Close to the Grey Hen’s Well were several settlements, one
named Badbea, still accessible via a walking track. More on Badbea later. In
1901, David Sutherland, a descendant of a Badbea family, now living in New
Zealand, visited Badbea and decided to build a monument from stones of ruined houses
now long empty. Names of previous Badbea inhabitants were inscribed on panels
on the walls of the monument.
In 1912 there was a gathering of over 100 people of
neighbouring clansmen, and others, to unveil the monument.
There are two lengthy newspaper reports of this function one
of which tells of the relationship between the Grey Hen’s Well and the people
of Badbea.
THE MEMORIAL CAIRN AT
BADBEA
AN INTERESTING
UNVEILING CEREMONY
“THE MEMORY OF THE
JUST IS BLESSED”
NOTES ON A VANISHED
HAMLET AND ITS INHABITANTS
(Special Report)
Halfway between Berriedale and Ousdale going south to
Helmsdale, on the left hand side is a wire fence. Close beside the road are
steps by which one gets over the fence. Before coming to these steps is a well
or spring of clear water. This well is called
the Grey Hens Well. It is sometimes called the wishing well and used frequently
to supply water to a small township about to be described.
It was from the well beside the fence runs a path which at
length comes to a gateway through which one goes, and at once there opens on
the view a wild and unexpected scene. On the right hand runs a rough wall, five
feet high, which extends for several miles.
Between this wall and the sea are the remains of rough patches of
cultivated land, in some places running to the edge of the precipices which
here are of a great height. Close to these patches are the ruins of a number of
houses. Behind where the houses are a rugged hillside, interspersed with
innumerable boulders of rough grey and red granite with patches of brown
heather in between. A small and picturesque burn divides the locality into two
distinct portions.
Not far from this burn has just been erected an impressive
memorial cairn on the site of the ruins of one of the houses. The cairn
recently completed has been erected on
the site of the residence of a distinguished and pious man who lived there, and
is intended to commemorate not only this man, but also the other natives or
residents in the locality who are mostly now all passed away, and their
descendants scattered over many parts of the earth.
There is a nearer access from the Ousdale side coming
Northward, for upon coming about a mile from Ousdale there is seen a
rough-roadway track on the right hand side by which one arrives in a few
minutes near to the head of the burn already referred to, called the Badbea
burn, and the township is called Badbea.
John O Groat Journal 08.11.1912
The rest of the report will follow in a later post. I have the scanned image of the original article but it is not really good enough quality to post.
Source photo: Sutherland, Alex, Sutherlands of Ngaipu, A H & A W Reed, 1947, Wellington. There
is a better photo of this event in the Johnston Collection. http://www.johnstoncollection.net Index Number JN22073B019
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