounce Borax

½ ounce of camphor

Dissolve in 1 quart of Boiling rain water.

Damp hair frequently

So there you have it. Your great great great granny would have done the lot!!

N0 225  THE CROFTER’S BARN.   23^rd Oct, 2012.

Recently I had a visitor in passing from Banff in the Rockies in Canada, Janet MacLeod, a direct descendant of Peter Campbell of Achnacly in Brubster, who died in 1840 and lies in Reay Old Cemetary. Fifth generation. With her were copies of 70 pages of old writing, saved for generations and surfacing last March on the death of her father. The record on one page said

“Robert, Dolly, Barbara, Peter  and Andrewina  sailed

                                from Thurso for America 14^th June, 1848.”

 An all too familiar and sadly frequent story of crofters making their way to foreign lands to seek fame and fortune. Some achieved it.

The 70 copied pages, some very faint and difficult to read, are now with the (Caithness Archive Centre, Tasglann Ghallaibh  -  correction if in time rather than  Highland Archive,)  in Wick Carnegie Library, a gift from Janet to Caithness and a fund of information which will take a goodly bit of digesting, a gold mine for the Family History Society  And others.

 The pages included a long 1700 word three-page letter from the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, written by W.G., QuarterMaster of the 78^th Regiment, to his great friend Peter Campbell, Achnacly. I have given a copy of the letter to the Family History Society for their next Journal issue . W.G. suggests possibly William Gunn, and there were many Gunns in Brubster and the surrounding area then.

 This letter was written by a man in the field, and is not a potted version of Waterloo written by a historian long years later. It is all the more interesting for that. These 70 pages set me off again awandering!!

  Brubster has long intrigued me, another crofting area now empty but easily visited. So I went looking for Achnacly.  It lies in Brubster just over the Bridge across the Forse River and on the lower side of the road towards the Achnacly Leans.  Now R.S.P.B. territory!!!  Achnacly is now roofless, abandoned, a monument to a multitude of long gone crofters.

   There again I found examples of the use of flagstone which I have referred to recently. I wanted for some time to mention the hallans of many a byre where the cattle were tied by the neck all winter. Achnacly supplied me with worthwhile examples though there are still plenty to be found in older steadings.

So I photographed the old byre at Achnacly with the hallans still as straight as ever. Good ones too. Stalls about 6 feet across for two cattle, hallans about four feet high and four feet front to back, embedded into the floor with perhaps half as much again out of sight. At the head of the stalls against the stone walls were the cribs to hold the cattles’ feed.

The floor would have been of flagstones too but by the time of my visit well overgrown with grass, nettles and weeds. Achnacly steading was occupied well after 1848 and on into our own time, though latterly farmed from another homestead near by in Brubster.

 The living room was small with two fireplaces, one at either end, probably two rooms at least. There was just the one dwelling as far as I could make out on a too brief visit, though an outside sleeping building was possible but with no fireplace unless it was in the centre of the room with smoke getting out in the old fashioned manner through a hole in the roof.

  The house fireplaces had square cut flagstone lintels set above them, one large single piece of thick stone set vertically and very load bearing. Chimneys were built into the thick interior stone walls, unlined. There were no gable end fireplaces or chimneys, so I reckon the house would have been very warm and snug with byres or stables at either side of the main dwelling.

 Cupboards of flagstone were built into the walls, shelved. Here and there was a stone nook at floor level, handy no doubt for odds and ends.

I found no sign of a grain drying kiln. Peter Campbell did grow some grain, but not much. He could have had his grain dried by a neighbour.

 Peter’s Cambell’s story emerges from the 70 pages, spead over from 1808 when he was making payments to Kelp-burners all over Caithness  from Dunbeath to Duncansbay and all along the North Coast,  to 1840. It is not my remit at present to look into his life story but quite a bit of Caithness History is in it. Perhaps we will dip into it from time to time, it reflects crofters’ lives of many years ago.

 

THE CROFTER’S BARN.

The versatility of flagstones is quite profound. In days of yore people made use of what came to hand, and in Caithness flagstone was not difficult to find. Crofters in particular made use of many odd bits and pieces, getting over their priceless poverty in their own ways!!

