Arichonan

Like Leac Na Baan, Arichonan was built at the top of a hill, presumably because you could see any approaching ship coming up the Loch. The buildings are now in ruins and empty of people. A study of Arichonan has been one of my own major projects, and you can see the results of all that here, in KnapdalePeople.

When I visited Arichonan in 2002, there was a large plaque on site recounting the story of the Clearance that occurred here in 1848. This time, in 2010, there was no sign, except one warning against falling stones (!). Further, there is no longer any sign on the road indicating that up that hill there is a ruined township. We found the trail, though. It is still obvious and mowed. On the other hand, there is a modern house farther down the road to the south, with a sign identifying it as "Arichonan Farm". Since my 2010 visit, I have wondered if we are now meant to use that path up to the ruins?

After Arichonan: the fate of the Allan McLean Family

One of Allan McLean's descendents informed me that he and his family - after being 'cleared' from Arichonan, North Knapdale - had emigrated to Ekfrid Township, Middlesex County, in Upper Canada. Furthermore, Allan and his wife, Catherine Campbell, were buried in Murray Cemetery, also in Ekfrid.

So, with the help of 2 Ontario researchers, I have been able to add a page to the "Leaving Knapdale" section! Lee Dickson (lee dot dickson at sympatico dot ca) found the McLean family in the 1851 and 1861 census', plus the Agricultural Census that went along with that information. Art Currie (concur at sympatico dot ca) sent me the transcription of the McLean gravestone, PLUS photos of the cemetery, etc. I have included all of this at Knapdale People, "Leaving Knapdale".

introducing Lord Cockburn

Lord Cockburn (1779 - 1854), besides being a very substantial leader of mid 19th century Scottish society, was also the judge during the Arichonan Affray trial. Thus, in the hope that he said something off the record about that trial, I borrowed his book, "Circuit Journeys" published after his death in 1889.

Well, he doesn't say a thing about Arichonan. But it turns out that he has a LOT to say about Scotland, and the people therein. I am therefore going to put quotes from this book in this blog, whenever I find a gem I think you will enjoy.

The portrait of Lord Cockburn that I am using is from the cover of "Lord Cockburn: selected letters" edited by Alan Bell (John Donald, 2005.) The original, by Sir John Watson Gordon, can be found in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

Arichonan Photos

Some lovely photos of Arichonan are up on the web right now! The first is wonderful, taken from above the settlement remains, featuring the view of Loch Sween (which was makes me think that the original settlers were thinking hard about defense, when they founded Arichonan ... for Vikings, etc were sea-going slave traders back in the day).

travelling to Knapdale

Google lets me know when Knapdale and Arichonan and etc come up on the 'net. Yesterday, they noted an interesting site for you who may want to travel to the Knapdale area. The website is called, "Page Most", and you can find it, with a handy-dandy map, here. It's worth a good look, as it pinpoints surrounding attractions, all placed on a map with roads and everything!

more on the Arichonan Blue/McGuirmans

Among the items I included in my book on "Arichonan Farm" are the people mentioned in a housing inventory done in 1798 and 1802, by the new owner of the Estates, Malcolm of Poltalloch. There were 4 tenants at the time: Donald Blue, Malcolm Johnson, Malcolm McLean and Niel McMillan.

Donald Blue/McGuirman lived in a "dwelling house, good, 4 couples; a Barn, 1 couple; and 1 Bothie, 2 couples" *
His wife was Flory Lamont (McIlchombie), and they had 6 children. His brother John was also at the farm. John's wife was Mary McLean, and they had 3 children at the time.

The man taking the inventory noted that, on Arichonan Farm, "the Houses in this farm and mostly on this Estate was built by the Tenants themselves and by the way, they were not built right at first."

*"couple": these are the main supports for the roof, consisting of two lengths of timber, and attached at the apex of the roof. The number of couples is an indicator of the length of a dwelling. A "bothie" was a one room hut. The sketch is from I. F. Grant's "Highland Folk Ways", page 145 (Birlinn, 1997).

