Aig an Airigh: People and Place

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“The shielings of Cuidhsiadar and Filistcleitir: chronicling the tradition of annual migration to the moors as it was then; investigating the death of transhumance in the area; and examining what exactly the shielings mean now.”

Catriona M Macdonald // YEAR 04 200730222

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STUDENT : Catriona M Macdonald REGISTRATION NUMBER : 200730222 SUPERVISOR : David Charles Reat

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE DISSERTATION 2011/12 AB 420 BSc ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES 15 MARCH 2012 WORD COUNT: 8043

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D E CLARAT I O N Department of Architecture University of Strathclyde Dissertation 2011/12 AB 420 BSc (Architectural Studies) BSc (Architectural Studies with European Studies + PG Diploma in Architectural Studies)

DECLARATION “I hereby declare that this dissertation submission is my own work and has been composed by myself. It contains no unacknowledged text that has not been submitted in any previous context. All quotations have been distinguished by quotation marks and all sources of information, text, illustration, tables, images etc. have been specifically acknowledged.

I accept that if having signed this Declaration my work should be found at Examination to show evidence of academic dishonesty the work will fail and I will be liable to face the University Senate Discipline Committee.�

NAME:

Catriona M Macdonald

SIGNED:

______________________________________

DATE:

__________________

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A CK NOWL E DG E M E NT S I would like to thank the following people for their help: Firstly, my supervisor Mr David Reat for his time, support and guidance throughout.

I would also like to thank sincerely those I interviewed in the course of my research: Mr Tom Morton, Mrs Mary Campbell, Mr John Maher, Mr Mike Donald and Mr Paul Murray- for your time and wonderful insights.

To Ann at Comunn Eachdraidh Nis for allowing me to delve into their fascinating records and photographs. I hope I have been able to do justice to the community’s unique culture and tradition.

Mum, for your motivational skills and unyielding grammatical correctness!

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0 1. A BSTRACT Sheeling \Sheel”ing\, n. [Icel. skj?l a shelter, a cover; akin to Dan. & Sw. skjul.]

A hut or small cottage in an exposed or a retired place (as on a mountain or at the seaside) such as is used by shepherds, fishermen, sportsmen, etc.; a summer cottage; also, a shed. [Written also sheel, shealing, sheiling, etc.] [Scot.]

Sheil \Sheil\ (sh[=e]l), Sheiling \Sheil”ing\, n.

See shieeling. (http://dictionary.die.net/sheiling, 2012) The deserted moorland villages of Cuidhsiader and Filiscleitir remain as crumbling monuments to the lives of generations past. Using only the materials they could scavenge from the surrounding area and driftwood collected from the nearby shore, the local people used skills passed down from their forefathers, to construct these dwellings to provide shelter for their annual exodus to the moors to graze their cattle and make butter and cheese for the coming long, harsh winter.

The culture of annual migration to the shielings was practised throughout the Outer Hebrides until the Second World War (Miller, 1967). From, ‘Glanadh a’ Bhaile’, or ‘Cleaning of the Village’, in early May when the women and children would direct their animals across the moors to their summertime abode, until ‘Oidhche na h-Iomraich’, or ‘Night of the Flitting’ in September, when they would pack their belongings once more and head back to their crofts on the west coast, the entire three months of summer were spent on the moor.

But on the Isle of Lewis, despite the necessity for transhumance having been long negated, there remain a Page 02

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stalwart few who still keep the tradition alive by using these humble dwellings as weekend escapes or bases for peat-cutting (Miller: 1967).

There seems to be a sense of romanticism surrounding the shielings amongst the current generation. This is surprising considering the levels of social and economic deprivation in the area until the mid twentieth century (Campbell, 2011). Despite this hardship, many have fond memories and a sense of nostalgia as they recall the summers spent out on the moorlands. The shielings themselves are now a little known part of the history and culture of the north of Lewis. But, there are a few who are attempting to record and illustrate the shielings in order to preserve better both the physical characteristics and essence of the buildings.

From the R.L. Stevenson poem, Exiles: “Grey recumbent tombs of the dead in desert places; Standing stones on the vacant wine-red moors; Hills of sheep, and the howes of the silent vanished races And winds austere and pure.�

(Review of Scottish Culture: 1984: 33) This paints a rather bleak portrait of the humble moorland dwellings. However, this perception has changed or is changing so that the shielings of Cuidhsiadar and Filiscleitir will not be forgotten.

AIG AN ÀIRIGH aims to chronicle the tradition of annual migration to the moors; research the reasons for the decline in the practice of transhumance in the area and investigate what the shieling villages of Cuidhsiadar and Filiscleitir mean to people now.

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0 2. FOR E W O RD “There are places that we choose to attach ourselves to, or that choose us: whose genius loci is so potent that it incites us to love them. The spirit of the place renders us incapable of resistance.” (Meades: 2009) Heritage is important to the islander: it is what eternally binds us together. The land, the culture, the language but most importantly, the people, give Ness a unique identity which is in danger of being irretrievably lost.

Many important elements of island life are all too often described as dying, in decline, under threat: our language, our population and our traditions. As a Niseach, I am incredibly proud of my heritage and feel it important to produce, not only an academic piece of work, but a personal investigation into the history of my community, my people. “…This is a story of no frills living.” (Maher: 2011)

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0 3. C ONT E NT S 01. ABSTRACT 02. FOREWORD 03. CONTENTS 04. FIGURE LIST 05. INTRODUCTION 06. HISTORY OF THE SHIELING I.The practice of transhumance as a concept II. Nis (Ness): the land III. An Niseach (The Nessman): the people 07. SHIELING LIFE: FROM CONSTRUCTION TO FLITTING I. The summer house II. Bho Glanadh a’Bhaile gu Oidhche na h-Iomraich (From packing to flitting: the annual migration process) III. Religion on the Moors: Taigh ‘an Fhiosach 08. DEMISE OF THE SHIELING AND MODERN PERCEPTIONS I. Historical context II. Recording the past III. Building a future 09. CONCLUSION 10. GLOSSARY 11. BIBLIOGRAPHY 12. APPENDIX

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0 4. FIGU RE L I S T 01. View of Cuidhsiadar (Author’s image, 2012) 02. Shieling interior 01, Cuidhsiadar (Author’s image, 2012) 03. Shieling gable ruin, Cuidhsiadar (Author’s image, 2012) 04. Shieling ruin 01, Cuidhsiadar (Author’s image, 2012) 05. Rusted utensils, Cuidhsiadar (Author’s image, 2012) 06. Chimney stack ruin, Cuidhsiadar (Author’s image, 2012) 07. A couple from Adabrock, Ness, heading back to the shieling (Dan Morrison, 1955) 08. Map of shieling density (RCAHMS, 2002) 09. Map of Scotland’s geology (http://www.agatesofscot land.co.uk/The%20Geology.htm) 10. OS Map location diagram (Author’s image, 2012) 11. The Pride of Lionel, boat (falmadair.com) 12. Airigh Dh’ll an Tigear (CEN, no date) 13. Aerial view, Cuidhsiadar (RCAHMS, 2005) 14. Site plan of shielings, Filiscleitir (CEN, no date) 15. Typical plans and section of shielings (Scran, 2012) 16. Shieling at Filiscleitir (CEN, no date) 17. Shieling ruins, Filiscleitir (Author’s image, 2012) 18. Shieling 01, Cuidhsiadar (Author’s image, 2012) 19. Carrying home shieling furniture (Dan Morrison, 1936) 20. Ness women prepare to leave (Dan Morrison, 1936)

21. A student visits, Filiscleitir (Dan Morrison, 1936) 22. Shieling interior 02 (Robin Wilson, 2010) 23. Old Filiscleitir postcard (The Croft Flickr, 2009) 24. Taigh ‘an Fiosach (Author’s image, 2012) 25. Shieling interior 03 (CEN, no date) 26. Airigh Oighrig Uillean Dholaigean (CEN, no date) 27. Runrig-scarred land, Ness (Google Earth, 2012) 28. Woman walking from shieling (Dan Morrison, 1955) 29. Airigh a’ Bhealaich (CEN, no date) 30. Shieling at Cuidhsiadar (The Flying Monk, 2011) 31. Airigh Project logo (Mike Donald, 2011) 32. New shieling 02 (Author’s image, 2012) 33. Your shieling needs you (Author’s image, 2012) 34. Furniture in ruin, Cuidhsiadar (Author’s image, 2012) 35. Shieling view, Cuidhsiadar (Author’s image, 2012)

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0 5. IN TRO DUCT I O N “...a place to prepare...�

Cuidhsiadar and Fililscleitir remain as memorials to the culture and traditions of the Ness community on the Isle of Lewis. Here, seasonal migration to the moors from the coastal villages was an inherent part of their tradition.

The need to rest the narrow strips of fertile coastal machair land led to them seeking temporary habitation elsewhere; a place for respite, a place to prepare for the harsh winters so common to the Western Isles.

The architecture of transhumance in Ness is illustrated by abandoned moorland shielings. Humble, vernacular, seasonal dwellings, their various manifestations over generations are evident in these remote villages: from the earliest heavy, dense, primitive, turf and stone constructions, to the constructs of the latter part of the 20th century, quaint shelters comprising somewhat more unfamiliar materials such as timber, iron and bitumen.

A number of social, cultural and economic factors contrubuted to the decline and eventual cessation of transhumance in Ness. Conversely, factors unique to Ness contributed to Cuidhsiadar being the last site of annual moorland migration in Scotland.

Today, the shielings stand as ghost villages, with the lively atmosphere that once surrounded them now only a memory. Unfortunately, those who do remember the shielings as dwellings full of life and of laughter, ceòl and ceilidh, are fewer and fewer.

Providing transhumance with an identity, these dwellings give a unique insight into island life. Consequently, this makes it even more critical that action is taken to record, conserve and protect, ...but most importantly, ...to remember.

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0 6. H ISTO RY O F T HE S H IE L IN G “...a legacy of the Norse invaders...”

I. The practice of transhumance as a concept “Wherever climate or topographical factors cause seasonal variation in the value or availability of pasture, so that man and his flocks and herds must move their base at least twice in the course of the year to win maximum benefit and use from the land.” (Miller:1967: 192) Movement of people and their livestock between their summer and winter pastures has been practised throughout the world since time immemorial. Seasonal migration was only abandoned on the Isle of Lewis within the last century and within living memory.

From the alpine chalets to the bedouin tents, each nomadic people has its own architecture.

Clearly not unique to the archipelago of the Western Isles, the practice was widespread throughout Europe and Africa, illustrated by the chalets of the Alps, the Saeter of Norway, and the nomadic pastoralism of the Futani of West Africa. (Miller: 1967: 193) Shielings of the Outer Hebrides were most commonly known by their Gaelic name, àirigh (pl. àiridhean).

However the terminology varied from region to region across Scotland with the huts being referred to as, ruigh, in the central and eastern Highlands and, shiel (from Middle English), in the south, Galashiels for example.

The annual transhumance practised by the Nisich was said to have been a legacy of the Norse invaders who arrived on the island around the end of the 9th century. Landnám (from an Old Norse word roughly translated as “land take”, refers to the Viking style of land management practices.) (http://archaeology.about.com/od/ shthroughsiterms/qt/Shieling.htm) Page 14

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II. Nis: the land Ness: (nes, headland) norse Ness, is a community perched on the most north-westerly tip of the Western Isles. (See Figure 10.) Once described as “an immense peat, with notches of the moss cut away here and there, to afford a sure foundation for the inhabitants, and produce for their bodily wants,” (Ordinance Gazetteer, Scotland, u.d., Vol. 4, 508) Ness is a historically Gaelic-speaking area with a history of strong tradition and culture.The population of the Civil Parish of Barvas in 2001 (which includes Ness) was 3133, with a 53.5% decline since 1901. (cne-siar. gov.uk) Geologically and topographically, Lewis is a predominantly low-lying island, almost schizophrenic in nature, with sandy, fertile machair lands on the western fringes and boggy, heather-carpeted moorland to the east.