Apart from the ubiquitous drystone dykes other uses but still on field fencing was to put a large flat stone upright into the coping of the dyke. Built well down and embedded into the main part of the dyke, the top protruded about 18 inches above the top of the coping. It had a hole hammered through it, and through the hole a wire was passed, then strained tight. Thus an arrester wire could be put on top of a dry stone dyke without needing wooden fence posts at all. This could only be done with plain wire, barbed wire did not do so well!!  I have never seen barbed wire used, possibly it might be done, but a bit awkward to work with I would think!!!

The best example of these flagstone upstands I know of lies down the Brims Mains road, left hand side as you head towards the sea. Quite old, but still in place on top of very good stone dykes.

Fence posts of flagstones were made. It required a suitable quarry or flagstone beach to provide the right kind of stone, splitting into thicker but narrower lengths than the ordinary flagstone used in flagstone dykes. The best examples I know of are in Tankerness in Orkney, and are still functional. I think some might be in Badryrie a little off the Causeymire Road on the Achavanich to Shepherdstown to Lybster Road. Certainly if one goes the couple of miles over the heathery track to that silent village. You will be well rewarded by the many uses they made there of flagstone. It is a long time since I was there. What I do also remember there, and there are other places too, was the thin flagstones we called shed covers, light enough not to bear too heavily on the roof rafters.

There is a perfect example of such a roof at Willie Mowatt at Burwick in South Ronaldsay. Not just a relic of the past and crumbling into dust, but a functional roof. Under each seam between the shed covers lies a thinner strip to make all waterproof, just as today we roof with slates but with a different overlapping system.

This house was the original residence built by his Caithness Mowatt forebear and great grandfather in 1862. It is now superseded by a newer house, built no doubt as time and money made possible. The old house is part of his Burwick Smiddy complex, preserved in Heritage and well worth a visit from all old blacksmith enthusiasts. And younger ones too!! It is preserved as a blacksmiths and open to visitors.

Willie, honoured with an M.B.E.,  has spent his entire life working the forge and is the last in the line of traditional blacksmiths to do so. Now at the age of 87 (2012) and in his witty and charming way, Willie talks much about the origins of the 'Smiddy' and his memories of a life at the forge. The old house roof also shows an example of a square skylight cut into a shed cover and a pane of glass cemented in place, watertight, no frame, no planning consents needed!! Such a skylight was common enough, many still to be seen on old Stroma houses. The attics of many of these house were so low that you could only enter them bent double, but they slept many a family.

 The square pane of glass, about 12 inches square at most, could also be fitted and sealed with pitch or thick tar, frequently redone. Pitch or tar could also be used to coat and seal the seams between the shed cover flagstones.

Finally, a bit mundane but workable, were flagstone water troughs in the field or at the steading. Thick good quality stone, cut and grooved again as were the water tanks, sealed with a bit of cement or lead if you could get it.  They lasted a long time and some are still around, a bit worse for wear in most cases but memorials to the past.

We can but salute our crofter forbears for their skills.

No 20.  Dry Stone Dyking. The Linkie Hole.

The Crofter many a time made a little money working elsewhere to eke out his few acres. He could usually turn his hand to any task, and frequently he was very good at it.

  Among many jobs dry stone dyking was one. It was a job he could do in his own time, when it suited him rather than the onerous time keeping of harvest when the full squad was needed at yoking time and had to be time kept. This he did too, but dyking he could do on his own time and at his own speed.  Dry stone dyking was, and still is, an art form. Some people are magic, some the dyke might fall down behind them!!  I jest of course!!

 To watch a skilled dyker at work was magic. A stone chosen and measured by eye, lifted and set in the right place, always, no fiddling about to find the right one. His eye would be quite un-erring in choice.

There are so many aspects of dyking that I could not enumerate them all. One that springs to mind was making a Linkie Hole through a dyke. This allowed the shepherd to move the sheep from one field to another, or out onto the rough grass or hill grazing for the night. It was a cheap amd workable gate, easily made, as easily repaired.

The site would be well chosen, preferably where the ground was dry such as on a small rise. Never in a corner of a field, the ground would get too muddy with passing feet.

.

