Clan Donald Magazine No13 (1995) Online
'A Few Summer Shielings or
Cots'. Material Culture and Buildings of the '45
by Hugh Cheape, National Museums of Scotland
The
story of the '45 Rising has been told and retold over the years. The
title above takes its phrase from the classic retelling by Robert
Chambers in the early nineteenth century where he describes the
wavering fortunes of the Prince:'... for his accommodation and
concealment a few summer shielings or cots could be fitted up
amongst the hills'. There is no shortage of literature or even of
myths about Prince Charles Edward Stewart. The main sources are
almost all in print, are well-known and thoroughly plundered, and it
is rare for fresh material to come to light or to revolutionise our
views of the episode. Some recent scholarship has served up new
insights which help us to gain more of an understanding of the
events and their context, the dramatis personae and their
motivations.
 The
material culture of the episode, apart from the more obvious
elements of weaponry and dress, is not so well-known or understood.
It has the capacity to add a dimension to the historical corpus and
another facet to the prism through which Prince Charles Edward and
the '45 are refracted.
The
physical setting of the '45 is all important for our appreciation of
it, and, we imagine, familiar, more especially in the Highlands and
Islands whose landscape may have changed less than the adjacent
Lowlands. As we read the contemporary accounts of actors in the
drama, we can often visualise what is being described such as the
locus of an event or the presence of an historical' character at a
site or against the backdrop of rugged hills. Such insights are
readily gained in the magnificent and unashamedly partisan
collection of Bishop Robert Forbes, the Episcopalian and Jacobite
minister of Leith who made it his life's mission to gather
at first-hand
the
accounts
of participants
in the'45. Accumulating his manuscripts between 1747 and 1775, he
called his collection the 'Lyon in Mourning'.
Those
whom he interviewed rarely paused to expand on the material culture
of the world in which they moved; it was too familiar and mundane to
be mentioned or described. Sometimes however we receive an
incidental but vivid glimpse of the material details of life in
early eighteenth century Scotland. Alexander MacDonald, Alasdair
MacMhaighstir Alasdair, the poet and Jacobite propagandist employed
a lively metaphor when ensconced in Leith with Bishop Forbes giving
his version of events. He paused in his account to say:
Bheir mi nis a' chorra-shiomain dhuit fliein gus am faigh mi
tuilleadh gaoisid
('I shall give yourself the rope-winder now till I get more
horsehair'),
by
which the narrator uses the image of the rope making tool to suggest
that he would leave the business of assembling the record to Bishop
Forbes while he, MacMhaighstir Alasdair, gathered more material for
the narrative.
Another vivid reference which evokes not only the world of 250 years
ago but also the contemporary world helps to bring to life the
experience of those skulking in the hills in the summer of 1746.
Iain Frangach, 'French' John MacDonald of Borrodale, guiding the
fugitive Prince Charles Edward beyond the cordon of troops into the
Braes of Glenshiel, wrote in his own manuscript of 'Prince Charles
Edward Stewart's Miraculous Escape after the Battle of Culloden'
about a day in July:
'The
evening being very calm and warm,
we greatly
suffered by mitches, a species of
little
creatures troublesome and numerous in the
highlands; to
preserve him from such troublesome
guests, we
wrapt him head and feet in his
plead, and
covered him with long heather that
naturally
grew about a bit hollow ground we laid
him.'
In
the absence of descriptive and circumstantial detail, evidence of
material culture can be found scattered in a wide variety of other
historical sources, though it is rarely explored in conventional
accounts of the 1745 Rising. Such detail is worth examining in order
to
enlarge our
understanding and appreciation of the '45 and perhaps to correct the
imagery evoked by uncritical and reverential accounts of events and
personalities. The contemporary world relies increasingly on the
visual and the graphic, and unwittingly can mislead when evoking the
setting of eighteenth century Scotland. If we can marry the material
culture to the narrative, we can throw more light on the physical
setting of the '45 and identify with and perceive more clearly the
backcloth against which the drama was played out.
In
surveying the scenes of the Rising for example, attention is often
drawn to the house in which Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed, the
building in which he took shelter, or the bed in which he slept.
There are several sites with such associations and claims may be
made for landscape and buildings that lead us to assume that they
were only slightly antique versions of what we now behold at the
time when Bonnie Prince Charlie passed that way.
In
the days and weeks between April and September, 1746, for example,
Prince Charles Edward was, in the Gaelic phrase, fo'n choille, in
other words a fugitive and an outlaw with a price on his head. He
survived the flight to be taken off on a French ship from Loch nan
Uamh on 19 September. In the brief and laconic words of 'French'
John MacDonald who was a witness to the scene, the Prince embarked
from:
'...Borrodale, where he first landed, and after refreshing
himself weel,
directly went
aboard, and with a fair wind set sail next morning for
France, and
left us all in a worse state than he found us'.