Its geology is comprised of the eponymous Lewisian Gneiss.

In his article on Lewis Shielings (Review of Scottish Culture,1984) Donald Macdonald links the Lewis village name, Shader, as a Gaelicised version of the Norwegian Saeter (page 29). He describes how single shielings were often named after their owner, for example, Àirigh Dhomhnaill Chaim or Àirigh an Taillear. Groups of shielings were often named according to their location, for example, Àirigh Loch Sgarasdal (Shieling of Sgarasdale Loch), Àirighean Dhìbiodail (Shieling at Diobadal) and Àirighean Loch an Eilean. Other shielings were given descriptive names: Àirigh na Gaoithe (Windy Shieling), Àirigh na h-Aon Oidhche (One Night Shieling) and Àirigh Fad As (Distant Shieling).

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III. An Niseach: the Nessman In Boswell and Johnson’s ‘Tour of the Western Isles’, Johnson and his man-servant Joe described their preconceived ideas of the island natives: “I hope you know those islands are inhabited by cannibals,” and “England, being closer to the equator breeds a more civilised and intelligent character.”

On the contrary, the adverse landscape and harsh conditions bred masterfully skilled communities of people who survived in spite of their surroundings. Traditionally, the men of Ness were sea-faring, continuing the legacy of their Norse ancestors who ruled the islands during the 8th and 9th centuries (Macdonald: 1978: 19). Traditional Lewis names such as Tormod (Norman) and Torcuill (Torquil) derived from the old Norse god Thor, illustrate the lasting legacy. (It was not until 1266 that the Outer Hebrides were officially ceded by Norway to Scotland [Thompson: 1973: 41]) Following the departure of the Norse invaders in the 13th century, the clan culture became much stronger and more prominent than it had been previously, with Ness being the ancestral home of the Morrison clan. Nisich, or Ness-folk, were skilled navigators; many joined the merchant navy, or the whaling industry. They were craftsmen: building their own boats and making equipment. (See Figure 11.) The harsh reality of island existence meant going to greater lengths to survive: quite literally demonstrated by the annual trip of 14 men to Sulasgeir rock, 40 miles, north and west, into the Atlantic ocean, for the gannet cull. “The people were on the whole, physically, mentally and morally well-equipped to face life.” (A. Mitchell: 1881: 55) “They were also shrewd, industrious, hospitable, and capable of enduring much hardship, especially at sea.” (N.S.A., Ross and Cromarty: 147).

“There is the Island of Lewis, with poor, peaty soil covering the Archaean gneiss, but with a crowded, lively, vivid community. “ (Taylor Commission of Inquiry into Crofting Holdings, 1955) Nisich were a God-fearing people, whose religion was paramount: for many, a Bible was the only piece of literature in their homes. Today, religion still has a strong presence within the community: there are over 50 Page 18

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churches on Lewis and Harris for a population of 22,000, one for every 400 people, with over a third attending church every Sunday- atypical in comparison to the rest of the country. (Meades, 2009) Calvinist virtues may lie behind the architectural aesthetic quality of the island’s buildings- purely functional without light or decorative nuances. “The idea of delighting the eye is an offence against modesty.” (Meades, 2009) “Life in past times was hard, but if there is one theme which comes through, it is the self reliance, resilience and joy of the people.” (Scots Mag. 1987: 277)

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0 7. SH IELI NG L I F E : F R OM C ON ST R U C T ION TO FLITT I NG “...days of joy.” (Macdonald, 1984, 31) I. THE SUMMER HOUSE “Mankind was a maker.” (Meads, 2009) SITE: The moorland provided summer grazing for each family’s solitary cow. A site would be chosen adjacent to a stream or river, with shelter provided by the hollows of the rolling topography of the landscape. “Many shieling sites give the impression that their builders tried to combine a functional location with beautiful views whenever possible.” (McOwan: 1987: 273) The Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant (1726-98) described in his Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1776) the earliest detailed account of Scottish shielings: “I landed on a bank covered with sheelins, the temporary habitations of some peasants who tend the herds of milch cows. These formed a grotesque group; some were oblong, some conic, and so low that the entrance is forbidden without creeping through the opening, which has no other door other than a faggot of birch twigs placed there occasionally; they are constructed of branches of trees covered with sods...In one of the little conic huts I spied a little infant asleep.”

Cuidhsiadar and Filiscleitir are both very different in topography and siting of their respective shieling villages.

At Cuidhsiadar (see Figure 13), the location of the shielings seems dictated by the meandering stream, which would provide the small dwellings with water with which to cook, wash and drink. Located in a low-lying Page 22

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valley; the village nestles into the hillside to provide shelter.

However, unusually, at Filiscleitir the village is positioned on the crest of a hill. This would have left the dwellings exposed, which may explain why only older ruins remain in contrast to Cuidhsiadar where there is evidence of many dwellings still being used today. At Filiscleitir the shielings tend to be arranged in close proximity and in a circular pattern (alluding to the need to provide shelter of some form). (See Figure 14.)

Also, the back-to-back construction of shielings is demonstrated here. In this instance, two shielings would share a party wall that was built slightly thicker than the other external walls.

MATERIALS: Stones were found on site and were plentiful, uncovered from the peaty moors and providing a much needed barrier to the Atlantic gales. Driftwood was scavenged from the shoreline and manipulated into rafter-like lengths. Turf was lifted from the ground adjacent to the shieling to provide a water resistant roof.

Although compacted earth was the most common floor material, nevertheless, clay was used on occasions.

Beds would be made more comfortable for the occupants by placing heather or dried grass on the stone plinth and fish oil was used as fuel to provide lighting. (Scots Mag. 1987: 127: 278) CONSTRUCTION: Attention and care was always taken to achieve maximum shelter: for example, doors would never face the prevailing south-westerly wind. Firstly, the footprint of the building would be dug out from the peat. Next, the earth was packed down to achieve a suitable foundation level. Stones were then placed in order to create walls. A few shielings were constructed with two stone layers and a peat infilled cavity, although this tended to be unusual. (Miller: 1967: 215) Men were skilled in finding the perfect stones to suit the job. This craftsmanship was passed down from generation to generation and the camaraderie and collaboration of the village men ensured that everyone’s shieling was completed to a fine standard.

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Àirigh was the terminology most commonly used to describe any moorland dwelling. (See Figure 15.) However there are three distinct shieling typologies: AM BOTH; AN ÀIRIGH and AN TAIGH EARRAICH. Firstly, the Both, was a rounded dwelling, constructed of turf and, according to various accounts, resembled an “Eskimo’s igloo,” (McOwan: 1987: 277). The floor area was approximately ten to twelve feet in diameter with a floor to ceiling height of approximately seven feet. (McOwan: 1987: 277) The Àirigh was the second of the shieling typology. More rectilinear in shape, being twelve feet long and ten feet wide the airigh would utilise a turf roof system with driftwood employed in a basic rafter configuration with a hole to allow for ventilation and the escape of smoke from the open fire. This opening could be covered in adverse weather using turf.

Tigh Earraich, or Spring House was a more elaborate construction, much more similar to their coastal residences, the blackhouses, than the other more humble moorland dwellings such as the both or the àirigh.

(Scots Mag., 1987: 277) It is this Tigh Earraich that is most commonly referred to with regards to the shielings.

Here, as was typical with blackhouses, the animals would cohabit with their master. A fire would take centre place mid-floor and here the occupants would congregate, the fire being the focal point of the home. A stone plinth, made more ergonomic by covering with turf or heather would occupy the length of one end of the dwelling. Furniture would be taken from their coastal homes for the season but often cupboards or a preas would be constructed from stone as storage, with niches in the thick walls providing cooling properties to store dairy produce such as butter, cheese and milk. (Campbell, 2011) THE NEW SHIELING- A construct of the latter twilight years, these shielings represented a new typology. Vastly improved import links following the Second World War, meant that the shielings could be constructed from timber with thinner walls and roofs and clad in a bitumen-based coating to protect them from the unpredictable Hebridean weather conditions. Open fires were relocated to a chimney on an external wall, as opposed to the hearth in the middle of the floor. A number of these stay true to the original single room typology of the much Page 26

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older stone dwellings but a few became modernised with internal W.C. facilities (largely uncommon on the moors). Unusually, a number of the newer shielings are constructed on suspended foundations, possibly to address problems with flooding or dampness, demonstrating the islanders’ ability to learn and improve their techniques.

II. BHO GLANADH A’ BHAILE GU OIDHCHE NA H-IOMRAICH “...one of the happiest days.” (Macdonald: 1984: 31) Transhumance in real terms involved detailed preparations which began with ‘Glanadh a’ Bhaile’, ‘Cleansing the Village’. Respected elders of each village, would ultimately decide when the migration to the moorland shielings should take place. However, this usually tended to be in early summer, “the first week of May or whenever the corn began to sprout”. (Macdonald: 1984: 30). The first journey of the year across the moor tended to be undertaken by the men, who would investigate the shielings for any damage caused by the particularly harsh winters experienced on the island. With the roof structure comprising timber lengths found on the shoreline (a material scarcely available on the treeless moors of the Isle of Lewis) often the roof itself was dismantled at the end of summer and stored in the shieling in order to protect it for migration the following year. (However, according to Mary Campbell the dismantling of the roof was not practised within living memory.) It was a common worry that the turf, saturated by the heavy rains of winter, would become so heavy that it would cause the roof to collapse. After arriving at the shieling site, putting the roof back together would have been the men’s first task of the day. (Macdonald: 1984: 30) On the day of the migration, the villagers would wake early, as much work was to be done before they set off.

“People shouted, children screeched, dogs barked, cows lowed, sheep bleated...” (Macdonald: 1984: 30) Page 28

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Crude hewn paths led the way to the shielings and each person navigated the trail with a heavy load on their backs, packed with all the essentials for their three month stay on the moor.

Only those fit enough to tackle the arduous trek from the coastal villages to the moorland dwellings did so.

Consequently, few died while out on the moor. However, if death did occur during their stay, the islanders, a superstitious people, never occupied that shieling again. (Macdonald: 1984: 31) Upon arriving at their destinations, their loads were set down on the heather and a fire was lit, with tea plentiful to quench the thirst from work. Women would busy themselves clearing away the dishes and washing utensils in the stream that flowed nearby. “...imagine the herds of cattle and goats, horses with wooden pack saddles, women knitting as they walked, children laughing and waving to men who had come up earlier, buildings re-roofed with fresh turf and peat smoke rising in a blue column...Women would make oatcakes, cows would be milked and a piece of last year’s butter would be unearthed from a peat bog and the first meal together would be eaten.” (Scots Mag. 1987: 127: 278) After this meal, those who had journeyed to the shielings to make them habitable once more, returned to their crofts on the coast- some then preparing to travel further afield to the ports of Peterhead and Aberdeen to work in the fishing industry to provide their families which much needed monetary income.

“First night out on the moors was always strange. The wind had a different sound from what it had in the village, and seemed intent on exploring every nook and cranny about the shieling in an attempt to enter.

There was a cold too, for it took at least three days before the stubborn winter cold was expelled from the Page 30

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dwelling...The smoored fire and her brood sleeping were the only familiar things...Round the bothy she could hear animal noises which gave her a sense of security. The silence was also occasionally disturbed by the cackling of grouse, the bleating of sheep, the splash of jumping trout.” (Review of Scottish Culture: 1984: 31) Rigid routines punctuated the three months spent on the moor. This would include: rising early to milk the cow, churning the milk to make cheese and butter (some of which would be eaten during those summer months where there was not a readily available supply of food, but most would be salted and stored to be consumed in winter). Produce would be stored in a hole dug close to the shieling, the earth providing a natural refrigerator. (Campbell, 2011) During summer months, peat would be cut; some to be used at the shieling, but most kept for the colder winter months spent on the coast. “Peat occurs in exceptionally wet temperate or cold climates, where vegetable matter- notably non-flowering plants such as Sphagnum Moss is prevented from totally decomposing by an excess of water.” (Meades, 2009) Production of peat was a drawn out process. Working in pairs: one to cut the peat while the other would throw the peat or fàd on top of the bank. Peats were then arranged on the bank to allow for optimal air circulation and left to dry, often taking a number of weeks as a result of the unforgiving Lewis weather. Dried peat would then be collected in creels and transported to a location close to the shieling.