There was an art form also in moving the sheep. The best shepherd was a pipe smoker. He could herd the sheep to the hole, get one old dodger ewe who acted as leader to go through, then stand back, take out his pipe, clean it, fill it, light it, have a few contemplative puffs. Meanwhile the sheep would work away at going through, no pushing or dog barking which only made matters worse and slowed down the whole process, apart from a possible squeeze injury which could at times be fatal.   Lambs followed their own mothers through in turn.

A fag smoker was no use as a shepherd, no time, too quick, too pushy!!! My apologies to all fag smoking shepherds, I only speak from my own experiences!!! .

The Linkie Hole was about three feet wide, four feet high, good stone buildt on either side wall to withstand the brushing of many ewes going through. Small stones were of no use, good solid stones had to be chosen with square corners. Some Linkie Holes had flagstones set into the sides which protected the dyke from the erosion of many sheep brushing past. A lintel stone capped the hole, then it was bult over the top to run with the rest of the dyke. A not too heavy half sized thinnish flagstone did service as a door or gate, set aside when open, set across when not. There was usually two posts behind which the flagstone sat to save it from falling over and protect it from smashing.  Alternative to the posts was a heavier flagstone, half the height and which was leant against the big one when in place. It usually did well enough.

Another treat in dyke building, quite unusual , is to be found between Lyth Cossroads and Hastigrew, Barrock Mains and left side of the road.

Every 25 yards of the coping approx there is a rectanguklar block which is about 18 inches long and 12 inches high. Well chosen stones, square built, laid flat. A heavy stone is set vertically against either end, continuing then into the coping.

I was challenged long go to tell what it was. Not a measuring point for ploughing starts, the field ran the other way anyway. At the time I did not know, had not in fact seen them.

As any one who has built a dyke knows too well, getting coping stones to sit upright at first till you get going is not easy, especially with thin stones. the top of the dyke usually has flat tabling stones to set the coping upon, butted tightly edge to edge.

On these Barrock Mains blocks a dyker could set up two of these blocks 25 yards apart, which were secure in themselves. Then, starting from each end, he could place his coping between the two blocks to meet in the centre, at which point he could hammer drive in his final stone as a wedge. The 25 yards length gave sufficient grip that a section of coping could stand on its own between the blocks and not rely on other stones to keep them upright. That section of dyke was built long, long ago, 150 years at least. It still stands as good as new.

THE CROFTER’S BARN. pb 12.10.2012

  The versatility of flagstones is quite profound. In days of yore people made use of what came to hand, and in Caithness flagstone was not difficult to find. Crofters in particular made use of many odd bits and pieces, getting over their priceless poverty in their own ways!!

Apart from the ubiquitous drystone dykes other uses but still on field fencing was to put a large flat stone upright into the coping of the dyke. Built well down and embedded into the main part of the dyke, the top protruded about 18 inches above the top of the coping. It had a hole hammered through it, and through the hole a wire was passed, then strained tight. Thus an arrester wire could be put on top of a dry stone dyke without needing wooden fence posts at all. This could only be done with plain wire, barbed wire did not do so well!!  I have never seen barbed wire used, possibly it might be done, but a bit awkward to work with I would think!!!

The best example of these flagstone upstands I know of lies down the Brims Mains road, left hand side as you head towards the sea. Quite old, but still in place on top of very good stone dykes.

Fence posts of flagstones were made. It required a suitable quarry or flagstone beach to provide the right kind of stone, splitting into thicker but narrower lengths than the ordinary flagstone used in flagstone dykes. The best examples I know of are in Tankerness in Orkney, and are still functional. I think some might be in Badryrie a little off the Causeymire Road on the Achavanich to Shepherdstown to Lybster Road. Certainly if one goes the couple of miles over the heathery track to that silent village. You will be well rewarded by the many uses they made there of flagstone. It is a long time since I was there. What I do also remember there, and there are other places too, was the thin flagstones we called shed covers, light enough not to bear too heavily on the roof rafters.

There is a perfect example of such a roof at Willie Mowatt at Burwick in South Ronaldsay. Not just a relic of the past and crumbling into dust, but a functional roof. Under each seam between the shed covers lies a thinner strip to make all waterproof, just as today we roof with slates but with a different overlapping system.

