Wander West Ardnamurchan

People have lived on Ardnamurchan since Mesolithic times, over 10,000 years ago.  When people first arrived here, they were nomadic, moving along the coast in small groups and never staying in the same place for long.  At this time, they lived in caves or simple shelters, were hunter-gatherers, and had simple tools made from bone, antler or stone. 

Later in the Neolithic era, around 6000 years ago, people started living a more settled lifestyle, building more permanent homes using wood, and farming the land. They grew basic crops such as oats and barley, and kept animals, including cattle, sheep and pigs.

You can see evidence of these Neolithic people on Ardnamurchan today.  There are stone structures, such as burial mounds, cairns, and standing stones at Greadal Fhinn, Camas nan Geall and Swordle.  These were built thousands of years ago as part of some form of religious observance, suggesting a belief in an afterlife.

Archaeologists have also found tools, ornaments and weapons from the Bronze Age and Iron Age on Ardnamurchan, dating from around 4000 years ago.  Around this time, people wore clothing made from wool which they spun and wove into skirts, tunics, kilts, cloaks and hats.  With the Iron Age, a wave of European settlers arrived on the peninsula, now known as the Celts.  Celtic life revolved around tribal units led by chiefs, and they also developed specialised classes of people, such as priests, farmers and tradespeople. 

You can find Iron Age features on Ardnamurchan, including stone fortifications, called duns, and settlements built in lochs, called crannogs.

Pat is here to help you understand what life was like on Ardnamurchan during this time.  Pat is one of the first farmers on the peninsula and has lots to tell you about what life was like for them!

Two thousand years ago, the people living on Ardnamurchan were a branch of Celtic Britons known as the Picts, whose language is still a mystery today.  They were called 'Picti' by the Romans, meaning 'painted people', because of their custom of body painting or tattooing.  Later, by the sixth century, many Dalriada Gaels from Ireland arrived, whose Celtic language is the origin of the Scots and Irish Gaelic spoken today.  The Picts and Gaels began to merge as Gaelic influence and culture spread, until eventually Pictish power on Ardnamurchan gave way, and the kingdom of the Gaels stretched from the Western isles to the Eastern coast.

Saints from Ireland visited Ardnamurchan during this period; St Finnan, St Columba and St Comghan.  The memory of these visits lives on in local place names.

The Vikings, who sailed to Ardnamurchan as raiders, stayed here, becoming farmers and steadily integrating into the population.  The most obvious evidence of their time here comes from the names they left behind, such as Mingary and Greadal Fhinn.

A Viking farmer living in Ardnamurchan during this time, he has many stories to share, about settlement, the Irish saints and the warrior buried in Swordle!

As the population grew on Ardnamurchan, people settled into groups of families that we now know as clans.  Clans had a chief who took responsibility for the clan, and a tacksman collected rent for the chief.  When needed, men were required to fight for their clan, which they did wearing their clan tartan and kilts on the battlefield.  Many people on Ardnamurchan were on different sides of the Jacobite uprising and other conflicts, and afterwards lived close together on the peninsula.

Underpinning everyday life in a clan was the concept of duthchas, a concept of being rooted and connected to a particular place by family history, collective heritage, and ancient lineage. 

People at this time lived in single-storey buildings made of local materials, including wood, turf, reed, heather and, later, stone – of which the two-roomed blackhouses are the best known. Land was fertilised for crops with bracken or seaweed and could be very fertile.  Areas of farming land were allocated to different families by drawing lots on a regular timetable so that the best land changed hands regularly and was shared fairly.  There was also common grazing land, which everyone in the township used for their cattle and sheep. 

In summer, many women and children stayed in shielings on the common land and made products such as cheese, while men worked the arable land for crops of barley, oats and, later, potatoes.  People also ate shellfish collected along the shore and fish from the sea.

He is a Clan Chief and has lots to tell you about farming, clan disputes and what the settlements were like on Ardnamurchan.

Between about 1750 and about 1880, large numbers of Scottish Highlanders and Islanders were displaced from the traditional lands their families had occupied for generations.  Many ended up in coastal settlements with difficult farmland, and others were forced to move away from the highlands, sometimes seasonally, taking jobs in central Scotland's rapidly growing industrial cities.  Others emigrated in search of a better life overseas, as far as Australia, New Zealand and North America.

In the early 1800s, the Ardnamurchan Estate was owned by Sir James Riddell.  The estate was losing money, so Riddell commissioned a report on how its land was used, with the aim of repairing the financial problems by making the land more profitable.  The report advocated that land occupied by poor tenants should be used for sheep farming.  Showing little pity for the tenants, the first wave of forced evictions occurred in 1828, when the settlements of Camas nan Geall, Tornamona, Bourblaig, Skinnid and Choiremhuilinn were cleared.  Many cleared folk moved to Swordle, walking through snow from the south coast to the north.  Others moved to Ormsaigbeg, Acharacle or Glasgow, and some emigrated.

In 1846 the potato famine ravaged crops on Ardnamurchan, which many tenant farmers depended on to be able to pay rent and support their families.  Coinciding with this, the price of black cattle, which were driven to market from Ardnamurchan to places like Falkirk, also fell.  With tenants unable to pay rent, the Estate was in serious debt, and many tenants on Ardnamurchan were in a state of poverty.  Riddell's debts were still rising, and he was forced to move towards selling the estate into private hands.  Because of his debts, his creditors appointed trustees to manage the estate, and these were the principal actors in the next wave of clearances across Ardnamurchan.  These evictions, beginning in 1852, were often callous; the sick, blind, infirm, widowed, and others who had suffered famine and stock loss were subject to eviction, bankruptcy, removal to another part of the estate, or thrown onto the parish.