Here, a peat stack or cruach would be constructed. Often, the cruach was used to protect and shelter useful and valuable items that were to be left on the moors until the following season. (Morrison, 1997) Staying true to typical Hebridean hospitality, ceilidhs occurred reguarly with moorland neighbours always receiving a warm welcome. Traditional musical instruments such as chanter/bagpipes and melodeons were played, and there would be storytelling and singing. This was particularly raucous on the last night of the season, Oidhche na h-Iomraich or Night of the Flitting and would last through until the early hours of the Page 32

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morning. Early the next day, the shieling was emptied, the grass and heather bedding was taken outside and set alight and all that had to be eaten before the homeward journey, was consumed. (See Figure 19 and 20.) It is said that often the animals sensed movement and began to set their trail home. (Review of Scottish Culture: 1984: 33)

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III. RELIGION ON THE MOORS: TAIGH ‘AN FIOSACH (The Reverend’s house) “Topographically extreme...climatically extreme. It is in such exaggerated places that religions are born and it’s where they flourish. These are the propitious conditions for the descent into hallucinatory a-reason that is dignified by the name of faith.” (Meades, 2009) Iain am Fiosach, or John the Reverend, refers to Reverend John Nicolson, a native of Ness who had emigrated to North America and become a Baptist minister before returning to his homeland accompanied by his American wife.

Nisich were God-fearing Presbyterians and religion was an intrinsic element of their every day life. Days began with morning prayers and a short reading from an Tiomnadh, with grace said before each meal. A long worship was held at night with the whole family gathered around the fire. Attendance at Sunday Service was non-negotiable, even on the moor. Taigh ‘an Fhiosach became a focal point for the moorland population, its small chapel constructed on an isolated cliff top south of Filiscleitir. (See Figure 24.) During the summer months it would have been the destination for each shieling occupant on Sundays.

“Calvinism demands commitment. It’s a matter of conviction and unconditional acquiescence. It affects the way their adherence affects their every day lives.” (Meades, 2009)

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0 8. D EMIS E O F T HE SH IE L IN G A N D MOD ER N PER S P E CT I V E S “...they belonged to the land and the land to them.” (Thompson, 1973, 51) I. HISTORICAL CONTEXT “...a way of life.” (Thompson: 1973: 88) The history of the Isle of Lewis differs greatly to that of mainland Scotland. Around the end of the 9th century, the invading Norsemen colonised Iceland, the Faroes, the Orkneys, Shetlands and the Hebrides. Much has been written of the pillaging Vikings: however they did leave a legacy to the island, in terms of farming customs. It was they who introduced the notion of shieling settlement. (archaeology.about.com) It was not until the 13th century that changes in land management began to affect the community of Ness with the Clearances impacting on the whole of the North of Scotland.

“It all began to end in the second half of the 18th century and in the 19th, as runrigs were gradually abolished, consolidated holdings grew, and large farms and moderns techniques followed on.” (McOwan: 1987: 276) Changes in land ownership from the clan chiefs to the Seaforths of Argyll resulted in fractured relations between the tenants and their landlord. Where previously rental payment could be made in kind: a sack of oatmeal from this year’s crop, or some freshly caught fish, these were no longer acceptable to the Earl of Seaforth. Additionally, the pressures of a developing economy subsequently meant that rent prices rose, creating much difficulty for those who already had very little. Increased rents could only be paid if the crofters were able to increase the yield from their fragile crofts, all without the help of the agricultural advances that were beginning to permeate the Lowlands. Islanders were left desperate and destitute, with many being Page 38

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forcibly evicted from land their families had inhabited for generations.

THE CLEARANCES: MAN OR BEAST? In 1609, ownership of the Isle of Lewis was passed to the Mackenzies of Kintail. Parishes were managed by factors who were often uncompromising and ruthless towards the many poor families in the community.

Factors collected rent from the tenants which was usually minimal, but to the crofters it was frequently more than they could afford. During the 1860s, many land owners felt that allowing sheep to graze on their land would be more profitable than raising rent, and so ordered many families to be evicted. Often, little or no notice was provided and if a family resisted eviction from land which had been home to their fore-fathers, blackhouses were razed to the ground, destroying their belongings and giving little thought to personal safety.

(Thompson: 1973) “The Clearances of crofters had been undertaken by landowners and clan Chiefs in what they believed, or at least deluded themselves, was an philanthropic noblesse oblige.” (Meades, 2009) By the mid 19th century, the Isle of Lewis had been purchased by a rich merchant, James Matheson, who made his fortune trading opiates in the Far East. According to Meades, Matheson deluded himself that the eviction of the crofters was an act of kindness, to remove them from the unsanitary and bacteria ridden environment of the both.

“By the mid 19th century all philanthropic pretense had been abandoned. Matheson proceeded to treat the islanders, his islanders, with the same sensitivity that he had displayed in Canton, though they were not provided with the balmy solace of narcosis.” (Meades: 2009) Some of the displaced were evicted on the promise of better lives on the coast of Sutherland and Aberdeen, in bustling fishing ports. However, for some, the only option was to look further afield for the chance of a new life.

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FIGURE 27

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EMIGRATION: IN SEARCH OF A NEW LIFE Often, either through hope of release from poverty, or through force, as a result of The Clearances, many families boarded ships setting sail for distant corners of the globe including Canada, America and Oceania, where their legacy remains to this day through placenames. (E.g. Stornoway in Quebec, St Kilda in Australia and the Lewis Township in Pensylvania U.S.A.) “In the early years of the 1850s, almost 2,000 inhabitants were forcibly expatriated: Mostly to Canada, their passage paid by Matheson.” (Meades, 2009) Donald Macleod, a Nessman who emigrated to Canada in early 1922, recounted boarding the SS. Metagama in Stornoway harbour along with hundreds of fellow islanders, in search of opportunity and release from postwar disillusionment and disappointment. He described his mixed feelings: the hope of a new beginning, in contrast to the immeasurable sadness of leaving his homeland behind, “We sailed north, and around the Butt of Lewis. There was deep silence among the three hundred Lewismen on board as our beloved Island faded in the distance with those whom we loved standing on its shores. For many, it was a last glimpse.” (CEN: no date) INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Crofting practice and process has undergone huge change and advance in the last two hundred years.

Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions brought the efficiency of machinery over horse and man-power. In addition, the demise of the runrig system of cultivation (see Figure 27) contributed to the cessation of seasonal migration. Within this apportionment system, ground was divided by the village, with each household gaining a plot for growing crops. Cultivation at this time was extremely labour-intensive, predominantly with handtools such as the spade and the cas-chrom [a long, angled length of wood with a flat, iron head, ideally suited to cutting through broken, rocky ground. (ambaile.org.uk)] A basic runrig system comprised rolling, linear lazyPage 42

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FIGURE 28

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beds of peaks and troughs. Soil lying between these ridges would be ‘turned’. (http://www.virtualhebrides.net/ BV.htm) Changes began to appear in the Lowlands of Scotland decades prior to the revolution occurring in the Hebrides.

“The island was of course more cut off from the gradual infiltration of civilising agencies and influences; at some times in its history was found to be more than a century behind even the rest of Scotland.” (Thompson: 1973: 41) Francis Thompson wrote of his belief that the death of the traditional crofting system stemmed from the abolition of the clan system: “In the older days of the clan system, before the rot set in, though the clan members belonged to the Chief, they also belonged to the land and the land to them.” (Thompson: 1973: 51) WAR Two World Wars in the Twentieth Century had a great impact and lasting effect on the community of Ness and the Western Isles as a whole. Traditionally “Scotland’s chief export has been... people: brain, muscle, cannon fodder. Powerful Scots sent humbler Scots to die in distant countries.” (Meades, 2009) Men were called up for active service from the age of 18. Skilled sea-men, many joined the Royal Naval Reserves and the Merchant Navy, although the Lovat Scouts and Seaforth Highlanders were also popular choices. Families in Ness lost their strongest workers; the sons, husbands, fathers. Women and children were less able to leave the main steading on the coast to travel further inland to the summer shieling. The family structure had shifted. However, following VE Day in 1945, it was apparent that life had changed irreversibly.

Many husbands, brothers and sons did not return, but had become casualties of war. (CEN, no date) Page 44

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FIGURE 29

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II. RECORDING THE PAST “...the relationship of people to place.� (Morton, 2011) With few surviving who can reminisce about summers spent on the moorland and ever fewer of the older stone shielings in recognisable condition, the recording of both physical history and personal accounts has become critically important.

Tom Morton, Principal Architect at Arc Architects, first visited the Ness community in 2006 and was intrigued by the abandoned huts on the desolate moor. With a long-standing passion for conservation and research, he embarked on a project to record and preserve a physical and verbal account of shieling life as it was and as it is now. Morton was fascinated by the innate connection between the people and the land.

Despite the fact that a number of the shielings at Cuidhsiadar are in fact classed as B Listed buildings by Historic Scotland, surprisingly the organisation has no official records of the dwellings. It seems almost contradictory that the buildings are deemed important enough to earn official recognition but yet are left to crumble.

Morton suggests that there are many reasons why the moorland villages of Cuidhsiadar and Filliscleitir are the last remaining examples of annual migration to the shielings in Scotland. Firstly, he believes that their lack of sole reliance on the land for survival was key. Their ability to fish and build boats gave them an advantage if crops were poor or failed. Secondly, he feels that Ness has a uniquely strong self-identity which is insular in character and protects it from external influence. Thirdly, he believes the strength of the Gaelic language in the area has acted to preserve its identity. “The language can be used as a defence mechanism of keeping Page 46

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people on the other side and it’s part of what helps a culture like this survive.” (Morton, 2012) John Maher is a photographer who captures images of the shielings at night time using slow shutter speeds and lighting techniques. (See Figure 29.) As someone with no family link to the islands, he was unaware of the shielings until a passing mention and intrigue led to research and ultimately a visit out to the moors. It is their isolated nature that draws Maher to the Cuidhshiadar shielings, more remote than many of the other shieling villages of the Isle of Lewis.

He characterises shieling existence as: “No frills living in a harsh landscape.” (Maher, 2011) Maher believes that those who view his photographs experience them in two distinct ways: those who have little prior knowledge of the subject but who are able to appreciate it; and those for whom the photographs stir emotion and memory. He feels that this can vary depending on how much or how little the audience knows about the subject. For those who know little about the history of the humble dwellings, they may be stimulated by the wild nature of the landscape, the beautiful clear skies, the ruggedness of the subject, whereas, others with a cultural tie to the shielings may experience feelings of nostalgia. The photographer believes that the night time setting of the photographs may also evoke an ethereal atmosphere.

III. BUILDING A FUTURE “...routes and roots.” (Donald, 2012) Mike Donald, founder of the Airigh Project and a native of Lewis, was inspired to start his business due to disillusionment with the provision of tourist accommodation on the island. He felt that few cater to those wishing to experience what makes the Hebrides so unique. His search for “a bit of seclusion, peace and quiet, beautiful views, a real fire, a bit of style, a touch of Harris Tweed...” (Donald, 2012) proved fruitless and became the catalyst behind the project. He described the parallels drawn from HD Thoreau’s, Walden, his Page 48

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FIGURE 31

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“...little cabin, with simple necessities and a sense of place...” (Donald, 2012) as instilling the desire to create something with similar ideologies. Rediscovering the memory of transhumance is the aim: to entice people once more, to spend their summers on the moors.

The Airigh Project has collaborated with Skye-based architectural practice, Dualchas, in order to produce a prototype shieling representative of their enterprise. (This has currently received Building Warrant approval with a view to construction in summer 2012.)