This house was the original residence built by his Caithness Mowatt forebear and great grandfather in 1862. It is now superseded by a newer house, built no doubt as time and money made possible. The old house is part of his Burwick Smiddy complex, preserved in Heritage and well worth a visit from all old blacksmith enthusiasts. And younger ones too!! It is preserved as a blacksmiths and open to visitors.

Willie, honoured with an M.B.E.,  has spent his entire life working the forge and is the last in the line of traditional blacksmiths to do so. Now at the age of 87 (2012) and in his witty and charming way, Willie talks much about the origins of the 'Smiddy' and his memories of a life at the forge. The old house roof also shows an example of a square skylight cut into a shed cover and a pane of glass cemented in place, watertight, no frame, no planning consents needed!! Such a skylight was common enough, many still to be seen on old Stroma houses. The attics of many of these house were so low that you could only enter them bent double, but they slept many a family.

 The square pane of glass, about 12 inches square at most, could also be fitted and sealed with pitch or thick tar, frequently redone. Pitch or tar could also be used to coat and seal the seams between the shed cover flagstones.

Finally, a bit mundane but workable, were flagstone water troughs in the field or at the steading. Thick good quality stone, cut and grooved again as were the water tanks, sealed with a bit of cement or lead if you could get it.  They lasted a long time and some are still around, a bit worse for wear in most cases but memorials to the past.  We can but salute our crofter forbears for their skills.

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THE CROFTER’S BARN. pb 12.10.2012

  The versatility of flagstones is quite profound. In days of yore people made use of what came to hand, and in Caithness flagstone was not difficult to find. Crofters in particular made use of many odd bits and pieces, getting over their priceless poverty in their own ways!!

Apart from the ubiquitous drystone dykes other uses but still on field fencing was to put a large flat stone upright into the coping of the dyke. Built well down and embedded into the main part of the dyke, the top protruded about 18 inches above the top of the coping. It had a hole hammered through it, and through the hole a wire was passed, then strained tight. Thus an arrester wire could be put on top of a dry stone dyke without needing wooden fence posts at all. This could only be done with plain wire, barbed wire did not do so well!!  I have never seen barbed wire used, possibly it might be done, but a bit awkward to work with I would think!!!

The best example of these flagstone upstands I know of lies down the Brims Mains road, left hand side as you head towards the sea. Quite old, but still in place on top of very good stone dykes.

Fence posts of flagstones were made. It required a suitable quarry or flagstone beach to provide the right kind of stone, splitting into thicker but narrower lengths than the ordinary flagstone used in flagstone dykes. The best examples I know of are in Tankerness in Orkney, and are still functional. I think some might be in Badryrie a little off the Causeymire Road on the Achavanich to Shepherdstown to Lybster Road. Certainly if one goes the couple of miles over the heathery track to that silent village. You will be well rewarded by the many uses they made there of flagstone. It is a long time since I was there. What I do also remember there, and there are other places too, was the thin flagstones we called shed covers, light enough not to bear too heavily on the roof rafters.

There is a perfect example of such a roof at Willie Mowatt at Burwick in South Ronaldsay. Not just a relic of the past and crumbling into dust, but a functional roof. Under each seam between the shed covers lies a thinner strip to make all waterproof, just as today we roof with slates but with a different overlapping system.

This house was the original residence built by his Caithness Mowatt forebear and great grandfather in 1862. It is now superseded by a newer house, built no doubt as time and money made possible. The old house is part of his Burwick Smiddy complex, preserved in Heritage and well worth a visit from all old blacksmith enthusiasts. And younger ones too!! It is preserved as a blacksmiths and open to visitors.

Willie, honoured with an M.B.E.,  has spent his entire life working the forge and is the last in the line of traditional blacksmiths to do so. Now at the age of 87 (2012) and in his witty and charming way, Willie talks much about the origins of the 'Smiddy' and his memories of a life at the forge. The old house roof also shows an example of a square skylight cut into a shed cover and a pane of glass cemented in place, watertight, no frame, no planning consents needed!! Such a skylight was common enough, many still to be seen on old Stroma houses. The attics of many of these house were so low that you could only enter them bent double, but they slept many a family.

 The square pane of glass, about 12 inches square at most, could also be fitted and sealed with pitch or thick tar, frequently redone. Pitch or tar could also be used to coat and seal the seams between the shed cover flagstones.

