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Snippets of History |
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Date/Era 1883 |
Topic Crofting |
District Culnancnoc |
Person Donald Ross |
| Marches are referred to in the 1883 papers. The march line was 'a natural division between the croft lands and the big farms'. William Mackenzie, author of Old Skye Tales, remembered that marches were turf dykes, and that they ran zig zag. He ponders why this was so, given that the crofters would have had 50% more labour on account of them being thus. Donald Ross, the merchant from Cùl nan cnoc who gave evidence, was unhappy about the situation with marches. 'I have to complain of the way our marches are open between ourselves and the neighbouring tacksman,' he said. 'We have applied to the landlord to put a fence between us and the neighbouring proprietor. We did not get a reply from him. We had two herds during the past year. We do not expect to be able to have a herd at all this year because some of the people have become so poor that they are not able to pay their share of the herd. We do not know what to do with our stock. We cannot keep them from trespassing on Scorrybreac without this fence. ...... We would pay (a proportion of the fence). We told him (the proprietor) we would agree with any terms he would lay upon us.' | |