Donald expects this new breed of shieling to illustrate the development of the traditional vernacular in line with modern materials and construction techniques: “I see the designs we are working on as a natural evolution of the vernacular, from stone and thatch to wood, tin and iron to the current, eco-materials we are using.” (Donald, 2012) Combining modern sustainable theory with traditional building principles, the huts will be, “self-erected, customisable, demountable, transportable with very low impact to the site and off-grid.” (Donald, 2012) In this sense, the Airigh Project aims to provide the island, not only with a much needed economic opportunity, but also to set a precedent in sustainable design practice within the islands.

The project will evolve and grow organically as a business venture: it will adapt to accommodate the varying needs of different clients. Mike Donald expressed his desire to see many within the islands benefit, from private crofters to larger community groups.

“When you look at any map of Lewis you can see just how integral to our way of life they once were but now all that are left are ruins and hundreds of related place names on a page.” (Donald, 2012) However, what is inherently important to the Airigh Project is not to create a twee pastiche in homage to Page 50

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the cultural traditions of the island of fifty years ago, but to raise awareness of the island’s heritage, in a contemporary, economically beneficial and innovative way.

Paul Murray, a 22 year old Niseach, who grew up in the village of Skigersta, and returned to the island following completion of his further education studies, decided to build his own shieling at Cuidhshiadar. While his own childhood was in stark contrast to that of his grandparents, he too spent his summers on the moor, albeit as a leisurely pastime rather than the necessary transhumance of decades ago.

Murray’s shieling differs quite considerably in form, mass and material quality, from the various traditional shieling typologies seen at Cuidhsiadar. Firstly, its form is more similar to that of the newer shielings of the last century, but integrates more modern construction techniques and shapes: the shallower pitched roof form with overhanging eave detail, for example. With regards to massing, Murray’s shieling is considerably larger and more luxurious in floor area than the humble, quaint, traditional airigh. Thirdly, material choice is less limited to vernacular finishes such as stone and earth and explores timber cladding and a concrete floor slab. While the distinct traditional shieling typologies were either born out of the land or rested lightly on it, this contemporary shieling does not comply with either. Understandably, opinions are divided. Purists comment that the building deviates from the traditional form, to the detriment of the other shielings at Cuidhsiadar.

However, perhaps this is the modern reincarnation of transhumance in Ness. Perhaps it was inevitable, as a result of the losing the true function of shielings, that certain elements of the typologies would change and evolve.

John Maher commented: “The fact someone has gone to the trouble of building a brand new shieling, proves the connection between islander and moor still exists!” (2011) Page 52

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0 9. C ONCL US I O N “...remember.” “...it is always a saddening and moving experience to come across the clusters of stone rings, mounds and foundations and to reflect on the days when folk had rejoiced that the time had come to pack up blankets, pots, eating utensils and dairy equipment and head for the upper ground in a cheerful and laughing crowd for the laithean na h-airigh, the shieling days.” (McOwan: 1987: 273) What is interesting about the isolated and abandoned moorland villages of Cuidhsiadar and Filiscleitir is not necessarily what they are now: but what they represent. Monuments to the past for the local community of Ness, the shielings are an inherent element of the history of the island, Scotland and our Norse ancestors.

Their importance is not only architectural: it is archaeological, cultural and social.

Shieling life was hard: subsistence living on the edge of the world compounded by barely fertile land around settlements led to the necessity for transhumance, a legacy and a lesson from the Viking invaders of the 10th century. But, these were practical people, Calvinist people. The architecture of their humble moorland dwelling illustrates how much could be done with so little and a make-do-and-mend philosophy. In their own way, these huts show sophistication, craftsmanship, forethought and a learning process. Parallels can be drawn from then to now with regards to design approach: site orientation, shelter, day-lighting, access to services. An understanding of structure and loads is demonstrated through the varying thicknesses of walls and the presence of lintels above doors and windows.

The demise of shieling life in Ness was a gradual, degenerative process. Many factors contributed to the Page 54

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FIGURE 34

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cessation of transhumance, such as: fracturing of the traditional clan system; changes in crofting practice and legislation; mass emigration; the inscription of Nessmen into the army during both World Wars; and the global Industrial Revolution finally breaching the shores of the Outer Hebrides. Despite the inevitable evolution of life here, there was a sense of trepidation and uneasiness at the unknown. Donald Macleod’s account of emigration illustrates the predicament many exiles faced. Desperation and weariness from a life of poverty combined with the hope of a new opportunity and a new life, with a contradictory sadness, homesickness and nostalgia for their island. This is compounded by various accounts of shieling life, which contrast the difficulty and fragility of life in Ness, with the impassioned longing for a lost, simpler time.

It is evident that, although the primary function of the shieling has been forgotten, the connection between people and place has never been lost. Today, some shielings have been restored and renovated, while a new modern construction sits on the loop of Cuidhsiadar river: testament that the ties between the land and its people have not been broken; that hopefully the new generation will still remember; that the notion of the airigh is being introduced as a possibly viable economic opportunity breathes further life into Cuidhsiadar and Filiscleitir. It remains to be seen whether these will last or come to fruition, but what is encouraging is people’s passion.

“We’re losing the reasons behind airigh’s name, the paths that led to them, the families, the stories...so much heritage is being forgotten.” (Donald, 2012) It is clear that despite what people’s perceptions of the shielings of Cuidhsiadar and Filiscleitir are, whether positive, negative or indifferent, it is vitally important to record and sustain them as they are now, or face the prospect of an inherent part of our culture being lost forever. Tom Morton stressed that we are on the cusp of losing first-hand recall of an intrinsically important and rich part of Ness’ culture and traditions, not only Page 56

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FIGURE 35

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through the rapid decay of the earliest shielings but with fewer and fewer Nisich who are able to reminisce over those long summer days spent amongst the heather. As Morton suggested, it is the cultural association and intangible heritage, as much and the physical architecture that must be protected and sustained. The accuracy of any recording will be crucial in detailing a true account of transhumance at Cuidhsiadar and Filiscleitir.

The timescale involved, the rate at which the villages are deteriorating beyond recognition, makes it even more critical that action is taken to record, conserve and protect, ...but most importantly, ...to remember.

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1 0. GLOSS ARY DEFINITION Àirigh Àiridhean Bainne Beathaichean Blàthach Bàrr a’ Chailleach Càise Ceann-fhiodh Ceip Cèilidh Ceò Ceòl Cleathan Clachan Criàdh Crodh Cruach Cuidhsiadar Dualchas

Shieling Shielings (pl.)

Milk Animals Buttermilk Cream Stone benches (also means old woman) Cheese Rafters Lumps of earth used to construct walls Informal gathering Smoke Music Timber structure Stones Clay Cattle Peat stack Moorland village in North Lewis Heritage Page 60

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Fàd Feur Filiscleitir Fiosach Fraoch Gruth Ìm Leabaidh Nis Niseach Machair Maide-tarsainn Mòine Mòinteach Preas Seann-tiomnadh Sgràthan Similear Slabhraidh Teine Tiomnadh Nuadh Tobht’

Peat Grass Moorland village in North Lewis Reverend, Minister Heather Crowdie Butter Bed Ness Nessman Fertile, low-lying, grassy plain Ridge pole Peat Moor Cupboard / store Old Testament Roof turf Chimney Hook to hang pots over fire Fire New Testament Wall head

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11. BIBLIO G RAP HY BOOKS: Hirst, Caroline. 2005. Back to the Wind, Front to the Sun: The Traditional Croft House. Isle of Lewis: Islands Book Trust Johnson, Samuel & Boswell, James (1775) A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland, Peguin Classics, Reprint (2006) Macdonald, Donald. 1978. Lewis: A History of the Island. Edinburgh: Gordon Wright Publishing Mitchell, A. 1881. The Past and the Present. Harper and Brothers, New York Morrison, Dan.1997. Nis Aosmhor: The Photographs of Dan Morrison. Isle of Lewis: Acair Earranta.

JOURNAL ARTICLES: Macdonald, Donald. 1984. Lewis Shielings. Review of Scottish Culture. 1: 29-33 McOwan, Rennie. June 1987. Shieling Days. Scots Magazine. 127: 3: 272-278 Miller, Ronald. 1967. Land Use by Summer Shielings. 191-215 Morrison, Donald. (No date available). An Airigh, Commun Eachdraidh Nis Page 63

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Murray, W.H. 1973. The Islands of Western Scotland- The Inner and Outer Hebrides. London: Eyre Methuen Thompson, Francis. (1987) Harris and Lewis: Outer Hebrides, David & Charles, UK, 3rd Revised Edition Thompson, Francis. (1988) The Western Isles, B.T. Batsford Ltd., UK WEBSITES: Airigh Project http://www.airigh.com http://archaeology.about.com Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/factfile/population/civilparishes.asp Falmadair: North Lewis Maritime Society http://www.falmadair.com/images/Gallery/Pride%20of%20Lionel%20B.jpg The Flying Monk Photography http://www.theflyingmonk.co.uk/svmanager/g48/index.php Robin Wilson Photography http://www.robinwilson.net/sheiling/index.html Page 64

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The Scotsman http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/historic-sites/historic_dwellings_face_uncertain_future_1_466099 article by local author and historian Michael Robson. http://www.viewsofscotland.org/library/docs/VoSNews_v2-4.pdf a second article from the local author and historian Michael Robson. This gives a background to the shielings and investigates the possible impact the proposed AMEC Wind Farm might have on their survival. http://scotlandsruralpast.org Scran http://www.scran.ac.uk/database/results.php?offset=33&no_results=16&scache=4de04867wr&searchdb=sc ran&sortby=&sortorder=ASC&field=&searchterm=%2Bshielings includes sketch plans and sections of shielings on the Isle of Lewis.

Virtual Hebrides http://www.virtualhebrides.net/BV.htm SCREENPLAY: Boswell and Johnson’s Tour of the Western Isles (1993), Written and Directed by John Byrne, Produced

by Nick Barton, Starring Robbie Coltrane

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DOCUMENTARY: Off-Kilter: Isle of Rust, Jonathon Meades, BBC FOUR (2009) INTERVIEWS (SEE APPENDIX): Campbell, Mary. August 2011. A Personal Account of the Shieling.

Maher, John: December 2011 Maher coveys his reasons for choosing the shielings as a prominent feature in his series of photographs.

Morton, Tom; January 2012 Morton talks about his own perceptions of island transhumance and his passion to ensure the buildings’ survival.

Donald, Mike; February 2012 Discusses reasons behind his Airigh Project and why remembering shieling life is important to him.

Murray, Paul: March 2012 Murray explains what inspired him to construct his own interpretation of the shieling at Cuidhsiadar.

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1 2. A PPE NDI X I. INTERVIEW WITH MARY CAMPBELL, AUGUST 2011 II. INTERVIEW WITH TOM MORTON, JANUARY 2012 III. EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE WITH JOHN MAHER, DECEMBER 2011 IV. EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE WITH MIKE DONALD, FEBRUARY 2012 V. EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE WITH PAUL MURRAY, MARCH 2012

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1 2. A ppen d i x I. INTERVIEW WITH MARY CAMPBELL. Interview conducted in Ness, Isle of Lewis, in August 2011.

Mary Campbell: I’m Mary, the Grannie and I remember when I was nine, ten and eleven years of age going out during my summer holidays and staying with my grannie for six weeks.

Catriona Macdonald: And, was it just those two summers you went out?

MC: Well, before that, I was too young. And after that I was able to help my mother at home with things so I wasn’t allowed out after eleven and twelve...after eleven. I was two or three summers out there...three.

CM: And was it just your Grannie who went out?

MC: I was...I stayed with my Grannie and we both used the same bed. And when my Grandfather came, he would sleep at the end. And if Angus was with us, my grandfather and my Grannie and Angus and I would sleep in the same bed.

CM: Can you describe the exterior of the shieling?

MC: The outside? Well, Alasdair says he remembers them with stone around the outside as well. The walls were thick and very often to save another wall they would build them back to back and the walls were very thick with thick turf, I would say about two feet, two and two and a half feet wide. The door would be about 6 feet, just the height of the wall.

