Book that reshaped Highland crofting history marked at 50

Dr Charlie Lynch attends a two-day conference held to mark 50 years since the publication of a book which ruffled the feathers of Scotland’s historical establishment with its radicalism and insistence on a ‘history from below’. “I CANNOT bear evidence to the distress of my people without bearing evidence to the oppression and high handedness of the landlord and his factor.” This quote from Angus Stewart, a crofter at Peinchorran, Braes, on the Isle of Skye, in 1883, began James (Jim) Hunter’s book The Making Of The Crofting Community. Published in 1976, it told a story of the injustices of landlordism and elite power, and the upheavals and dislocations which shaped the Highlands in 19th century. Influenced by the work of historian EP Thompson, Hunter set out to save crofting from the “condescension of history”. He has said he wanted to “tell the story of Highland history in a way which was academically reputable but also true to what his family, and so many others felt about their own past”. READ MORE: Augmented reality trails to bring prehistoric archaeology in Hebrides to life The book disrupted a conservative historiography which had sought to excuse or downplay the Highland Clearances, and ruffled the feathers of Scotland’s historical establishment with its radicalism and insistence on a “history from below”. For critics and readers alike in the Highlands, it was an immediate success, its distinctive, orange-coloured first edition avidly consulted. The Making was, like its contemporary, John McGrath’s play, The Cheviot, The Stag And The Black, Black Oil, a catalyst to cultural revival in the Highlands. Hunter has since enjoyed a long career and was integral to the establishment of the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Centre for History in 2005. His writing and campaigning helped inspire the community land buyout movement. Last month, the UHI Centre for History hosted a two-day conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Making. Scholars, creative practitioners and activists gathered in the Dornoch Social Club to mark the significance of Hunter’s work and engage in key debates about land, people, communities and social, economic, ecological and cultural challenges. What follows is not a full summary of what was said at the conference. Quite simply, you had to be there. Instead, it gives a flavour of the proceedings. A number of papers were, as might be expected, concerned with aspects of the history of crofting and landholding in the 18th and 19th centuries. Professor Andrew MacKillop from the University of Glasgow presented a revisionist view of the first two chapters of The Making, arguing for a more gradual and more geographically broad timeline. “The people too,” he argued, “must be seen as a factor in the emergence of crofting – in the 1880s, did they defend an essentially landlord created system, or did they fight for a form of local society which their forbearers had actively created?” Dr David Taylor examined the “making of a non-crofting community”, asking how and why crofting did not develop in Badenoch, in the Central Highlands, in the late 18th century. Key factors, he argued, included the underdevelopment of commercial landlordism, mountainous geography, and its landlocked location, which meant there was no access to sea fishing or kelp – both of which were important to the emergence of crofting elsewhere. Poor transport through mountains, meanwhile, discouraged the development of industry. However, he suggested that the development by landowners of planned villages, which by the later 19th century were places of deprivation, had similarities with crofting townships. Dr Juliette Desportes, an early-career researcher at the UHI Centre for History, talked of the “fictions of 18th century progress”, exploring how the creation of crofts was briefly seen as a form of model “improvement” by landowners in Perthshire, another district outwith that studied by The Making. She unpacked the ideology of “improvement”, showing how it drew upon beliefs derived from elite education in the classics. “The ultimate fiction of crofting,” she argued, “was that it was ‘sold on the moral independence of subsistence living.” In Perthshire, landowners lost enthusiasm for these schemes, in one case deliberately obliterating crofts with an artificial loch. Professor Annie Tindley from Newcastle University presented a case study of landed power in Sutherland. The area was, she reminded attendees, the “scene of some of the most notorious and controversial clearances” which have been “neither forgiven nor forgotten.” Tindley recalled reading The Making when she was an undergraduate in the 1990s. It was her “first proper introduction to the gnarliness of Highland history and the role which had been played by one of the most powerful landed classes in Europe”. She argued that historians “might need to think about getting into