Fell off the Cliff

The Monument at Badbea

I have mentioned in previous blogs the dangers of the Badbea cliffs. Whether people were minding animals or accessing the caves, the cliffs were perilous.

Alexander Gunn tells of his great grandfather George, and his grandfather John, who both fell over the cliffs to their deaths.

George Gunn was born about 1713 and was of the Cattaig Gunns. George married Janet a daughter or sister of Sutherland of Langwell.

Remains of Caiteag farmstead near Dirlot. The Thurso River is in the background.

George joined the Scots Greys as the 1753 birth record of his son John shows. Janet was in Edinburgh with her husband. Janet had a second son who was named Robert.

The Scots Greys by Thomas Rowlandson

The Royal Scots Greys was a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1707 until 1971. They were mounted on grey horses.

The Scots Greys passed the seven years between the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and 1755 the start of the Seven Years War, moving from station to station within Great Britain. The years passed relatively uneventfully for the regiment. It seems likely that George and his family were with the Scot’s Greys these years.

George left the Scots Greys and took up work in Langwell for Janet’s father, becoming his cattleman. George and Janet lived at the Borgue of Langwell, a ‘cosy nook’ on the south side of the Langwell River. 

George lost his life in 1761 at the age of 48 at Berriedale Head while trying to secure a sheep that had got fixed on the rocks. The ruins of his house and the furrow and rigs were long visible after he died.

Berriedale Heads

What a tragedy. Janet was left with two young sons to raise. At some stage Robert and John went to live at Achnacraig. I don’t know what happened to Janet.

Sheep in a crevice.
The Geograph photographer was able to get this ewe out and she ran off to her lamb.
This photograph illustrates well how difficult it would have been for George Gunn to rescue a heavy and exhausted sheep trapped near the edge of the cliff. One slip and he was gone.

Alexander Gunn tells us:

My grandfather (John Gunn, 1753 – Abt 1836) was 86 years of age when he met his death in the same manner as his father, by falling over the rocks (cliffs) at Badbea.

Badbea Kale yards and cliffs. 1986 her.highland.gov.uk

William Gunn describes him as:  John Gunn of Achnacraig (as he was called) lived to the age of 84 – and at that age still erect although his hair was as snow – was wonderfully active. Like his father, however he came to an untimely end…… The sea was tinged with blood at the spot where he fell, and John, who was respected by all who knew him was taken up dead. Northern Ensign, 24 April, 1884.

John Gunn was climbing up the cliff face with a keg of whisky on his back when he fell on rocks and lost his life. The track up the cliffs from the cave below to the hamlet of Badbea had been cut years prior by his son John Gunn (1787 – 1875). Tying a rope round his body and taking his tools John had cut steps into the rocks. This precipitous route up and down the cliff face was used for years to get to the fishing and to lower or retrieve the goods for making the whisky.

Cliffs at Badbea

My blog on 30 November 2014 discusses the whisky making activities of those at Badbea. In short, the distilling and distribution (smuggling) of whisky was very common in the Highlands at the time. It was one of the few ways desperate crofters could make a little extra income to pay the high rents demanded by the laird.