You could walk on the tobht, around the wall, as you saw on the picture. And, the roof was 1 beam across the top and then some driftwood here and there to hold the turf lawn. They had to have driftwood, as much as they could afford, to

Aig an Airigh - 2012 stop the turf from falling in.

CM: Did they use anything to fix it? I mean, I assume they didn’t have nails...?

MC: I don’t think so, no.

CM: It was just the, sort of, natural weight of the materials that held it down?

MC: There was a way of weaving them, starting at the bottom and up the way and then they would flush them down in such a way that the rain wouldn’t have any effect.

CM: So it was almost a cross between thatching and slates?

MC: Something like that. And there would be often, experts that were born with talents that were better at building and fixing than others, but they all were...all the neighbours helped together.

CM: So it wasn’t necessarily that one person was known for being...?

MC: No, no. Everyone had to try and do his own and with the help of neighbours.

CM: So, really, going back to the location of the shieling, what would be possible advantages that people were looking for in locating their shieling? I think you mentioned that it was to be beside a river...?

MC: They would always look for sheltered places. Taobh na Feadan. At The Feadan we were very sheltered, but at

Aig an Airigh - 2012 Filiscleitir it wasn’t, now.

CM: Why, would that be an unnatural place for a shieling then?

MC: No, no. There was a big shieling there because they were close to the sea which was important because we always found lots of things on the shore.

CM: So then was, perhaps, being close to the sea more important than being sheltered because you could make shelter? You had the thick walls and the thatched roof...

MC: Yes, I think so. It had to be near the sea. It was important because we used to go down and get a lot of our whelks, seashells that we used to use for our lunch and our meals. And is it Limpets (?), and Whelks. We always went down to the shore to collect Whelks and Limpets and seaweed which was very good as well. And the cattle got some of that as well. I used to go down to the shore with my Grannie with a creel and we would pick up some seaweed off the rocks for the cattle because it was part of their diet. It was excellent for them.

CM: So, really, going back to the external aspects of the shielings. In the more traditional type they didn’t have any windows, did they?

MC: No, No. But, the door was quite deep in, you know, the walls were thick, about two to three feet wide and the door was sheltered and the door was open quite a lot of the time. You could just move a turf. There was always a turf above the fire.

CM: That was open?

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MC: That was open all the time, where the smoke went out. And the floor was earth, compressed, it was so...And some clay.

CM: And that was found, just close to the site?

MC: Yes there was always plenty material from the ground, loads. You could collect stones, any amount of them.

CM: So, what do you think determined the look of the shieling, its aesthetic? Do you think it was just tradition that was maybe borne out of practicalities they came across?

MC: Poverty at first, poverty. They had to use the resources and they built on that. They used blocks of turf for the walls and wove them together and after a year or two they would grow into one another.

CM: But, what I mean is, in the same way that for the black-house it had the rounded corners so that the wind was deflected, was it that same principle that applied?

MC: It was the old traditional house on a smaller scale. And, when you came in on the door and you brought the cattle in at night- usually you had two cows, they would go down to the right, one in his own and the other in his own and you went up to the living quarters to the left, in our house. But in our black-house at home there would be a partition, you know as you came in on the door, as you came up to the left, there would be a partition so that you could be in and not see the cattle going down to their...

CM: Yes, I’m sure that for something like that, in modern times it would a Health and Safety nightmare, hygiene issues,

Aig an Airigh - 2012 but was that not a consideration or was it just...?

MC: There was no question of hygiene because living in the smoke and with the fire there all the time must have killed all of the germs (!), if there were germs. But, you could hear the cows peeing in the trough, you could hear them!

But in the morning our chores, well, that was all we had to do - we hadn’t any cleaning to do (!), just your bed. But the bed, now, was about two and half feet...24...5...6....over 2 feet high, you know, just enough to sit on it and get into your bed...

CM: And that was made out of stone?

MC: No, that was made out of blocks of turf with a stone front.

CM: Ah, alright.

MC: And they would put some driftwood over the turf...

CM: To create a bedstead, almost?

MC: And then the mattress...the heather...and you could change the heather as often...if the heather got flat and uncomfortable you could put fresh heather in as....because there was any amount of heather. But there was some wood on top of the turf but the front was all stones and the benches that were on either side were also turf and front stones.

CM: Ah, ok. So people weren’t actually sitting on stone?

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MC: NO no no! And there was also, eh, eh, lawn turf on the benches, the grass side up. And after a while it would go flat and look quite nice. So there was the turf like you had for the roof on the benches, but with the grass side up. Like a lawn...

CM: Like a cushion!

MC: Like cushions.

CM: And what about storage?

MC: Well, we didn’t have much because there was a cupboard for the basins, for the milk storage, the milk that turned sour to make the cream and the cheese and things. There was a cupboard for the milk at the end of the bench, as you see there (refers to sketch) and there were shelves on top with the crockery. And on the other side, the bench came a little bit further down.

CM: And was that shelving system made from stone?

MC: No, from driftwood. And the other side, between the cow side, the cattle side, and the bench...there was a space there for another cupboard for pots and pans and what...and food. And we...the food...we always had....my grannie took barley meal out and she used to bake barley bread and we had plenty of milk and cheese and crowdie and porridge.

And we used to catch rabbits...

CM: Out on the moor?

Aig an Airigh - 2012

MC: YES! And skin them. And then we’d get whelks and limpets on the shore and my grandfather would come out once or twice a week in the evenings with fish to us.

CM: So you wouldn’t catch fish out in the river?

MC: Yes, sometimes. Yes, we had a rod on the rocks...we did rock...whoever would be out, local lads would be out and they would be rock fishing and they would share what they got with all the neighbours.

CM: Ok, so back to the internal quality of the shieling. How would you describe it? Was it light or dark? Was it smoky?

Was it cramped?

MC: No, no. We had good quality peat and once, eh, the smoke disappeared and it started brightening up, lighting up and cinders, you didn’t notice the smoke....because we’d have the door open...

CM: And the ventilation...

MC: For ventilation. And the floor was always so dry, it was always dry.

CM: So was it actually quite a pleasant environment, really?

MC: I loved it!

CM: You did?

Aig an Airigh - 2012

MC: I loved being...we looked forward to going.

CM: And why was that? Was there some kind of romanticism about it?

MC: It was...you were so free and easy. And all the youngsters would be out at Filliscleitir and Mairi Chennaidh, do you remember Mairi Chennaidh?

CM: Yes MC: Mairi Chennaidh was with her aunt in Filliscleitir and I was at the Feadan and we used to meet… and others.

CM: So it was just like a summer holiday?

MC: YES! It was like a holiday, and we...Latha na h-Iomraich, that’s what they called it.

CM: Yes, leaving...

MC: Latha na h-Iomraich, and days before...the cattle... my grannie would say, “Now, keep your eye on the cows today because they want to get home.” They seemed to know.

CM: So you’ve got good memories?

MC: I have such wonderful memories that I forget what happened yesterday and I remember those days on the shieling

Aig an Airigh - 2012 of over eighty years ago... Are you taking notes of this?

CM: Yes. So I would imagine that this was quite a general feeling?

MC: Oh, yes!

CM: That most people felt?

MC: Oh, yes it was. Because, there was nothing else- there was no entertainment and sometimes some of the young girls and boys, well, I mean, late teenagers and twenties who hadn’t yet started work, they would go out to the shielings for a ceilidh.

CM: Really?

MC: Mhm, and some for the weekend. But they were home doing the peats for the next year...doing the peats. The horses and carts were busy while the grannie was making butter and cheese and things. But there were always activities.

CM: So, why do you think, seeing as it was such a popular tradition, why do you think that they are lying in ruin now?

MC: Because it was a hard life. You had to cultivate the whole...the crofts to make a life, to live.

CM: So really, although that one element was idyllic, as a whole life was hard?

MC: Oh yes. But we didn’t know anything else. But they stopped...the shielings stopped with us when they started taking

Aig an Airigh - 2012 the young men away to the Reserves, preparing for war, in 1938. And everything changed, eh, and money seemed to get more plentiful and instead of working the soil, working everything, we had money to buy things.

CM: So you no longer had to provide your own butter and cheese and...?

MC: We had to work all the time for our fuel to give us light and heating because we now had money...and electricity came...oh, electricity didn’t come ‘til long after that. But the electricity came and we could buy coal, a little to save us working so hard.

CM: It was no longer necessary to have peat.

MC: We did have it for years after, certainly, because we liked the peats but not on the same scale because we had money to buy stuff. That’s why it was stopped.

CM: Does that make you feel quite sad, when it was such a happy memory for you...?

MC: It didn’t...when I stopped going and I started working, I didn’t give it a thought because it was so good to be able to be working and have money but it was when I got older that I realised what a treasure we had, you know? Although the people, my grandfather had to work hard, and his family growing up before, they were able to go to earn money, they had to help as well.

CM: Obviously, I know it’s not the same but, right through since then, a few people have actually kept the memory of that tradition, not necessarily annual migration but, you know, going out for the weekend or out to cut their peat...

Aig an Airigh - 2012 MC: They built huts and they rebuilt some of the shielings more modern, more like holiday homes and some of them had never known shielings.

CM: But does that not feel good, that, in a way, they’re trying to keep that tradition alive?

MC: In a way, yes.

CM: I imagine that you don’t ever think that there will be that kind of thing again?

MC: Oh never.

CM: There won’t be a revival?

MC: No, never...unless the country goes broke.

CM: Well, we’re in recession at the moment (!)

MC: Unless the country goes broke and they go back to using their ground and using their resources again...but I don’t think it would ever come to, when we had to work, even down at the shore getting the limpets and the faochagan and anything like that. Eels...

CM: But it’s all a distant memory now?

MC: Oh yes, it was when there was, poverty here actually, poverty. Because we were isolated there was no work, there

Aig an Airigh - 2012 was no work.

CM: So everyone had to be self-sufficient?

MC: They had to use...to fish...and that’s how you had such accidents. You’ve heard of the Cunndal accident in Eoropie?

They would go out in...you know...they had to. But it was because... and that’s why they had to go out to the shielings to get the cattle to graze on the moors, miles away from their homes, their black-houses in which they lived.

CM: But it’s interesting that even through all that hardship and depravation, that there was a glimmer of something enjoyable.

MC: Well, the war changed everything. The war changed everything. I mean, when there was no work before, at eighteen they were called up and at least they got so much, and they would be sending home to their parents. So that changed everything. But as you said, the location...they did choose locations that were suitable...shelter-wise, was important. Being close to the sea was very important and by a river...

CM: For fresh water?

MC: Well, they used...all airighs would get...there’s always spring water in the ground when you look for it. And we had a tobair, Tobair an Fheadain. But we would also use the fresh water that would, if it rained at night and it rained on very grassy parts, we could use that water.

Aig an Airigh - 2012 CM: And isn’t it interesting that it’s only now...that’s rainwater harvesting! That people are using that as a new building technique, an environmentally friendly one. So in a sense, we are having to revert back to past techniques because, I suppose, it’s about being practical.

MC: Yes, that’s right.

CM: And what’s more sustainable and more environmentally friendly than recycling, re-using materials, using what’s already in the landscape...?

MC: Yes, that’s right. Well, everything we had...we had to locate a sheltered part, near a river, not far from the shore because we wanted...oh it was lovely. I loved being out in the free open spaces. We used to go out Ard Tholstaidh...

CM: That far out?

MC: Yes, out there. Pity you weren’t out there a’ Chatriona, you would’ve had a different view of it.

The walls were thick and very often they would build one behind the other to make use of the wall. And they were rounded, you noticed that? And that was because of the wind, I suppose. And they thought of everything.

CM: I suppose, it’s hundreds of years of trying and testing and perfecting it.

MC: Mhm, but there’d always be one or two men in some of the communities, not communities; I don’t mean communities… where you’d find brainy people, naturally brainy people who knew how to splice the stones together, you know? And do the roofs...and knew how to do things; the bright ones, who had talents. But they always helped each other.