To avoid a public outcry at a time when clearances such as these were liable to be reported in the press, the Estate trustee developed local industries such as fishing, wood processing, and lead mining on the estate to offer employment and mitigate the complaints in the press. With this wave of clearances, in which the three Swordles were cleared, the pressure on land became even greater, and areas which were increasingly unsuitable for arable farming were pressed into use.  Portuairk which, along with Sanna, had been part of Achosnich common grazings, was designated as a crofting township, and people settled there.  People crofted the land and were mostly self-sufficient, but it was a tough life on the coastal settlements and often impossible to make a living from the land alone.  Many people left Ardnamurchan for periods of the year to work, for example, in the Police Force in Glasgow or the British Merchant Navy, or had seasonal jobs working for the Estate elsewhere on the peninsula.

A crofter living and working in Sanna, her family had lived for generations in Bourblaig, on the slopes of Ben Hiant near Camas nan Geall, but in 1828 they were evicted and forced to start a new life in Swordle.  They lived and worked there for 23 years before Eilidh and many others were evicted from the homes they had built in Swordle and again had to move across the peninsula, this time to Achnaha and then on to Sanna a few years later.  It's a tough place to live, and Eilidh runs the household, the croft, and keeps the family afloat.  She is responsible for crofting their land in Sanna while her dad works in the Estate fisheries.  The land is of poor quality and brings in a meagre income, not enough to sustain a family for long, so her brother works away in the Navy, sending money back to Ardnamurchan when he can.  Read her stories below about what life was like during this time.

From the later nineteenth century, the industries and livelihoods of most people living on Ardnamurchan revolved around crofting and fishing activities.  Most of the population lived in coastal crofting townships, with most other land on the peninsula used as sheep farms for the  Ardnamurchan Estate.  The Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act came into effect in 1886, which ensured security of tenure for the crofters, controlled rents, and produced the first Crofters Commission, a land court which ruled on disputes between landlords and crofters.  The act also required the crofters to reside close to their croft and keep it cultivated, maintained and put to good use. 

The organisation of crofting means that each family rents their own plot of land, and also has a right to use common grazings for a fixed number of cattle and sheep, known as the 'souming'.  The individual plots of land often stay within a family for generations, which is different from earlier ways of organising land, where the plots were common land and rotated between families on a regular timetable.

The displacement of the population to coastal settlements created pressure on the amount of arable land available to sustain families.  The crofts were small, and in addition to crofting, tenants had to work for the estate to pay their rent or leave Ardnamurchan to work, for example, in the Glasgow Police Force or the British Merchant Navy.  Others worked in the salmon fisheries around Ardnamurchan, the main industry on the peninsula.  Once thriving, the salmon fishing industry declined throughout the 20th century due to a constant decrease in salmon numbers, primarily due to industrial overfishing, pollution and the changing climate.

Initially, most crofters' houses were single-storey, hip-roofed, and thatched.  They would have two rooms, each with a fireplace and a chimney in the centre of the roof to let out the smoke.  Newer houses were gable-ended, with their fires and chimneys against the gable.  As time went on, corrugated iron replaced thatched roofs.  From the 1930s, an upper storey was often added, and the roof covered with slates or asbestos tiles.  Many of these houses are still in use today.

He can tell you about the rhythm of life here; family, fishing after a day's work and how the women of Sanna campaigned for a road to be built to their village.  He's best friends with the Lighthouse Keeper at Ardnamurchan Point, and knows all about fixing things, from fishing nets to Kilchoan Jetty!

Although the population of Ardnamurchan is lower compared to the past, the community here is still dynamic and active; regularly organising events, activities and initiatives for locals and visitors alike.  The annual West Ardnamurchan Regatta is highly anticipated every summer, and people travel far and wide to join, gathering in Kilchoan to compete on the water and then ceilidh together in the Community Centre.

The beautiful landscape and the peninsula's remote setting attract many visitors in the summer months, and many traditional crofting cottages have been transformed into holiday cottages.  However, the crofting tradition is still very much alive on Ardnamurchan, with crofts in use today that have been in the same family for generations.  Respect for the land and inherited knowledge is visible in the continued use of traditional farming methods, such as using seaweed gathered from the shore to fertilise fields.

West Ardnamurchan is renowned for its wildlife, flora and fauna, with eagles, deer, pine martens, seals, dolphins, and even minke whales to be spotted.  Ardnamurchan Lighthouse, which is now owned by the community, is a popular destination and offers fascinating tours during the warmer months of the year.  Today, some people travel to the peninsula from Australia to reconnect with the homeland of their ancestors who sailed away many years ago. 

Ardnamurchan has been inhabited for over 6,000 years and has a rich and diverse history.  For a seemingly remote place, it has connections to locations around the world through the comings and goings of people, culture, and trade throughout history.  Projects and work carried out by Archaeology Scotland, students and staff from the Universities of Manchester and Leicester, as well as local people and community groups, are continuing to reveal its archaeological and historical significance.  Many sites of historical importance have been discovered and excavated, and there are still many layers of history to uncover to understand the past and how it has shaped West Ardnamurchan as we know it today.

She is here to tell you about life in West Ardnamurchan since the millennium.  She has witnessed the community coming together in many different ways; repairing Kilchoan Jetty, bringing the Lighthouse into community ownership, and joining archaeological digs.  She'll also share her favourite spots for wildlife spotting and watching the sunset!