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| This is part of a talk by Morag MacKenzie (Seann
Bhruthach) for the Crofters
Union. |
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| I am Morag MacKenzie from the village of Duirinish. I am a working crofter and
married with two daughters. My husband Ian works for the local coach company. He
is also a crofter like myself. I am going to tell you a little about the history
of the village before I talk on the value of crofting to the family. |
| Duirinish is a crofting township midway between Kyle of Lochalsh and the village
of Plockton. Duirinish in my view is one of the bonniest crofting townships in Scotland.
It is quite an unusual crofting township in the way it has been set out with the
river running through the middle dividing the south side from the north side of
the village. To the west side we see the lovely stone built barns which separate
the village from the arable ground. And to the east we have the large stone bridge
that was built by Thomas Telford, which takes the road to Plockton and the north. |
| Two centuries ago, Duirinish had one inhabitant and his family, Iain Og Matheson,
whose original house still remains in the village today. In 1802 with the Mathesons
having fallen on hard times, Duirinish was broken up to make a new crofting township
comprising of 46 acres of arable ground and a further 756 acres of common grazings.
Six shares were allocated to the first arrivals, which included six Johns with different
surnames — men resettled from Conchra, Auchtertyre and Ardelve. One of these
Johns was my great great grandfather who came down from Conchra. Before that his
family had been evicted from Sutherland at the start of the Highland Clearances.
These men and their families had very hard times as they had to pay extortionate
ground rent to the Earl of Seaforth. |
| Some years later, the village was subdivided again, this time into eleven shares,
which is how it is today. According to the census of 18 April 1891, the village
had a population of 107 people, 42 on the north side and 65 on the south side. |
| The next development of note was the arrival of the railway, which gives a lot
of employment to local people. The station was opened in Duirinish in 1897. |
| In a village then there were three butchers shops, which supplied the surrounding
villages up to Dornie and over to Stromeferry and Kyle of Lochalsh. Also two grocery
shops, a grain store, undertakers and the Gaelic school. All these buildings remain
today except for the grain store and the undertakers, so it was a thriving crofting
township. According to the census of 1891, the occupation of most of the people
was crofting although there were also fishermen, shirt makers, retired master mariners,
general servants and also a sheriff officer. |
| Last century however tells a different story. After the First World War, the feeling
of the young people of the village was that opportunities lay elsewhere. A great
number emigrated so the local population declined steadily with the departure of
so many young folk and their loss had a great effect on the crofting way of life. |
| The Second World War saw Duirinish being made a 'No 1 Protected Area'; part of
the arable ground was dug out and was used by the Admiralty as an ammunition dump. |
| Trains came in and out day and night with mines and this area of ground is now
known as the compound. It is just recently after 50 years that the village got it
reinstated back into crofting. |
| After the Second World War, the second exodus of young people left the village
- some emigrated, some went to university and some to nursing, so the decline in
population continued. |
| Today we have only 21 inhabitants in the village, four of these
are young children aged between one and twelve years of age. |
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