Aig an Airigh - 2012

II. INTERVIEW WITH TOM MORTON. Interview conducted at Arc Architects, Cupar, Fife in January 2012.

Tom Morton: Originally it was through research we were doing for Historic Scotland into plants on masonry. We ran a 5 year research study for HS into the effects of plants on masonry and using them in conservation...which snowballed into quite a big study. We looked at different situations in Scotland and England and Scandinavia and that’s just been published…and as part of that, we got into looking at how ruins are naturally colonised by plants and also then, how buildings that were originally constructed using organic materials decayed, and indeed buildings that used plants as original construction materials how they decayed and how you might approach their conservation. And, we looked at examples of black-houses, their decay and with the turf aspects with those, and how these plants regenerate, how they sit on the wall heads and protect the wall heads and so on.

And then I started to look at shielings because I wanted to look at turf structures more generally but in particular turf constructed shielings. I tried to see if I could find the least historic photographs of turf shielings that i could and the ones that I came across were the ones from Dan Morrison’s.

Catriona Macdonald: Ah! I actually have those too.

TM: -Which were great. The only problem being that I think they got the dates wrong...I can’t imagine the dress sense was quite that bad in 1985; I wondered whether it was the wrong way round- that it should have been 1958. And so...I spoke to the publisher Finlay MacLeod...do you know Finlay?

CM: Dr Finlay? Ah, yes.

Aig an Airigh - 2012 TM: He seemed to think that they were dated right, but then we agreed that they weren’t. And so then what I did was...‘cause I had photos from other sources, and I used to go up to the Outer Hebrides from my summer holidays, traipsing about trying to locate locations of photographs to what they survived as now. And so I went out to Cuidhsiadar with Finlay, oh...it must have been...2007, something like that, 2006 and then another the year after and we met a couple of people who had shielings out there, ones that were the traditional turf-type. I was surprised to find shielings surviving, you know, of the traditional turf, more-or-less surviving, in standing condition, because I knew from documentary records at Historic Scotland that there was no record of these surviving.

CM: And was that on their part? That they just hadn’t surveyed the area?

TM: Well, it’s slightly complicated because one of the shielings is actually a listed building. But Historic Scotland is bureaucracy and he people that I was speaking to in terms of vernacular buildings hadn’t documented this and certainly in terms of their technical advice on turf construction it wasn’t in there, it was all there as records of buildings, of lost heritage. So from what I saw up there, there were two...well, two the first trip, one the second trip that really survived and were intact. And I was quite keen to see if we could organise a project that would, I guess, respond to that as a surviving vernacular heritage in its kind of international context, in terms of Scandinavia, Iceland and Ireland but as a, kind of, living cultural thing with a tangible heritage as well as the artefacts and the building because you could see it was a perfect example. But for an example of turf shieling to have survived in its cultural relationship to individual settlement, albeit the transhumance has stopped but there’s still this relationship between people and place that’s quite special and it’s remnant of something that was much more widespread. Therefore if you did a study of that, because I don’t think a study of that has been done on shieling settlement... I mean you have the Arnol Black-house which is a kind of, museum-class example of a black-house but it’s that relationship of people to place as much as the artefact itself.

But then there’s also the land use around the site and how the botany of many of the places is changing, to do with the changing of land use, with the death of transhumance and so on. And obviously there’s still the folk memory and so on,

Aig an Airigh - 2012 of people understanding these relationships and being able to associate particular activities with particular places and it seems to me that we’re just on the edge of losing that tradition and losing that oral record as well as the physical record and there is this opportunity to record that and if possible, to try and sustain that in someway as well. Another time I went, someone had just started to build a new one with huge foundations and it seemed to me that this is just disappearing in front of our eyes.

And so, I approached a group of people locally to see if we could bring together people who would be interested in running a project and had a meeting up there and approached Historic Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund to see if we could instigate a landscape heritage lottery project that would cover all these themes and maybe initiate some kind of management plan that would come out of the community because I think it has to be locally led, because the whole thing about who owns these... the whole thing about listing is that...even to record and work with local people, to understand better and to document better would be a valuable thing. But we really, at the end of the day, we didn’t manage to secure any sort of funding from Historic Scotland or the Lottery Fund which would have allowed us to do that project.

I’ll run you through the wee slide show that I put together for Historic Scotland when I was trying to encourage them and their interest which was looking at this area up here...

CM: And that’s Cuidhsiadar there?

TM: Yes, yes. And just talking about the landscape and this thing about how, you know, you’re asking about what my perception is, as an “outsider” as it were and it’s this thing, you know, looking at it being an empty landscape but in actual fact it’s a very rich landscape because it’s full of these associations of people with place. Place names is part of it, with these Scandinavian place names and the particular culture that they have up in Ness and so although it looks open and windswept in fact there’s a great resonance there that the people are there. And the built culture was one

Aig an Airigh - 2012 manifestation of the culture but it’s not...it’s almost a transient thing...and the transhumance...and all these things, they all come together...and the aesthetics as well. And looking at...just seeing that this is the best example that you could study of traditional shieling settlement, albeit, there was a later farm that kind of...That’s the current aerial photograph, at least a relatively recent one and you can chart where these things are and talk about it going back. But, I mean, with that place name it must be a very ancient place but there’s very little documentation of it.

CM: Very little!

TM: Yes! There is in the Ness Archaeological Survey that was carried out they didn’t really go down there...well they did, but they kind of, avoided areas of particular interest I think! It was a kind of, walk-over survey and they covered some interesting things but they deliberately avoided going to areas that were actively used...but don’t quote me on that! It didn’t really deal with the area I was interested in.

So these are Dan’s photographs and what I was really trying to do was trying to find these exact locations and see what remained. For this one, I think, we pretty much figured out was this...so, you know, it’s not that far gone. And this is Ali’s one...

CM: In fact, I was there two weeks ago!

TM: Were you? Well you know, from an aesthetic and from a green architect’s point of view, there’s an incredible potency to an image of that sort, of the building. I have a background in new eco-buildings and in earth construction, more in terms of clay structures and I’m a Director of Earth Building UK which is developing new building materials using earth and clay as a construction material. We do quite a bit of work with green roofs and so on but also, my interest in conservation is also in vernacular structures so I’ve got an interest in these materials. And I think that when you look

Aig an Airigh - 2012 at that sort of a building, you know, the walls are thicker than the spaces inside and it’s reasonably clear that you have several layers of construction. But in terms of documenting a vernacular structure it would be interesting to do a proper survey, albeit challenging, of that structure and understanding the vernacular shieling. And really that transhumance has carried on in various forms throughout the 20th century which is maintaining that cultural association but without the traditional vernacular form of building. And you know, there’s a politics to these structures as well, and a poignancy to them also. And people are still going out there, young and old...that connection, that bond is still strong in people’s minds and that’s the key thing, the relationship of people to place. But often, elsewhere where you get vernacular buildings surviving as these stone monuments, you have the monument but all the tangible associations have disappeared and it loses half its meaning because of that and so you’ve still got that cultural meaning but it’s the physical object that’s just slipping away....

(Photograph of the foundations for the most recent shieling) And this is what partly concerned me, that it was becoming a suburban site...

CM: Yes, have you seen the finished article?

TM: No, I haven’t!

CM: It really is a monster...

TM: The foundations seemed massive. And it seemed to be coming from a completely different mentality.

CM: Completely

Aig an Airigh - 2012 TM: Almost alien to the site.

CM: The man who built, he was actually on my class in school and his father owns one of the largest construction companies on the island. It’s basically a log cabin- it has its concrete floor, PVC windows...but even the scale and proportion is completely different to what was there.

TM: I guess what I was thinking that you might end up with through project of recording and documentation might be to bring people together that have an interest in the place and to try and reach some kind of agreement amongst themselves as to what the controls would be over the use there and the development and maybe strengthen that culture to us, so that the place might be managed so that the structures might survive.

But it’s all about people. It’s almost more about people than it is about the buildings. I mean, this is Norrie Morrison’s... this was the second one. I think his father had had it, but his father had died and he hadn’t been maintaining it and so the roof was just coming in then and it was just slipping away. But, you could see he had some feelings for it, he said his mother would have been very concerned if she could see how far it had gone into this state but she wasn’t well enough to still get out there. But he didn’t have a use for it himself. But there was still a feeling and a close association but it was just slipping away. And then, obviously you’ve got all the ones that are now just shadows on the landscape that are retreating from buildings to archaeology. But, people still go. Finlay was saying, “Ach, I just come out here for a cup of tea to such and such’s auntie’s place.” And Ali drew this map of whose shieling was which one and where they were...and it’s all there, you can make that record now. But you come back in 15 years time and it won’t be there. And so, we’re just at this...it’s like history is vanishing before our eyes. And this is the map from the first Ordinance Survey, the plot of shielings in Scotland and I think this tells you two things: one, shielings were originally very widespread, a very common thing, which we kind of know but it hasn’t been documented...and that there were lots in Lewis. But I think what’s important here is that there wasn’t historically a particular density in Lewis that there wasn’t elsewhere. It’s that

Aig an Airigh - 2012 the demise of shielings happened much earlier across Scotland and Ness was, kind of, the last hold-out. The ones at Cuidhsiadar are the very last example of what all these ones were. And maybe originally across Scotland you had that density. But even by first edition Ordinance Survey Map, what is it? 1840, half, two-thirds we’ve lost. I think that’s my interpretation of that map. It’s why this retreat across Scotland...it’s why this example is important for its own place but also as an example of something more widespread. It’s our last chance to document it.

CM: And do you think there’s a reason for that pattern?

TM: Ah...well....undoubtedly there are, I don’t know enough about it...I haven’t done the research project to really know but there are several factors, you know, there was probably a greater...things have changed in land use and estate management, movement of population and perhaps the community in Ness, with their ability to do fishing as well and the way the estate was run survived longer...and....I don’t know the particular history of this placement of peoples. But I think there’s also that the community in Ness has a very strong self identity and that’s something I’ve noticed in other vernacular cultures, like, in North America, the only people who were never defeated by Europeans, by Whites, were the Pueblo peoples, they’re mostly in Arizona and New Mexico and part of their survival has been that they are quite insular and they don’t welcome people in, you know, they’re quite inward looking and they don’t, although there is a bit of a tourist economy, they don’t...they kind of, repel interest as it were...

CM: But actually that’s like self preservation?

TM: Exactly, it’s a preservation exercise. They have their own strong culture and they don’t welcome outside interaction.

CM: I suppose even that I would refer to you as an “outsider” means that that’s still apparent.

Aig an Airigh - 2012 TM: Yes, and it’s the language thing. The language can be used as a defence mechanism of keeping people on the other side and it’s part of what helps cultures like this survive. And so you go to Taos Pueblo, quite a well populated place, you go there and you can walk around about half of the Pueblo but there’s a thing where people won’t speak to you, it’s a cultural thing where you don’t speak to strangers. So there are all these kinds of safeguards, to safeguard the culture in the way that they interact. You’re not allowed to actually stay on site, to rent a room or anything like that. I mean it’s not as strong, but there’s a bit of a thing about how cultures survive, is actually by not interacting much...a defence mechanism. I think you can see a bit of that in the culture, in the people of Ness.

CM: Even now.

TM: Yes, I mean, their experience of new people coming in, with reforms and plans for new industries and that...they see people come, they see people go and I think that’s what helps people survive, it’s these traditional things and the strong family connections and you can see that in other cultures, in other places as well. Instances where vernacular construction survives tend to be associated with a slightly insular culture and maybe an old language as well. But that’s conjecture! But that one example of turf shieling may soon be gone. I mean, he’s not a young man.

I’m still interested in trying to do something, I did all this in my spare time and I needed to get some funding to turn it into a proper project and we were going to do that but I couldn’t afford to give it any more time. But I think there’s still something of value, vernacular buildings, in particular were only seasonally used or weren’t high status and built of organic materials aren’t actually culturally valued. I mean, high status buildings are made out of stone are seen as important and are therefore recognised by heritage agencies and I think Historic Scotland’s not bad actually in recognising the importance of vernacular building techniques and certainly, this is a unique example left in Scotland and so it should be valued. But if you put that historic preservation approach to it, it would kill it, do you know what I mean?

