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."

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).