Finally, a bit mundane but workable, were flagstone water troughs in the field or at the steading. Thick good quality stone, cut and grooved again as were the water tanks, sealed with a bit of cement or lead if you could get it.  They lasted a long time and some are still around, a bit worse for wear in most cases but memorials to the past. We can but salute our crofter forbears for their skills.

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sleet on my window flagstones

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flagstone Bink at The Corr.

 

Flagstiopne Bink at The Corr.

 

No 214 The Flagstone Bink.

No 212. The Flagstone Bink.

Such a Caithness speciality, the flagstone bink. Well, not really pertaining solely to Caithness, though we might claim such. They were designed many thousands of years ago by an old Orkneyman living at Skara Brae in Orkney, whose name I have forgotten, and have stood the proverbial test of long time.
There was no old Caithness croft without one, used for so many handy tasks. Nor any other old farmhouse either.
The bink stood outside every farm dairy, a handy table or ledge useful to set the milk pails on before opening the door. Set cheeses on them to set or drain, milk pails new washed set out upside down to dry in the fresh air, cheeses set out to drain and dry, and develope the salt rubbed skin which became rind which kept a farmhouse cheese eatable for a year if need be.
Innumerable other dairy tasks as well, far too many to think of enumerating them.
Made of flagstone, binks did not rot nor fall victim to woodworm or dry out, nor fall apart in the sun as wooden shelves did outdoors. You could even sit down on one for a rest.

Though the dairy had pride of place in my memory, flagstone binks were also found outside the kitchen door of most croft houses and cottages, and many larger ones too. The flagstone bink lasted for ever as Skara Brae well shows, and is still sitting there in many an old roofless and ruined croft house of which Caithness has all too many.]
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Two flagstones were bedded upright in the ground. Sometimes low drystone walls. A dressed or squared length of flagstone was laid across them to make a table. The edges were often just the natural seams of the rock bed, though some were saw cut. They might be sometimes as lifted from the quarry bed, or off the beach. The natural seams were spectacularly good anyway, actually lasting longer and better than a sawn edge as they did not flake with time.
Who today knows just how much Caithness flagstones were used, not just in our own locality but over a great spread of country and reaching far back into antiquity. Castlehill Flagstones went to San Francisco in America, to Sydney in Australia, over much of the still United Kingdom!! . An old map of 1778 of Castlehill drawn by James Aberdeen, Surveyor, shows down on the ebb “Flagstones can be got here”, and when the tide is out the bedrock still shows anyone passing by how easy it was to win flagstones from the beach, the natural seams well shown.
. James Traill would have been about 20 years of age by the date of the 1778 map and Castlehill had just been taken over from Murray of Clardon by his father Dr George Traill of Hobbister in Sanday in Orkney about that date, and by then Minister of Dunnet.
. The map shows the new if tentative layout of the new farm of Castlehill, which work was completed nearly to the old map if not quite. Map making had come a long way by 1778 from the rougher maps of General Roy made in the years just after Culloden in 1746. He surveyed almost the whole of Scotland and his historic surviving maps are still worth a look. He helped to developed a better theodolite in the years after his survey which, though still basic, led to better ones as time moved on.

The layout of Castlehill House, the farm buildings and squared boundaries of the new fields are shown. Indeed the larger general map shows the whole area. It can be seen at Castlehill Heritage Centre. Castletown and Castlehill were almost certainly the first farmlands improved by James Traill though he led the way in laying out much land in Caithness into new farms, clearing many cottars and crofters in so doing. A hard man nonetheless.
The Traills eventually owned the Greenland and Ratter Estate, the Dunnet Estate, Castlehill Estate and much other land.

James Traill would have been a keen young man of 20 in 1778 and, as his father Dr George Traill was the Minister of Dunnet, James would almost certainly have taken over the management of their lands at an early age, never looking back.

That map and farm improvements was well before Traill developed his extensive Flagstone Industry, shipping flagstones about 1828 from his new built harbour. No doubt by then living at Castlehill, he would see the potential of the flagstone beds in the ebb below the house.

Among a myriad of uses of flagstones it also had everyday use within the Crofter’s house, and many a larger farmhouse too. Many a kitchen had a flagstone shelf beside the sink, many had a larder with flagstone shelves as well, cold and long lasting. We had a large outdoor larder at Isauld which we later incorporated and extended into a garage for the house. Some of the flagstone shelves are still there tucked in against the wall.