It would be like the kiss of death! So, it’s that cultural association that’s helped them survive that you want to sustain, as

Aig an Airigh - 2012 much as the buildings themselves. Although, there is a separate documentation exercise that would be really good to do: do an oral history record, do a proper survey of those buildings and the whole site, because it’s how these buildings relate to the burn, what is the land use like it different places, it’s all that...because they’re saying the heather’s coming in much more over the walls and the grazing used to keep all this down...there were wells and...I guess the other side of funding for that sort of project is the Heritage Lottery Fund and public money but often now they want to see that with economic activity, so it’s to create training or tourism and so on. Again, it’s those things that would kill it off. It would be nice to do a bit of training in turf construction with the local people but it’s never going to be a popular visitor attraction and again that would be the kiss of death! It’s those things that are important and valued are all the things why it’s not attractive to funders. So it almost does need to be an academic...The thing is, it’s a pure cultural thing, its built culture is part of human culture in a particular place, in a particular time. It’s not economic regeneration, it’s not tourism, it is culture and actually getting funding for things that are pure culture is very tricky.

CM: It’s awful really.

TM: It is. When you come back to one example left in Scotland, it is. You should be able to achieve something.

CM: I wondered whether you had spoken to anyone from the Galson Estate?

TM: I had one meeting up there...we had...the Barrowmans, who run the Ness Archaeological...we had Rachel come down from that, who is also Comunn Eachraidh and Deborah Anderson who was then the new archaeologist for the Western Isles Council. She was meant to be good. And Mark Macdonald from SNH, he’s in Stornoway I think. What we were trying to do was build a multi-dimensional landscape project... with biodiversity, land management and how we might sustain all that. And then...Julie Sievwright from the Galson Trust. In principle everyone was interested but we kind of needed development funding to get everybody together, because, a lot of this is about confidence building, especially

Aig an Airigh - 2012 working in the community with all these individual people and associations, you kind of need to feel...for them to have confidence from the start. It’s a kind of, bottom-up thing, although, you need a bit of outside expertise coming in as well.

You can only go so far as an outsider...

CM: I hadn’t realised the degradation involved. I hadn’t been out there in years and it’s certainly crumbled since then.

Maybe it is a case of people taking it for granted? As you say, they were never thought of as special buildings. They’ve always been...just...out on the moor...

TM: But, you know, I could go up there and I could give a talk on how this relates to all these things and Norway and Scandinavia and America and how this is so special but I don’t know if that would actually...I don’t know, maybe people would realise that what they have is special, but I don’t know, maybe they wouldn’t. That’s where my limited knowledge of Ness human culture becomes a problem.

CM: But, the thing is, the community is capable of leading these sorts of projects: they build a sports centre and that was a multi-million pound project. So it’s not as though there’s no precedent for...

TM: It’s that sense of identity, that continuity, that whole inter-generational thing and just understanding what it is you value about your own culture. I came up with an old aerial photograph, the RAF photographed the entire country in 1946 after the war, so, I got the digitised aerial photograph of Ness and if you take my word for it, when you blow it up... it’s hard to spot turf shielings on a black and white photograph... it’s something like thirteen turf shielings on here and...

Another eight or so...if you can see...there’s one...you know, you can pick them out. So that’s 1946, that’s 55 years ago...

CM: Ah yes, that’s the Job Creation track...

Aig an Airigh - 2012 TM: Right. And so, it’s within a generation or two that they were all there...I don’t know, I just feel that it’s disappearing right in front of our eyes, it could be so good...

CM: It’s on the cusp of becoming something or disappearing forever.

TM: Either. I think the community is in a position where they can say, this is something special to us, especially to everybody else, but we value that, we want to conserve what’s important. Not necessarily buildings as artefacts, but the shieling means something to our community. We want to understand that better...and there is that documentation thing...and I think people could help with that, that documentation could work with school children, oral history...it could be great. But also, to try and have some continuity that allows those turf buildings to be sustained as a memory of what was once very common.

CM: Yes, and I think sustained is the right word because I think what happened at Gearrannan...in fact I’ve heard it being described as a theme-park...

TM: Oh yes, it’s not authentic. Oh no, I don’t think we should change things, I just think we should value it...the difference is, this is a living place but Gearrannan and black-house, they’re preserved in aspheric, they’re commercialised. That’s what I don’t want here, because with cultural association...it’s a living cultural thing, it’s the tangible heritage as well as the physical heritage.

CM: And it actually ends up being more interesting by being authentic anyway.

TM: Of course and much richer and you understand these associations of these people, individual people to individual places.

Aig an Airigh - 2012

CM: Had you heard of the Airigh Project? I only came across it recently, I hadn’t heard of it being advertised or anything but, there’s a proposal to create these, new-type shieling holiday homes. I think he’s working with Dualchas to create prototypes and I believe they’re looking at Cuidhsiadar as a site. I haven’t spoken to him yet, but what would your view be on that? I mean, that’s certainly not preserving...

TM: I would’ve thought...I mean, the important thing about Cuidhsiadar is that it’s local people using it and I think if it’s local people going out for the weekend or for a month in the summer that maintains that cultural association, and it’s that modified use pattern...if it’s holiday cottages for people from the outside just to rent for the odd weekend, then I think you would ruin that relationship. It has to be a place of the local community and not of outsiders for this preservation, because that is the cultural meaning of the place. It’s not where people come for holidays; it’s where local people go to get away from their neighbours to some extent! To be in the wilderness; that actually is the important cultural relationship, it’s not outsiders and it should never be. That would be my opinion. But you need some sort of framework agreement with the community to achieve that, but it’s not something that can be imposed from the outside, it’s not like a formal planning thing, it’s whole community agreement. But I think the window of opportunity for that kind of thing is finite and I mean, I’ve not been up there for a couple of year now, you maybe know what the situation is better...What about the Trust?

Because I spoke to the Ranger, and she was kind of interested, but never really put any oomph behind...

CM: I think projects can be quite difficult to start in the area, because they need someone who is quite strong...a strong character to really get behind it. But, I don’t think that anyone understands how quickly they will disappear.

TM: Oh very quickly, I mean, five years and it could be beyond...and I spoke to Finlay, but Finlay has got different interests...so I don’t know. It’s very hard to read from the outside these internal dynamics.

Aig an Airigh - 2012 CM: And it is all very political because it is such a small community.

TM: -Which sometimes makes being an outsider an advantage. You can come in and gloss over all of that but other times it can be a disadvantage.

CM: I know Carola Bell, who is one of the people at the fore-front of the Estate Trust. She secures a lot of funding for their...they do a lot of sustainable projects and Tidal and Wave Power, that kind of thing. I actually worked for them a couple of summers.

TM: You know, one of these is actually a listed...theoretically...”Traditional shieling. One of a large group in this area which...” You know, it’s meaningless... Turf roof ...You know, actually it should be Grade A, it’s the final example of a very special type. But they don’t realise that and they don’t do anything about it. But again, if you went in formally with that, it would put people off locally. So, you don’t want to do that but, equally there is, I know people at the Scottish Office quite well, certain parts of it, from our other work and I think we could get support from them for a sensitive and appropriate project. The thing at the Royal Commission, they were running a whole Scotland’s Rural Landscape Project of communities going out and documenting their landscape and they would bring their surveyors out and train local people in doing land surveys and so on and I spoke to them about that, as a way of local people taking ownership of their own heritage and they were potentially interested but their funding for that project ran out before we got anywhere with this. There’s all the ingredients of a really great project but it does need a local champion to say, “Right, we want to do this,” and as far as reading things about transhumance and looking at other older...they’re all there to be seen. Indeed looking at Scandinavian extracts...Saami obviously, they have the transhumance thing with the reindeer herding... So it’s great stuff and I’m quite taken with it all and it would be...It occasionally comes up in the back of my head and is part of my conscience, you need to do something about this. But I haven’t found the way of actually achieving anything really...I’ve only taken a few photographs. But what then...is this in the course you’re doing?

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CM: Yes, this is as part of my dissertation but from speaking to people within the community, there are certain agencies like the Comunn Eachdraidh who want a copy and I mean that may just be to fill a space in a bookshelf but if it were in some way to raise awareness of the fact that an inherent part of our culture is in danger of being lost forever then that can only be a good thing. I’m not really sure...I have Masters to think of next year and I’m not sure whether this is something that could be incorporated or not.

TM: Is this for Masters Classification?

CM: No I’m fourth year so that’s...

TM: So it’s Thesis year next?

CM: Yes- so this may be revisited! I have such a personal interest in it anyway; it wouldn’t matter to me if it weren’t for an academic reason because, my mother used to go out there, and my grandparents and their parents and grandparents before them, so it’s much more than a mark at the end of the year.

TM: So it’s personal? All the best things are. I would’ve thought...it’s not that difficult to raise £10,000 from the Awards for All or the Scottish Government that would allow us to scope out a project and speaking to people and building up a proposal for something specific. But you do kind of need the instigation to come from...because, the Trust, they really are the representatives of the people, aren’t they? And they’re the land owners. I guess, they’re doing lots of different other things, aren’t they?

CM: Not as far as I know do they have bigger projects at the moment. Like I say, their tidal energy project is well on its

Aig an Airigh - 2012 way, they do things like farmers’ markets...but because it’s so important, I don’t think it’s something that they can really afford to ignore.

TM: I do think it is important, important for the community as well as the wider context.

CM: I would say it’s our responsibility to protect it, if anything, on the community’s behalf.

TM: There is a passion there...people do care. You can see that when you talk to people about the shielings.

CM: Well, the wind farm debacle really demonstrated how fond they were of the moor that no one had been out to for decades! And all of a sudden...maybe that again was the outsiders coming in...building on their land!

TM: It’s funny though, we do a lot of projects for communities and community trusts...every community is different and every project is different but...when it works well community consultation and community-led projects are the best ones because, one, people really care and you get so much input from the people who are going to use the building that the building is well designed, but also, people have a stake in it, so they look after it, they maintain it and they respect it and it grows and it fosters other things. Also the act of a project like that brings people together, they talk to other people in the community they don’t know...it fosters community cohesion. A heritage project is very good for inter-generational contact as well: school children and grandparents...it’s great...the recording and transcription and it is there forever.

CM: I was actually surprised that even in the Ness Historical Society there were maybe only, two or three transcripts.

TM: Yes, I went up there and I didn’t find very much.

Aig an Airigh - 2012 CM: No, two are in Gaelic and haven’t been translated. I think it just needs a kick-start.

TM: So you’ll do a, kind of, study? Are you looking at the buildings or are you looking at the culture?

CM: It’s a bit of both. The question itself is “chronicling the tradition of annual migration to the moors as it was; investigating the death of transhumance; and what exactly they mean now,” which suggests more of the cultural aspects but I think, even when you look at the process of going from the turf and stone to the timber and bitumen, there’s a thought process there, and you wonder why they changed...with different industries and...

TM: Generally speaking, the whole thing about vernacular materials is that...people use vernacular materials because they’re easy to come by and they’re easy to use and people understand how to use them. Generally speaking traditional construction developed over thousands of years, from 10,000BC...and the reason Scotland has such a rich heritage of different vernacular construction techniques is because its physical geography is so varied, its climate is so varied and its natural resources are so varied. So that’s why you get different forms of thatching, for example, because the circumstances are so different...because people didn’t move around very much they understood the local microclimate and the materials and they developed particular skills and particular ways of detailing in that local area and that’s why vernacular traditions are so locally focused. And then when trains came along and rural areas were depopulated and when small-holdings got amalgamated into much larger land-holdings, people moved about. You’ve got industrial materials coming in and labour could move around much more freely and materials became cheap and labour became more expensive and the balance changes. People still use what’s cheap and easy to use but it changes to being timber that’s shipped in from miles away and some sheet tin, that’s what’s easy to use and then because they’re not still using turf and stone those skills and that memory of how to use it dies away. You’re just at the very end of that loss...I mean, in most of Scotland that vernacular tradition died out between 1750 and 1850. This is one of our specialism. We deal with these rare examples that still survive of vernacular buildings and occasionally you get odd ones that, because of

Aig an Airigh - 2012 their location, survive through. But, they’ve lost that cultural resonance. People don’t understand them. You have to tell people about their own local history and technologies but here...you’re the last vernacular building...

