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.