During his triumphal progress and his wanderings through the
Highlands and Islands, he took shelter in many houses as well as
sleeping in caves or under the stars. With very few exceptions, the
structures and buildings which sheltered the Prince and his Jacobite
supporters are no longer in existence.
It is
instructive for gaining a better understanding of the material
culture of the day to look at some of these buildings. A good
example of one of the Prince's refuges is Culloden House, a little
more than three miles to the east of Inverness where the Prince
stayed on the eve of battle on the night of 15 April 1746. Edward
Burt, an English accountant on road survey duty with General Wade's
forces in the Highlands, described the house in one of his 'Letters
from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland to his Friend in London'
about 1725:
'This
... is a pretty large Fabric built with
Stone, and
divided into many rooms, among
which the
hall is very spacious. There are good
gardens
belonging to it, and a noble planted
Avenue, of
great length, that leads to the
House, and a
Plantation of Trees about it.
This House
(or Castle) was besieged in the
year 1715 by
a Body of the Rebels, and the
Laird being
absent in Parliament,
his Lady
baffled all their attempts
with
extraordinary courage and presence
of mind.'
This
was of course the house used by the Prince but it was destroyed by
fire not long after the battle of Culloden and rebuilt in 1772 in
its present form of a Georgian mansion house with its distinctive
central pedimented block with wall-head balustrade and two smaller
flanking blocks.
The
first two houses in which the Prince stayed in Scotland were modest
structures but entirely typical of vernacular dwelling houses of the
period. When the French privateer Du Teillay carrying the Prince
arrived in the Hebrides on 23 July 1745, the first landing was made
on the west side of Eriskay, on a stretch of shore known since as
The Prince's Strand'. The party decided to stay the night hoping to
meet with Clanranald and MacDonald of Boisdale. The house in which
he stayed survived into the twentieth century and apparently was
demolished in 1901 or 1902. A picture of this house, probably from a
photograph taken by the publisher and historian Walter Blaikie in
August 1898, shows a long, straw-thatched building
of
the
byre-dwelling type and a verbal description mentions the central
hearth and a clay floor.
Following the fruitless interview the next day with Alexander
MacDonald of Boisdale who suggested politely but briskly that His
Royal Highness should return home whence he had come, the Prince's
party sailed
across the Minch to landfall in Arasaig on 25 July, St James' Day.
The Du Teillay anchored in Loch nan Uamh and the Prince went ashore
at Borrodale, the home of Angus MacDonald, one of the leading
Clanranald tacksmen, where he remained either on shore or on board
ship until it left the Loch on 4 August. The Prince then took up his
quarters in Borrodale House until 11 August when he went by sea
round to Kinlochmoidart.
The
farmhouse of Borrodale as it stands today is sometimes described as
the house in which the Prince stayed but it is clear from the
contemporary record that the building was destroyed in 1746. The low
wing to the east of the main structure is probably the only trace of
the original MacDonald house, representing a structure of
approximately the same dimensions or ground plan, rebuilt first in
the mid-eighteenth century but considerably altered and modified
over the years since then. The house in which the Prince stayed at
Borrodale merits close attention by historians of the '45 not least
because on all maps showing the movements of the Prince during the
Rising, the densest convergence of lines occurs at this pint in
Arasaig. Not only did the Prince stay longer here than in almost any
other single spot, but he visited this house more times than any
other between July 1745 and September 1746.
The
evidence for its destruction and all the other dwelling houses in
the neighbourhood is clear from contemporary descriptions. 'French'
John MacDonald, Borrodale' son, alludes directly and indirectly to
the loss of his family home several times in his own narrative. This
had been the action of Captain John Fergusson of the Furnace who may
well have exceeded his commission in his contempt for the western
clans and Clan Donald in particular. It is suggested that Maj. Gen.
John Campbell of Mamore, later 4th Duke of Argyll, who was in
command of landward troops had a more lenient if not sympathetic
attitude and
though he would have
driven off cattle and confiscated weaponry, would not have allowed
his troops to carry out such summary pillage and destruction. John
Campbell of the Argyll Militia reported back to his Commanding
Officer, Gen. Campbell, on 31 May 1746:
'On the 29th Inst after it was dark I sent a
Detachment
of 150 Men to Moydart with orders
to drive all
the Cattle they could meet with, to
search the
Houses for Arms &c but not to burn
them as I
intended to go thither myself. The
Party arrived
by break of day but Captain Ferguson of the Furnace having
the night
before landed Capt. Miller with his Command consisting of
Eighty
regulars and 120 of the Argyllshire levies which gave the alarm.
