The Pig in the Potato Patch

Written by Alexander Gunn, A Native of Badbea, and published in the Northern Ensign, November 18, 1880

“I stated in the previous paper that we were very fond of shooting. I might also have added that we were expert at the bow. We manufactured bows and arrows, and became great marksmen. We could make a bull’s eye at 60 or 70 yards, and seldom miss". 

Potatoes growing at Newtonmore

"I remember getting into a fix on one occasion while chasing a neighbour’s pig out of a plot of potatoes”.

“I applied my bow and aimed an arrow at him, which struck him in the ribs, and the arrow being shod with tin, it entered the beast’s flesh and stuck there. When the poor animal felt the pain, it made for home with all haste, with the arrow sticking in his side. I saw that I was to be found out if the beast got home in that state, and then the piper would have to pay, so I tried to get up to him, but the more I ran the more and the faster he ran, and it was not till we were within a few hundred yards of the owner’s door that I made up to him, and pulled the arrow out of his flesh, when I assure you both of us were well exhausted and out of breadth. If the poor beast made up his mind “never to go back to yon toon,” I made up mine never to shoot arrows at pigs again".  

Preparing a potato patch was hard work and all done without machinery.

Good healthy potato plants

My Comments:

While this story may seem a bit barbaric it needs to be put in its time and place. A pig in a family’s precious potato plot could do a lot of damage in a very short time. We know the tiny patches of land at Badbea yielded so little and there were so many mouths to feed. There were eleven children in the home of Alexander Gunn – though whether they were all there at the same time I wouldn’t know. Maybe not. But every bit of food was made to account and a potato shortage, for example, when the potato blight hit, resulted in suffering and starvation across Scotland. 

"But in this case clearly the intention was to scare the pig away not kill it, and Alex duly regretted his actions".