I have a photograph of a flagstone bink at The Corr, Latheron, recently sold to an enthusiast who intends to restore the thatched roofs and much else. Good luck to him.

No 213 The Wee Budgie.

 

A wee budgie in a cage, a constant companion of a crofter.

No 213.

There was in my youth neither croft nor cottage that did not have a cage with a budgie or a canary. Some had more than one. Some had fancier birds, tropical ones taken home by some sea-farer on a wind-jammer from far away places. A visitor would be greeted with a song or two, magical music indeed. Sometimes the wee bird would just have a ball all on its own for no reason at all, just feeling good. It was a constant companion for many an old buddie sitting beside the peat fire, no longer fit enough to go far out the door but still in many cases as mentally bright as ever, still good for an after-day-set. A wee dram or a drop of homebrew on a visit was very much accepted too, or just a cup of hot sweet tea if you liked that better!!.

The cage would be religiously tended, water renewed daily in a small drinker, fresh bird seed in a tray, the cage cleaned out as need be. Small carran or runch seeds from under the theshing mill did just as well for feeding, and cost nothing.
I remember a few specials. Head of the list was “Cheep Cheep”,. an unfledged sparrow chick that fell out of a nest on the farm with my sister Anne in Aka Aka in New Zealand. We were introduced to it on our first visit there in 1978. Anne’s son Stuart took it under his care, housed it at first in a box lined with cotton wool to keep it warm, fed it with small bits of bread soaked in milk whenever the wee thing cheeped. Which was often!! Hence the name.
Stuart brought it up to become a handsome fully fledged flyer, even if it was a humble sparrow.
A cage was there for it but it was often allowed full range in the room, settling on ones head sometimes with rather spectacular results!!! Beat Brylcream hands down!!! Cheep Cheep lived for ten years, a ripe old age for a sparrow.

It was followed after its decade by a budgie which we saw on our next visit to New Zealand in 1993. The budgie was taught by my brother-in-law Sandy Muir to deliver a very good wolf whistle. Once when Sandy had badly damaged his leg and the District Nurse was there to dress the wound, she, a mid aged and buxum lady I believe, was bending down to her task over Sandy in a shortish skirt. Budgie let out an his outrageous wolf whistle, particularly well timed, I believe. A never to be forgotten moment of high merriement. The nurse, a single lady, once she had recovered her composure, said she had never been so well whistled in all her life, and had indeed been rather giving up hope!!!

In Australia in January 2006 with brother David in Pemberton in the South West corner of Western Australia we were visiting for dinner a nearby friend of his. He had a splendid parrot. At dinner I thought someone was mocking something I had just said. Indeed it was so, sounded like a tape recording it was so exact. It was the parrot, capable of the most extreme mimicry, both words and accent. And the bird kept on mocking or repeating someone every now and then throughout dinnrer. I never heard the like.

In Stronsay there were many wee cage birds of one kind or another. We were however never allowed one for ourselves. There was always some little birdling that fell out of a nest, most were seen to by the farm cats, some we took indoors in an attempt to raise it to aduothood, we never quite managed !!
What we did have was small wild ducks, usually mallard, captured at St Peter’s Loch next the old Cemetary down by the beach. I know, we should not have taken them, but we were boys. Sometiimes a mallard (stock duck) nested and hatched up in a stack in the cornyard, the wee hatchlings falling to ground. This they survived, light enough to survive the fall, but if left there on the ground the farm cats would take care of them.
So we had small hutches of chicken wire usually used or rearing chickens, but pressed into service for our orphaned ducklings. Our success rate was mixed, but the main enemy was rats who burrowed under the cage and destroyed our little friends all too often.

Breeding cage birds was a pasion with many people, as still it is. Bird shows, classes for caged birds at the local Island Show in all their many different breeds, fierce competition for the top prize, Caithness Shows too.
Criticism of the judge of course who was always totally blind to the wonderful attributes of a particular bird of some competitor. Or else was over friendly with the eventual winner’s wife!!!
The range of birds to be seen was spectacular, and still is today.
But, in spite of all the spectacular plumage of the exotics. the wee canary in the crofter’s kitchen is still my favourite

bere hummeller

 

No 212. Bere Hummeller.