The complete inventory, at Argyll and Bute Archives, is entitled "Report of the Houses of Dunad, 1798; and 1802: the Rest of the Houses on the Estates of Neill Malcolm Esq is added."

more on Arichonan

From a gentleman who lives in Massachusetts: "I am related to the John Blue and Daniel Blue who you show as tenants at Arichonan in 1802. These two had a brother, Malcolm Blue, who was Tackman of Drynoch across Loch Sween from Arichonan. The three brothers and their families emigrated en mass to the USA in 1803. I have family trees and histories for these Blues if you are Interested, including some birth and death records from while John and Daniel were living in Arichonan.

also, another email, from a man in Britain, which fits in well with I.F.Grant's sketch of a 'town', below, and MacInnes' contention that Arichonan was 'anachronistic', ie, not the usual crofter community:
"Although I have done a master research degree (urban housing in Liverpool) and quite a lot of local history and vernacular architecture work, in this instance I was just totally affronted how such a beautifully wrought working village could have been cleared. This was clearly something of a different order to the clearing of single story croft houses that took place all over the highlands. The detail of the houses, barn and sheep folds show such a complete master of 'intermediate technology', exactly what was needed for getting a living in this environment." He has put up his photos here. They are very lovely.

(my website, Knapdale People, has an extensive section, with photos, on Arichonan, and also, a link that helps you order that book of mine. )

Arichonan, the Imperial context of the Clearance

The Arichonan Clearance has been treated fairly extensively by University of Aberdeen's Allan I. MacInnes, in an article entitled, "Commercial Landlordism and Clearance in the Scottish Highlands: the Case of Arichonan."

Most interesting (to me) is his remark that "... Arichonan does not easily fit the traditional picture of Clearance associated in the Scottish Highlands with crofting communities, that is, communities of tenant farmers with small holdings of land. In the first place, Arichonan was a traditional township whose survival was anachronistic. Most townships had been broken up between the 1730s and the 1820s, to make way for cattle ranches and sheep walks as well as crofting communities, in what can be termed the first phase of Clearance. The second phase of Clearance from the 1830s to the 1880s is usually associated with the attempted removal of crofting, with the rampant commercial pastoralism associated with sheep farming and with the turning of whole glens over to the shooting of deer and other game." (p 49)

Check out the 2 posts and sketches below. They help to clarify what exactly MacInnes means by "town" versus "croft".... and the additional insight that Arichonan was - in 1848 - a very 'old fashioned' sort of place.

MacInnes is also very interested in the Poltalloch landowner's experience with his Jamaican plantations, and how this translated into management of his Highland estates.

Crofting Layouts

Another sketch from I. F. Grant's "Highland Folk Ways" (page 63), this portrays a modern crofter settlement, strung along a road, and with land holdings demarcated. Note that the houses are no longer built in clusters, nor are they necessarily to be found by the sea.

According to A.G.M. Duncan's "Green's Glossary of Scottish Legal Terms" (3rd edition, 1992), a "croft" is "An agricultural holding of limited size located within the counties in Scotland designated as crofting counties, the tenant or crofter or his predecessors having provided the buildings and fixed equipment." The topic of "crofts" and "crofting commissions", and etc., was a huge issue in the Highlands. My impression is that it was a late 19th century attempt to establish some security of tenure for remaining Highland crofters, on land that continued to be owned by others.

A "Town"

This is a sketch of a 'town' in the old style, from I. F. Grant's "Highland Folk Ways" (page 45). In 1630, according to Ms Grant, a Captain Dymes wrote of these 'towns' of joint tenants, "which towns are some half a score of cottages built together neare some piece of arable land where they make their abode in winter, for the most part of the common people in the somer they remaine in the hills to graze theire cattle."(page 44).

Arichonan Affray and Allan McLean family

It was obvious that Allan McLean and his family left North Knapdale after the July Arichonan Riot in 1848. His brother, Duncan, was one of the people imprisoned for his role in that event. Allan's wife, Catherine, was very pregnant in July, and gave birth to a child, Allan, that October.

I have been interested in the fate of this family: the Glasgow slums, Australia, Canada or the USA, Knapdalians left their homes for all of these places.

Well. I have heard from one of Allan's descendents! It seems that he and his family went to Canada in 1849. "They owned land and farmed in Ekfrid township, Middlesex County, Ontario. Once in Canada, they had two more children.* Allan died September 10, 1868, and his wife, Catherine, June 30, 1870. They are buried in a small rural cemetary called Murray Cemetary in Ekfrid township, Middlesex County, Ontario."
* (Janet, born 1851; and Daniel, born 1857.)