Dùn math innearachd – màthair na ciste mhine

The Old Crofting Calendar

During the crofting year, there was a very clear pattern of work to follow. It was vital that everyone adhered to the crofting calendar that was the way of life for the majority in Staffin until the 1960s. The Gaelic equivalents for the names of the months have never quite corresponded to their English counterparts. The twentieth century crofter continued to some extent to follow the old Julian calendar which was superseded by the Gregorian calendar in the 17th century. And although in modern Gaelic we have twelve equivalents for the months of January to December, the old meaning of ‘Am Faoilteach’ is not strictly the thirty one days of January as we know it. The Gaelic names relate more to specific weather characteristics which pertain to certain times of the year. In fact, although we have now landed with our twelve standard equivalents for our Gaelic calendar, the experts of the last couple of centuries did not agree outright as to the meanings of our Gaelic months. At any rate, here Lachie offers just a glimpse of what a year held in store for the Staffin crofter.

We will focus on a crofting unit from the township of Stenscholl. In that township, in about 1950?, the souming allocated to a crofter with a full croft was 6 cows and 24 sheep plus followers. If one had merely a half croft, the souming was reduced to 3 cows and 12 sheep plus followers. If one had a horse in addition to sheep and cattle, the souming numbers of sheep and cattle were much reduced. A horse was not permitted onto the common grazing of Stenscholl. In summer, it was necessary to send horses out to the ‘general common’ as it was known - to places way beyond the common grazing. One such place was Beinn Eadarra.