 

No 212. Hummelling bere.

No 212. The Crofter’s Hummeller.
The crofter’s flail left the bere ( a Nordic barley) with awns still attached in large part. Early threshing mills had no hummellers but as they developed incorporated a built in awner called a hummeller. On a croft with no such mill available the task was just hard work. The quantities would be small enough at any one time but still had to be done. By 1878 G.W.Murray of Banff Foundry had designed and built a mill with built in hummellers. I have found no reference to a hummeller before 1870.

The simple hand mills a crofter would have would thresh the grain but would not remove either the chaff or the awns, so hummelling the bere was required. So a hand held hummeller was used, be the farm large or small.
Hummelling is of Nordic or Northern Scottish derivation, with a similar root to the hummelled cow that became the Aberdeen Angus Breed, denoting hornless or smooth.

Many hand hummellers were made of iron by local blacksmiths and varied much in size and design. Some could be said to be artistic depending on the whim of the blacksmith. I have seen a round one but it was a long time ago, I think on a croft on Rousam Head.

The hummeller had a short wooden “T” handle like a spade’s which was mounted vertically over a square or round frame by two or four curving supports which extended up to the central socket and shank. Each frame contained a number of thin verticle parallel bars up to 2 inches apart, overall size approximately 10 inches each way. Round frames were uncommon. Some frames were hinged so they could be used from the side or on a sloping pile of barley, being struck downwards more like the flail rather than punched downwards Heavier work than the simpler square one but reaching farther over a heap of bere.
To increase the number of cutting edges some hummellers were made with bars each way which formed a grid of intersecting blades, but I never saw one such. Again these took a great deal more in the making, but very effective.

The hummelling tool was brought down in a stamping motion upon the grain, turning it left or right with the “T” handle to cover the heap.
Bere would be laid thinly on a wooden floor, or sometimes heaped against a wall. Flagstone floors were not used as it would have damaged the grain for the malting process entailing sprouting the bere on the floor after soaking in a sack for a day in a pond. A small wooden platform laid on the flagstone or earthern floor would do the trick, to be set against the wall when not in use.

The heap of grain would then be stamped until all the awns had been broken off. Collected up with a wide wooden curved shovel or scoop, the grain would be thrown up into a draft of air outdoors to blow the awns away. Rather like panning for gold in Kildonan!!!
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If one was available it would be put through a fanners to separate the awns and the chaff from the bere. The work was very demanding.
A heavier roller type hummeller appeared in the late 18th or early 19th century which comprised a circular drum of varying length and diameter containing up to twenty or so horizontal blades slotted around the periphery. The heavyish drum revolved around an axle held within an iron handled frame, and relied on its weight to cut the awns as it was pushed and pulled over the heap of barley.
Although more expensive it required less physical exertion and proved popular in many parts of the country. Blades were sometimes added forming a latticed cutting edge in much the same way as the upright version.
In the Parish of Canisbay brewing was a long established custom and in their Church Session Records of 1652 to 1666 there were innumerable references to brewing. The granite hummeller I found in Cannisbay could well have been used in the Parish as per the Session Records, but I am not saying that one was!!
Under the Rev Wm Davidson, Minister there from 1652 to 1666 when he was translated to Birsay in Orkney, many Parishoners were before the Session to be punished for various drinking misdemeanors on the Sabbath.
In Nov. 1652 “Helene Ham & Issobel Southerland delate for selling drink in tyme of sermone. Hendrie & Donald Liell delate for drinking and tulzeing on the Lord's day. Dod Liell, elder in Cannasbey, delate for drying malt on the Sabbath day”
In Dec 1657 “ Alex Rosie delate for goeing to ye parish of Dunnett on ye Sabbath and craveing moneys, taking Jon Owman back wt him to Mey and drinkeing in ane ailhous and wald not come to ye kirk; lykewise, for carrying aqua vite on another Sabbath, was referred to ye Justice Court”.
In 1658 “The brousters in Mey, being charged for selling of drink on ye Sabbath day, compeired Adam Seaton & Jon Sinclair and enacted themselves, if ever ther wer drink sold in ther houses on ye Sabbath, or any of themselves fund drunk or drinking on ye Sabbath in any houss, they sall pay £5 Scotts and stand in sackcloath. But they were tolerated to give drink and lodgeing to strangers.”

