School House - Rambling Recollections of My Schools and School Days – Article I – Part B

Article I written by Alexander Gunn aka A Native of Badbea was printed in the Northern Ensign on 9 Sep 1880 - Part B

Education - no easy matter

Education in my young days was a very different thing from what it is now. Those living in thinly populated districts found it no easy matter to provide the means of education for their children, and Badbea was no exception to this rule. There were only twelve families in Badbea and they could scarcely be expected to have all the machinery within themselves to educate their children. There were thirteen families in Auchincraig, closely adjoining Badbea; and what neither could do, if left to their own resources, the two combined were able to accomplish. 

The School-house

The school-house was situated to the east, or Badbea side of Auchencraig. It was a dry stone-built house and thatched roof, with an earthen or mud floor, and light was supplied by means of two skylights of ordinary dimensions placed in the roof, a short distance above the eaves, while air was admitted by the door. There were no windows in the side walls of any kind, either for light or air. The dimensions of this bigging, so far as my memory can serve me, would be probably twenty feet by twelve. The fire was in the centre, and the smoke made its exit through a large round hole in the roof, right above the hearth. 

Peat fire

Fuel was supplied by each scholar carrying a peat to school every day under his "oxter." There was a sentry placed on the "peat-neuk" to see that each scholar laid or flung - was was oftenest the case - a peat, a full-sized peat, into the "neuk" and should anyone be found guilty of an attempt to defraud the "neuk" by trying to slip in without his peat, or slipping a half in, instead of a whole, he was forthwith marched up to head-quarters, where his delinquency was rewarded by several "pandies." 

One delinquent of this kind felt the indignity done to him so keenly, and showed such a rebellious disposition, that he declared that he would never bring a peat to school again, and, when reading his first lesson, he gave expression to his feelings in this style: 

 "m-y, my, tha thor me luem fadh; "d-o, do, tha thor me lueme fadh: "m-e, me, tha thor me lueme fadh," and so on.

It required a good big fire to keep the school in proper heat during the winter season, for, as I have already stated, the walls were dry built - not a trowelful of mortar of any kind entered into their composition. The force of the wind was broken by the crevices and joints in the walls being stuffed with dried moss or fog gathered from the roots of the heather on the hillsides. It was forced into the crevices by a bit of wood shaped something like a marling-spike; but in winter the snow-drift found its way into the interior of the house, where it formed into miniature wreaths, and it was no uncommon spectacle to see an urchin standing in this wreath, with his bare feet, during the lesson. 

Bare footed in the snow

Of course he came to school through the snow barefooted, but that did not put him in the least about. Children were very hardy in those days.

A Native of Badbea
(To be continued.) 

My Comments:

• Highland familes placed great emphasis on their children getting educated and worked hard to see that happen.

• The peat-fire picture shows how red-hot the peat could get and yet these fires were still commonly sited on the floor in the middle of a room.

• Alexander Gunn tells in a later blog that this school was for boys only. Girls attended the next school after this one was dismantled.

• I do not think the picture of the boys going to school, by McIan, is likely to accurately depict the boys in the Achnacraig school. Alexander Gunn uses the word 'urchin' which is better, but at least McIan shows the boys carrying their peats, and the leader barefooted in the snow. The next blog confirms the boys wore kilts to school but they were more likely to be plain handwoven garments than tartan. 

• As with many place names in the Highlands, Auchincraig and Achnacraig are two spellings of the same place. 

• Some of this content I have used in a previous blog but to keep this series complete I have repeated it here. 

Peat

The main source of fuel for people living in Badbea, and in fact all of Caithness, was readily available peat. Peat is decomposed vegetation often derived from sphagnum moss, growing in water logged land or peat banks formed several thousand years ago. Dry peat burns long and hot giving out really good heat and some light.

Peat at Badbea

Even today a peat bank is a familiar sight in many parts of Caithness.

Freshly cut peat at Dunnet in Caithness in 2011

Peat cutting was back breaking hard work and involved most members of the community in the summer months of May and June.  If the men were away fishing then the job of cutting and bringing home the peats fell to the women. 

Peat cutting in Orkney. Source Am Baile Facebook

The cutter, using a special tool with a long handle and an angled blade, first stripped the top layer of moor away, then cut neat slices of peat from the face of the bog.

Long handled peat spade at Mary Ann's cottage, Dunnet.

The block of peat was thrown to another person (often a woman) who laid it on the moor or stacked it on end to dry where it was left for a few weeks. 

 Carrying Home the Peat: McIan

There was not even a cart in Badbea according to John Badbea, so when sufficiently dry, the peats would have been taken home on the backs of the women in creels (baskets).  Creels were fastened across the shoulders and chests with a strap leaving the hands free to do other tasks such as knitting while they walked.

At the croft the peats were built into a stack – the design sometimes following local custom. The peat still needed to be left longer to dry before it burned hot and bright.

The one exception to the peats being carried home in creels was for John Badbea, the much loved leader of the Badbea community, who suffered severe health problems as a result of him having had Rheumatic Fever as a child. 

Alexander Gunn describes the occasion:

Another great day with us was the day ‘John Badbea’ got his peats carried home. On such occasions there came horses from Braemore and Houstry to lead worthy John's peats to the stance where the peat stack stood, a little above the house. There was not a road or track by which carts could be used, and the peats were therefore carried in a sort of hamper called "crubags" on each side. It was a sort of four- square thing, about 2 feet 6 inches long, perhaps 2 feet deep, and about 18 inches wide. It was open at both ends, and was slung by a piece of rope fixed to a sort of rude saddletree set on the back of the horse which carried one of these "crubags" on each side. It is surprising what quantity of peats could be packed into a couple of these. There might be 30 or 40 horses engaged in leading the peats on these occasions. Three or four, even six horses were tied to each other's tails, and one person leading them. To us it was a real post of honour to be leading these horses between the stacks and the hill, when those who brought the horses were employed in building the peat stack, or loading the horses at the hill. In this way all the good man's peats were carried to the stance and built up ready for the winter in one day, and all was done gratuitously both the labour of men and horses being given free of charge.

Fetching peats. Source Fraser Darling

Peat fire in the centre of the
 room at Newtonmore

A glowing peat fire at Mary Ann's Cottage, Dunnet.