Badbea had long supported the family of William
Sutherland but by the early 19th Century he must have been
scratching his head to figure out how more families could survive here.
The Highland Clearances are well documented on-line so I
won’t explain the complex reasons the land use was changing. I have added three
of my personal favourite Clearances websites to my website page.
Three specific historical characters associated with the
clearance of people to Badbea worth mentioning are:
First, Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster who lived in Thurso.
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| A statue of Sir John Sinclair in Thurso |
Sir John was an enterprising man who was very interested in
improving agricultural methods.
Sir John Sinclair and his wife purchased the Langwell estate
in 1788. In 1792, five hundred Cheviot Ewes were brought to Langwell to see if
they would thrive. They were large framed hardy sheep that produced good wool
and meat. Sir John was said to be well meaning and humane in consideration of
his tenants but ‘improvements’ soon turned to ‘evictions.’ Sheep and small
scale tenants were incompatible. Soon part of the plan to farm sheep on
Langwell was to move the tenants from the Berriedale Strath and the Langwell settlements
to coastal settlements, the nearest being Badbea.
The first removal from Langwell to Badbea was one Alexander
Gunn in 1793. By 1802 evictions in Berriedale saw the whole Strath cleared out.
Sir John provided free passage from Glasgow to America for those who wanted it
but most of those who went to Glasgow on seeing the conditions of the ships
wouldn’t board and stayed in Glasgow in poverty.
Second James Anderson.
In 1804 Ausdale was let out as a sheep farm to James
Anderson. Eight families were removed immediately. Some made their way to Badbea without
any shelter to go to while James Anderson built a very fine house for himself
and his family. This house is still used by the head shepherd of Ausdale. This
sheep farm did not do well and Anderson left in disgust after a few years. In
the Obituary of John Badbea Sutherland we learn that his family - mother, Kathrin a widow with five,
possibly six children - was evicted from their home which was stone’s throw from
where James Anderson built his substantial house. Kathrin and her children had no dwelling to go to at Badbea and would have had to build one in a hurry from stones available
on-site. Kathrin Sutherland was a sister to William Sutherland of Badbea so it is likely that William and his sons helped her family gather materials and build a house.
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| Ausdale Farmhouse 2012 |
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| Ousdale 1934. The tree to the right of the Anderson house would have been about the exact location of the home of Widow Sutherland who with her 5 or 6 children was evicted to make room for the new house. |
Third, James Horne is mentioned in the letter below but he
needs to have a separate blog to tell all the stories associated with him. James Horne was a proprietor of Langwell after Sir John Sinclair.
Of the families mentioned below probably about twelve
families settled permanently in Badbea on tiny little plots of land on which
they could scarcely survive and on which they still had to pay rent in ‘cash or
kind’ doing such obligatory jobs as helping with harvesting on the Laird’s
property.
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| The Badbea destination of the evicted. |
In a letter to the Northern Ensign in 1884 Alexander Gunn (not the
same Alexander Gunn evicted as above) has this to say:
EVICTIONS IN BERRIEDALE BY SIR JOHN SINCLAIR
To the Editor of the Northern Ensign
SIR, - Allow me through your valuable columns, to give a
detailed account of the evictions in Berriedale, both by Sir John Sinclair and
by Mr James Horne, his successor. The account of the matter by your
correspondent, “Old Man Narrator,” is not altogether correct. Sir John
Sinclair, who was considered the greatest agriculturist in the country, and who
was a real or honorary member of almost every agricultural society in the three
kingdoms, as well as of several societies on the continent of Europe, was the
first to introduce what were called the “big sheep” to Caithness. The small
sheep or “Kerry,” was the only breed in the country before that time. To make
room for his sheep, Sir John evicted 61 families from the Berriedale straths,
and laid the whole under sheep.
The townships on the Millary or Berriedale straths were
these, viz., Glut,1 tenant; Eskbin,1; Eskmaealmag,1; Haborgue,1; Esknabing,1; Upper Millary,1; Lower Millary,1; Ardachigh,1; Toreshey,1; Duin 3;
Taigh-an-Duin,1; Dalgheamich,2; Knock Feune,1; Ellaw-an Duinag,1; Upper
Borgue,2 – in all 19.
From the Langwell Strath there were evicted from the
township of Inver,5; Knocktorinrectan,1; Elonluisg,1; Capernach,1;
Taigh-an-Asary,1; Ruharigy,1;
Turnal,1 (held by George Gunn who had seven sons, the equal of whom were not
in the country); Taighnault,1; Bardnachie,1; Struan,1; Bualnahaoden,1; Bualtarach,1; Garvary,1; Brainaheaglash,1; Auldnabeath,1; Uag More 1; Uag Bhaig,1; Borgue, Langwell,1 (where my
great-grandfather, who came from Cattag, lived during the proprietorship of
Sutherland of Langwell); Corrag,1; in
all 23.
From the Ousdale district there were evicted from the
township of Ousdale, 9 families: Borgue of Ousdale, 2; Struie, 8; in all 19; giving a grand total of
61.
It is singular that after Sir John had turned out these 61 families, and
occupied their places with his sheep, he began to break up large tracks of
ground on the hill-side to the west of Berriedale, at a place called
Carterfield, and got it under cultivation, having taken several crops of oats
off it. Also at Borgue, Langwell, he brought in a large park, the first turf of
which was cut by Lady Janet, and was known ever after as Park-na-Bainthighearn,
or “Her Ladyship’s Park.” There was also broken up a large square piece of
moor, or moss, to the west of Carterfield. It was planted with curly greens about
Christmas, and, as might be expected, the frosts of winter destroyed every
plant of them. These fields which were broken up and put under crop for a year
or two, instead of being given to the tenants evicted from the straths, were
allowed to fall out of cultivation into grazings for sheep, and a few years saw
them covered with their original heather.
The singular thing is that while by all accounts the Ulbster
family have been the most extensive evictors in the country, as appears from
the recent correspondence in your spirited paper, they were yet looked up to
and esteemed by the whole community. No doubt there were some good traits in
their character, but these were sullied and tarnished by their treatment of
those respectable and happy families that were so ruthlessly driven out of
their comfortable holdings. As stated in some of my previous communications,
when Sir John got his regiment of Fencibles embodied, he got 60 men from
Berriedale, said to be the finest men in the regiment, and yet this was the
treatment they received at his hands.
Your correspondent is also at fault in saying that James
Horne evicted none at Berriedale. Horne evicted 13 families in the township of
Auchencraig. Three families were evicted by him from the Cairn, 4 from Rinsary,
and 6 from Badbea. True, some of these as your correspondent says, got
miserable patches elsewhere on the estate, but so did some of those evicted by
Sir John; but I consider they were entitled to be numbered among the evicted
nevertheless, as they were driven from their comfortable homes without justice
or reason, and the plots on which they were allowed to settle down were not
entitled to the name of land, being bare rocks or black moss, whilst the arable
land they were driven from was given over for sheep grazings.
The Ulster family may well pray to be saved from their
friends, since Mr Logan, who shows great zeal on their behalf , has been the
means of bringing to light matters that had been entirely forgotten, and which
would never appeared before the public but for Mr Logan’s zeal without
knowledge. I would venture to give him a bit of advice for his guidance in the
future, and that is let sleeping dogs lie. – Yours &c.,
Alex Gunn. Glasgow
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| Cheviot ewes and lambs on the Ousdale side of the Badbea stone wall |
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