So hummelling bere was a long establshed custom in Caithness, at least in Canisbay.!!!

ploughing at Orquil

 

No 211. Pirn Whatnot.

No 211. Pirn Whatnot.

No 210
. Pirn Whatnot.

Nothing was ever wasted on a croft, so what to do with a wooden pirn when the thread was finished. As boys we cherished them and whittled them into very useful spinning tops, each pirn making two by cutting with our pocket knives into the centre.
At Kirbister Farm Museum in Birsay in Orkney there is an example of crofter’s shelving using pirns as decorative spacers. Different pirns, different colours, different styles. A couple of short bits of driftwood planks off the beach did for shelves. With a hot poker bore holes in the wood, pinch some fisherman’s twine for the hangers. Different thread maker firms made many different styles of pirns, works of art really. Coates of Paisley comes to mind, Patons, many others. Shelves were not the only things made, and the artistic bent of many a crofter found expression in many imaginative ways.

So too did his wife. No piece of cloth or knitting was ever “done” and thrown away. A knitted woollen garment would be patiently unravelled, the wool wound into a ball and reknitted into something else. A worn elbow or wrist or neck would be re-knitted. I got my favourite 40 plus year-old Norwegian ganser re-done by a very patient and generous retired lady in Thurso who un-did and re-knitted the worn cuffs, under-chargeing me by a mile for her work!! . Better than new, she used a very heavy thick black wool to match the old. New leather patches sewn onto the worn elbows too

Quite proud of it I am, and it is still my favourite garment. Great and extremely comfortable for travelling round the World, which it has done a couple of times.

While wearing it in the Auckland Museum in New Zealand in December 1993 I was accosted by a charming lady who asked me in Norwegian which I do not speak if I came from Norway. I really thought my luck had turned!! She was actually a Hollander but had spent many good years in Oslo in Norway with her husband who was in the Dutch Diplomatic Service.
The silent secret of ganseys was in their infinite patterns which allowed recognition of the wearer when many miles from his home village, even sadly a fisherman who might be found drowned who had been lost in some disaster at sea.
Though his remains would many a time be unrecognisable his family pattern ganser would survive and tell who he was or from which fishing village he had come.
The old Viking and Icelandic name was and still is “ganser”, so perhaps the name “gansey” really is of Nordic origin. The Channel Island of Guernsey reputed to be the origin of Gansey - which I do not hold - was peopled by Normans of Viking ancestry anyway, so what’s in a name. A jersey that opened all the way down is called a “troike”.
I discovered this when I held open a lift door for an elderly gentleman on crutches in the Park Hotel in Voss in Norway where our sister has lived long time, since January 1959 actually. I spoke to him in English which almost all Norwegians speak fluently so no language problems. He was one of four brothers who had gathered from all over Norway for their mother’s 100th birthday. Good company.
On a very fast and large pasenger catarman on the way South from Bergen to Haugesund I also met an Icelandic couple who verified the name as ganser, used by them in Iceland too.

Rag rugs come to mind. Bits of cloth or old knitted garments were cut and stiched into a rag quilt or blanket, very warm and long wearing. They could be extremely attractive, a stylish pattern emerging as bits became available and were woven or stitched into the whole. Took some time too. When a crofter’s wife came to the door asking if there were some worn or old garments she could get, she was not begging in any way. It was the times we lived in long since, nothing wasted or thrown away which was anathema to our forebears. Cuffs were turned, collars too if attached to a shirt. Dungarees patched time after time, patches on top of patches sometimes.
The throw-away society had not yet been invented where we dump more than we use.

I remember some bits being put aside in case old Betsy might call sometime.
If you went to her house she would always have something or other doing, never idle.. Knitting, stitching, mending socks, paring tatties for tomorrow, washing clothes in the old tub, ironing, hard at work from morn to night.
Making mash for the hens, tatties peeled for tomorrow, boiling tatties for the pig, scraps for the dog. And bringing up the bairns too!!
It is in retrospect a miracle how these crofters lived, but they did.
And many a one lived a long life with never a day at the doctor.