the minds of the rich and powerful”, asking: “How can historians strike an ethical balance between their instruments and motivations and those who had much less influence?” Dr Iain MacKinnon, an academic and journalist, is currently a project officer for the Kyle and Lochalsh Community Trust’s ecovillage project at Loch Duich. His paper considered the impact of racialised thought in the history of the Gàidhealtachd. Drawing on the work of postcolonial theorist Frantz Fanon and Australian historian Patrick Wolfe, MacKinnon argued that in the 19th century, racialisation discourse was “an ideological tool for promoting specific projects of political economy – removing people from the land, ‘improving’ the land and bringing people into the service of the empire”. Other presenters considered landscape and ecology. Dr Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart, a senior lecturer at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, examined the impact of the “polycrisis” of the 1770s upon Skye. By “polycrisis”, Stiùbhart meant that climatic shock and prolonged bad weather associated with the “Little Ice Age” in the late 18th century interacted with existing social vulnerabilities to create a crisis which was multifaceted. It included harvest failures, credit collapse and mass emigration from the island, which was already vulnerable due to an over-reliance on the cattle trade and weak aristocratic leadership. “The compound crisis of the 1770s” was, he concluded, “a deep and revealing pothole on the road to the making of the crofting community.” Col Gordon, an activist and farmer from Invergordon, discussed connections between habitat decline and the growth of the cattle economy in the 18th century, with lasting ecological damage caused by grazing pressures. Landscapes such as that of parts of Skye, Gordon pointed out: “Were not stripped bare by humanity in the abstract.” READ MORE: Scotsman 'delighted' after setting new world record for marathon in kilt Glasgow-based artist Andrew Black’s 2019 film Dàn Fianais or Protest Poem was shown. It presents a portrait of Skye and Lochalsh made during the lockdown period and assembles a series of consersations about landscape, capitalism, ecology and culture. Dr Gemma Smith, a self-described “itinerant writer, researcher, and hospitality worker”, has studied Gaelic place names as a source for ecological history and to track lost settlements. Discussing this, and her travels in Africa, she argued that examining place names can allow for a way into a “different way of seeing.” Intersections between Gaelic culture and human ecology were also the concern of Dr Mairi McFadyen and Raghnaid Sandilands, two researchers and creative practitioners living on opposite sides of Loch Ness. MacFayden, an ethnographer, argued that: “We do have the ability to make small repairs to our relationship with the land and its stories.” Sandilands, whose paper examined rhyme, proverb and song, called for conviviality and “analogue gatherings in these days of technocratic delirium”. Song and conviviality were certainly what took place in the evening when the celebrations continued. Over a relaxed but carefully crafted dinner, attendees were treated to music composed by Lisa Munro and performed by members of the Sutherland Accordion and Fiddle Club and poetry by Cáit O’Neill McCullagh specially commissioned to respond to The Making. Hunter himself was present during proceedings and was, at the close of the first day, interviewed by Dr Elizabeth Ritchie, one of the organisers. He joked that attending an event with “so many people saying nice things about him” was like “attending his own funeral”. In his interview, which I am told will be published in full elsewhere in due course, Hunter explained that a key aim of his life’s work has been to address the needs of Highlanders. “Several things I’ve done have been intended to kind of reinforce my conviction that Highland people need to be given every encouragement and incentive to know more about who they are,” he said, “and to feel good about the place where they are, their heritage, landscape, and culture. “For so long, Highlanders were told that everything about them was inferior and second rate. If that’s drilled into people it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.” He addressed ongoing issues with extractive economics. Considering that he is now “too aged to raise the red flag of revolution”, Hunter commented upon present-day economic injustice in the region. “It does puzzle me that there is not more agitation today about some of the injustices that are going on in the Highlands today – like housing”, he remarked. At the end of the conference, Hunter received a presentation from the staff at the UHI Centre for History, bringing to a close two days of stimulating, convivial exchange. Charlie Lynch thanks Dr Lucy Dean from the UHI Centre for History and her colleagues for their help with preparing this article