CM: It’s definitely in the last two generations, I would say, that it’s been lost. My grandfather could build a stone wall... there were beautiful stone walls... but my generation wouldn’t know...

TM: And that’s a living tradition, that’s intangible heritage. It was part of their life. That’s why it absolutely was a cultural thing. It’s not about the artefact of the wall, the artefact of the shieling, because that’s an interesting artefact, but the cultural thing, that’s what’s in people’s heads. That’s the meaning to it all.

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III. EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE WITH JOHN MAHER. Correspondance during December 2011.

25/11/2011 10:29 Mr Maher My name is Catriona Macdonald and I am currently on my Fourth Year of Architectural Studies at the University of Strathclyde.

At the moment I am in the process of writing my dissertation on the shielings of North Lewis. Having seen your photographs previously I would love to ask you a few questions on why you chose them as subject matter? (I’m really interested in gaining a perspective of people’s perceptions of the shielings today and it’s so refreshing to see a forgotten element of local culture and history being given such prominence in art.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards Catriona Macdonald 24 Lionel Isle of Lewis

Aig an Airigh - 2012 Hi Catriona, Good subject choice!

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a blog post I wrote about my trip to Cuishader last February: http://www.theflyingmonkblog.co.uk/2011/03/03/cuishader-shielings-ness-isle-of-lewis/ I wasn’t aware of the shielings at Cuishader until someone who’d seen my photographs of the Pentland Road shielings asked if I’d been to Cuishader. I made enquiries and decided it was a ‘must see’.

For me, the attraction is the fact they are so remote and have an interesting link back to island life as it was in the past. They’re very simple structures. Most, if not all, consist of a single room, with the most important feature being the open fire. Although they were only used during the summer months, they weren’t a holiday home extravagance. This was no frills living in a harsh landscape.

Although most of the old stone built shielings are in ruins, the later timber framed shielings carry on the old tradition: an open room with one stone gable and a chimney to accommodate the open fire.

I was taken totally by surprise when I came across the brand new timber

Aig an Airigh - 2012 clad, slate roofed shieling (last photo in the blog link above). It obviously uses modern materials and is built to a higher standard than any of the others but still adheres to the unofficial rule of having a single open living space with open fire and chimney at one end. For me, that shieling represents a perfect mix of the old and the new.

It’s interesting to hear how different people interpret my photographs.

I think for many of the visitors to the island who buy my prints, they love the feeling of open space, lack of light pollution and the huge blue skies that they probably never get to experience when they go back home to the towns and cities they live in. For some it’s a feeling of nostalgia, which in most cases is a nostalgia for something they have never actually experienced first hand. The fact the photographs are taken at night adds an extra kind of dream-like atmosphere.

On an architectural note, Barrie Munn, owner of Grashoppers Hotel in Glasgow (who are currently displaying some of my photographs), said the shieling photos reminded him of the work of Australian architect Glenn Murcutt. Murcutt’s buildings are often of simplified construction and are designed to have a low impact and be sympathetic to their surroundings. I’m not sure the exact same kind of thought went into the shielings of North Lewis - their design was no doubt dictated by what was readily available, but the end result is probably similar to what Murcutt sets out to achieve.

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I have to say I’m very pleased if I’ve managed in some small way to raise awareness of these great little buildings. I think it’s important they should be documented and remembered in some way. Many have already decayed to the point there’s almost nothing left. Some look like they won’t survive many more years, while others are in reasonable shape.

Although the type of island lifestyle that brought about their existence in the first place may not be with us any more, the fact someone has gone to the trouble of building a brand new shieling proves the connection between the islander and the moor still exists!

Hope you find some of that useful.

Feel free to ask any further questions.

Good luck with the dissertation!

All the best John Maher web: www.theflyingmonk.co.uk blog: www.theflyingmonkblog.co.uk

Aig an Airigh - 2012 IV. EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE WITH MIKE DONALD. Correspondence during February 2012.

19 Feb 2012, at 11:29 Hi Mike Apologies if you’ve received a barrage of messages via blog/twitter- I wasn’t sure which one was best to catch you on.

My name is Catriona Macdonald and I’m currently studying Architecture at the University of Strathclyde. As part of my Fourth Year studies I’m writing my dissertation and being a Niseach I decided to keep things strictly local through researching the shielings of Cuidhsiadar and Filiscleitir.

I’m also interested in how people perceive the shielings now (now that their true function has all but been lost) and I came across your Airigh Project. I would love to hear more about it: what made you go down this particular route, what your intention was etc.

Any insight you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Best Catriona Catriona Macdonald Fourth Year Architectural Studies University of Strathclyde

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Hi Mike Thanks for directing me to the Facebook page- it all sounds fabulous, and great to hear Dualchas is involved (I’m quite a fan of theirs!).

Really, I’d love to know01 // What inspired you to start the company in the first instance?

02 // How do you see the balance between creating a viable commercial venture without losing the true meaning of the shielings?

03 // Are you hoping to create new shielings villages, build within existing shieling villages, or construct one off pieces?

(I’m focusing on Cuidhsiadar up in Ness at the moment and I hadn’t realised that it is the last and best remaining example of the architecture of transhumance in Scotland.)

04 // What you feel about the shielings as they are now: what feelings do they evoke? etc.

Any further information on how you envisage the airidhean (as much as you can divulge!)

Best Catriona

Aig an Airigh - 2012 From: Mike Donald Ok here goes...

01. Every time I visited the island I’d struggle to find somewhere I wanted to stay. Despite the ridiculous amount of b&bs and holiday lets on offer there was very few that offered the simple things I was looking for during a precious couple of weeks escape from the city rat race. A bit of seclusion, peace and quiet, beautiful views, a real fire, a bit of style, a touch of Harris Tweed...not much to ask really. Of the better offerings, 99% were priced in the £700 - £1000 a week bracket, some of them even more in High Season. It seemed ridiculous. And if I, someone who was born here and knows the place inside out, can’t find an authentic experience when I come here then what hope does a tourist visiting for the first time? So more often than not I’d simply pack a tent and wild camp somewhere remote and well off the beaten track to find what I was looking for. However it was on an occasion when my partner and I had splurged on a luxury self-catering cottage that I decided to make plans. We’d paid about a grand for the place, it was a fantastic house, great location etc but even here we had broadband, a mobile signal, widescreen TV etc. Emails, text messages, the news all bombarded us hourly. We’d tried to get away from it all but it all had just followed us here. I was re-reading HD Thoreau’s Walden at the time and his little cabin, with simple necessities and a sense of place, suddenly seemed far more appealing and with the old shielings in mind I started to sketch out the Airigh plans.

02. Every single part of the Airigh project draws its influence from the old shieling tradition, which in essence is simplicity, practicality and necessity. In size, structure, furnishings, location etc the builds will be very similar. I see the designs we are working on as a natural evolution of the vernacular, from stone and thatch to wood, tin and iron to the current, eco-materials we are using. The builds can be self-erected, customisable, demountable, transportable with very low impact on the site and off-grid. So physically they will remain true to old shielings. Spiritually too I think the venture will be in keeping with the tradition in so much as they will echo the seasonal movement of people from their usual homes to another place. Obviously I can’t envisage people taking hens and livestock with them but in recent years the airighs

Aig an Airigh - 2012 still in use have been used more for recreational than agricultural purposes with no ill effects or treading on cultural toes.

A huge part of the project is also to connect visitors to the land and local people while they are here. This will be done in many ways, from giving access to books and local history in the new shileings to joint endeavours with local groups, businesses and organisations. Noone staying in an new Airigh will leave unaware of the tradition and culture their visit reflects.

03. There are so many aspects to the project but I think generally the builds will be left to grow very organically. People getting involved can choose to have one, two, four or more builds on their land. If a village wants to reinhabit their traditional grazings, perhaps raising funding, they can set up natural groupings in a non-commercial manner, using them as a community resource. If a crofter wishes to have just one on his croft to bring in a little income as a small commercial endeavour, then that is fine too, we’ll work with him to make it a success. Perhaps a local artist would like a studio to work from in an inspirational location or a Harris Tweed weaver needs a shed for his loom, they can purchase and customise a build for their private use. Ditto the fishing estate who need a remote shelter for staff to make a brew and get a bit of warmth...Cuidhsiader is of obvious attraction, we’d like to have at least one there if possible and there have been a fair few Niseachs showing an interest already. Many of the other old sites I see as pretty sacrosanct and wouldn’t want to infringe upon them at all. A discrete build nearby or enroute if it was desired locally but otherwise applying other aspects of the project in these places will suffice.

04. I find the old, abandoned shielings to be particularly evocative, very saddening to be honest. When you look at any map of Lewis you can see just how integral to our way of life they once were but now all that are left are ruins and hundreds of related place names on a page. We’re losing the reasons behind airigh’s name, the paths that led to them, the families, the stories...so much heritage is being forgotten. I love the crazy tin sheds that grew out of the old ways, so individual, colourful, quirky. When you spot one its a source of great pleasure. Who lives there? Whats inside?! I really hope the new ones find the same place in our hearts.

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Other info? Natural materials, multi-fuel stoves, Harris Tweed bespoke furniture, local food and drink, great design, community, history, beauty, retracing old routes and roots, giving visitors an authentic island experience, giving local people a chance to really connect with them in return, new sources of revenue, diversification of crofting activities...lots of potential.

And will all be done with respect. This isnt a get rich quick scheme or a plundering of our culture for financial gain, I hope it can make a serious contribution to the island’s place in a world that, I believe, is looking for a return to a more simple way of life.

Our initial trial build in Skye obtained its building warrant last week which was great news and we have moved on to another small build for a private client. Each step brings us closer to rolling out the final version, fingers crossed for summer!

Best m Mike Donald

Aig an Airigh - 2012 V. EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE WITH PAUL MURRAY. Correspondence during March 2012.

01. What experience of shieling life had you prior to building your own? Had you spent much time out on the moor, heard stories etc.?

When we were younger we would go out to the moor fairly regularly throughout the summer. At one point we had a caravan in Cuidhsiadar so I had also had experience of staying a night on the moor. When on the moor, our time was generally spent playing in the river, fishing in the nearby lochs, playing in the old blackhouses, going to Cuidhsiadar beach, and drinking water from the well! Growing up you would often hear stories of those who spent a lot of time on the moor. My own grandfather kept his sheep in Diobadal (approx half way between Ness and North Tolsta) during the summer and he knew the moor so well that he could name every part of the coast between Ness and Tolsta.

02. What were the reasons behind building your own shieling? (Albeit a luxurious version!)

I had a friend who had a caravan out on the moor so I was spending a fair bit of time out there in the summer. I had a bit of time on my hands, and enjoyed spending time away from the hectic metropolis of Skigersta, I decided that it would be interesting to build a sheiling of my own. As I had been studying construction for a couple of years, I thought that this would be a good way of gaining more hands on experience of what is involved in buiding a house. It is one thing to know something on paper, but it can be another thing altogether to know it on site! Historically, and even still today, a lot of Christians would stay out at the sheilings on the moor. Each night they would gather in one of the sheilings and have worship together as well as talk about the Bible around a cup of tea (made from water from the well, tea leaves and long-life milk!) and a slice of home made duff or scones. As this still goes on - although admittedly on a lesser scale - it was an added attraction for me to be part of it.

Aig an Airigh - 2012 03. Why did you build it where you did?

There was no particular reason for this aside from it being in an area where sheilings were still in use in the summer and that it was on a good bit of ground. I decided that the advantages of being near the river outweighed the disadvantages of having more midges (compared to up on Airigh a’ Bhealaich) - maybe to my cost!

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