The Isle of Skye. Terry Marsh
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Название: The Isle of Skye
Автор: Terry Marsh
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Спорт, фитнес
isbn: 9781783621354
isbn:
Standing stone, Boreraig village (Walk 2.5)
Imagine, if you will, the scene during the last Ice Age, when Skye lay buried beneath enormous sheets of ice that even then were shaping the landforms with which we later became familiar. As climatic conditions warmed, so the glaciers retreated – a gradual, grinding process that ended between 10,000 and 11,000 years ago. As the incredible weight of ice disappeared, so the land began to rise, and improve as tundral conditions gave way to woodland and mixed vegetation. These conditions suited early stone age (Mesolithic) man, who moved northwards and settled around the new coasts and among the islands. The presence of Mesolithic Man on Skye has not yet been proven; the earliest evidence is from later stone age (Neolithic) times, although carbon dating of finds on the nearby island of Rum to 8000 years ago, the earliest such evidence in Scotland, suggests the possibility that Mesolithic Man did find his way to Skye, and that the evidence of his presence is yet to be found, or has already been lost.
Unlike Mesolithic Man, who lived by hunting and gathering, and moved on in search of food, Neolithic Man preferred a more static existence, staying for longer periods in the same place. This accounts for the far greater number of Neolithic artefacts found not only among the Inner Hebrides, but generally throughout Britain. Neolithic Man moved to Britain from Europe about 6000 years ago, and brought stocks of cattle and sheep, sowing grain and living a simple farming existence.
About 2000 years later (c4000 years ago) the Beaker People appeared on the scene, also moving to Britain from Europe, especially from sites along the Rhine. They are so named from their practice of making ornate pottery. There are two particularly fine examples of chambered cairns dating from this period, one at Cnocan nan Gobhar (NG553173), and the other, reached from Glen Brittle, at Rubh’ an Dùnain (Walk 3.18).
By 3000 years ago, the first hillforts started appearing on Skye, signifying a sometime state of conflict between the local inhabitants and intruders. For about 800 years, hillforts dominated the landscape, varying in size, and usually consisting of a wall around an arrangement of internal buildings. Given the ready availability of wood on Skye, it is more than likely that the wall would have had a fence on top. They were all located on high ground, giving good views, and probably served as a focal point to which people living in surrounding homesteads might have retreated in times of danger.
Gradually, however, the size of these fortifications reduced, and they began to be replaced by duns, and later, brochs. Quite why this reduction occurred is not clear, but it is likely that as tribes became smaller, so the need for large enclosures was less. The result was the ‘dun’, a fairly simple structure, quite often little more than a wall set across a promontory, while a ‘broch’ by comparison was a highly sophisticated drystone structure. The best preserved of the brochs on Skye is Dun Beag, off the Struan road to Dunvegan at NG339386, near Bracadale.
Cill Chriosd church, Strath Suardal (Walk 2.5)
The need for these defensive settlements was probably generated by invasions from mainland tribes. When these became preoccupied with the Roman presence further south, the result seems to have been a much more settled period of existence on Skye, and many of the brochs were abandoned, or robbed of their stone for the hut circles and souterrains that were to follow.
Hut circles were simply a ring of boulders with a wooden structure built on top, and formed the basic homestead for farming communities. Souterrains, however, pose more of a puzzle for archaeologists, but probably served as underground defensive structures against the malice of cattle raiders. One of the best on Skye is at Claigan (NG238539), north of Dunvegan.
There is little left on Skye of the so-called ‘Pictish’ era except a few standing stones, some bearing Christianstyle crosses. A good example is at Clach Ard, 8km (5 miles) north-west of Portree, and bears rod symbols, and those for a mirror and a comb.
Later on, the Christian way of life began to take a hold, reinforced by the visit of St Columba in AD585, and other saints shortly after. But this period of calm was ended after a spell of only 200 years with the arrival of Viking invaders and a new way of life.
The Norse occupation of the Island lasted until the Battle of Largs in 1263, when the fleet of King Haakon was defeated by the Scottish king, Alexander III. Not longer afterwards, in 1266, the Western Isles were ceded to Scotland under the Treaty of Perth.
Yet, with a great independence of spirit for which they are renowned, the Islanders still saw themselves as separate from Scotland, led by the Lord of the Isles. Under his guidance there were many rebellions against the crown, especially during the 14th and 15th centuries, a period also noted for numerous feuds between the island clans. Of these the most prominent were the MacLeods and the MacDonalds, and the Island is spattered with sites of their deeds and misdeeds.
The position of Lord of the Isles was finally abolished by James IV in 1493, although this had little restraining impact on the clan chiefs in spite of a show of muscle by James V in 1540. In that year, he brought a large fleet to Skye, visiting the MacLeod and MacDonald strongholds at Dunvegan and Duntulm respectively before anchoring in Portree Bay for the chiefs to come and pay their respects. Peace, of a sort, did then ensue, but only until the king died, and that only two years later. Clan battles continued to be waged throughout the 16th century, and just into the 17th, when the last battle, that in Coire na Creiche, was fought in 1601.
The Act of Union which followed the death of Elizabeth 1 in 1603, under which James VI of Scotland became James I of England, brought a new source of conflict. During the 17th and 18th centuries life among the islands was coloured by attempts to restore the Stuarts to the throne of England and Scotland which only came to a conclusion in the 1745 Rebellion led by Bonnie Prince Charlie (Prince Charles Edward Stuart). After his disastrous defeat at Culloden (1746), the Prince fled by a most roundabout route that took him to the Outer Isles and to Skye itself, before leaving for the Scottish mainland and France in July 1746.
The 1745 Rebellion raised in Parliament the determination to completely erase the culture that had inspired the rebellion, and outlawed weapons, the Gaelic language and the wearing of the kilt. They succeeded in their aims and peace subsequently came to the islands.
But it was not to last. Poor harvests in 1835 and 1836 and a complete failure of the potato crop in 1846 and 1847 impoverished both the local population and their landlords, and led to a widespread clearance of the land so that the small crofts might be combined to form more profitable areas for sheep grazing. Landlords saw crofters as a burden rather than a means of income, and had little compunction in turning to the more viable sheep farming.
Ruined croft, Erisco (Walk 6.1)
Most of these forced evictions took place between 1840 and 1885, when almost 7000 families were moved from their land and sent abroad, many dying en route. Throughout this book, tales of these clearances appear again and again, and a number of walks visit the sites of former villages. It is a very emotive subject, and I doubt that anyone is proud of what happened, not even those who catalogue it as economic necessity. Towards the end of the 19th century people started resisting the evictions and the tyranny that would often accompany them. Of key importance was a battle between crofters and police at Braes, not far from Portree, which led to a Commission of Inquiry and a succession of crofters’ laws, which enshrined a security of tenure and fair rents, the substance of which remains intact today.
Agriculture still remains a major industry on Skye, but its future now lies in tourism, an economy initiated by the early attentions of Thomas Pennant, Johnson and Boswell, СКАЧАТЬ