So that all
the cattle were drove to inaccessible mountains, Kinloch
Moydart's
House was plundered and afterwards set fire together with all
the little
Huts in the
neighbourhood.'
Tradition recalls these acts of destruction and the universal fear
and dislike felt among the Gaels for Captain John Fergusson. The
burning of the houses in Morar and Arasa ig is said to be alluded to
in the mock elegy for Captain Fergusson by John MacCodrum, the North
Uist bard, in 1767:
'S iomadh tir 'n do thog e smuid
Talla muirneach chuir e dhith.
('In many a country did he raise smoke
Many a cheerful hall did he destroy')
Father Norman MacDonald, priest in Moidart in 1816, confirmed the
facts of the burning from local tradition in his own day.
A
contemporary description in French of the Borrodale House of the '45
has survived in the memoirs of Guillaume Frogier de Kermadec, a
lieutenant on Le Mars, one of the French ships sent to aid the
Prince's cause in 1746. It bears out what we already know about
these buildings. Le Mars and LaBellone anchored in Loch nan Uamh on
30 April, within days of the defeat at Cufloden and missing the
Prince himself by no more than four days. Frogier describes their
reception and the state of the fugitives whom they met. He himself
went shore:
'...remarquer le pays et
savoir de quelle facon vivaient ces pauvres
montagnards.'
('... to look at the country and to see how these poor
Highlanders lived')
He
comments on Highland dress, weapons, and customs. The houses, he
writes, were built of earth or of rough stones and thatched with
straw or heather, and, more significantly, there was scarcely
anything to distinguish the houses of the great men of the community
from those 'of the most humble'. He went into Angus MacDonald's
house, le seigneur
de
l'endroit, and
described it as consisting of only one room which was
extremely poorly
lit:'...at nine
o'clock in the morning,
in the month of May, one could only read in there by the light of a
candle'. The furniture consisted of a poor table, a single chair,
and two beds like sheep pens in which there was a little straw and a
horrible-looking 'counterpane' covering the straw. This description
of a single room thatched dwelling as the tacksman's house is
entirely consistent with the evidence of buildings of comparable
status elsewhere in Clan Donald territories and in the Highlands and
Islands.
Detailed descriptions are rare but one or two examples will suffice.
'Spanish' John MacDonell of Scotus in Knoydart, one of the leading
Glengarry cadet families, in recounting his part in the '45 in his
autobiography, described in detail his attempt to recover the 1,000
guineas stolen from him when acting as a courier between France and
the Prince in April 1746. An ambush was set in a house in the
district of Lochbroom in order to confront the MacKenzie tacksmen
with their
crime: The house of
meeting was all one floor without partitions, and the door in the
middle.'
Edward Burt, travelling in the Highlands in the 1720s, was as
interested in the status of a building as in the details of its
construction when:
'... approaching the House of one of those Gentlemen, who had
notice of my
coming ... he afterwards invited me to his Hut, which was
built like
the others, only very long, but without any partition, where the
Family was at
one end, and some cattle at the other.'
After
the debacle of the field of Culloden the Prince rode off up
Strathnairn with a select but diminishing band of supporters. A stop
was made at Gortleck where he met the prevaricating Mac Shimidh,
Lord Lovat. The existing structure is said to be the original house.
Passing Fort Augustus, the party arrived at Invergarry early in the
morning of 17 April, possibly about 2 am and rested and slept in the
Castle itself until about three o'clock in the afternoon. Competing
versions suggest that he stayed in Droynachan within a mile of the
Castle.
This
structure,
though ruinous, still stands on the western shores of Loch Oich and
is in one sense typical and in another, atypical. It is a typical
tower-house of Scottish vernacular and baronial style, built in the
early-seventeenth century for the remarkable and exceptionally
long-lived MacDonell of Glengarry, Domhnall MacAonghais MhicAlasdair
(l543-1645). A
tall Z-plan tower of substantial masonry rising to five storeys, it
was partially destroyed in the Civil War, repaired, and then made
uninhabitable by the Duke of Cumberland's forces in 1746. Though
part of the ground-floor is stone vaulted in the manner typical of
tower-houses, the main block has been unvaulted and has contained
large open areas such as the obligatory Great Hall of about 14.5 x
7m. The lack of masonry vaulting and the number of joist holes still
evident in the inside walls suggests an abundance of local mature
timber available to the builders, a resource extraordinarily common
in parts of the West Highlands.
As a
tower-house of massive proportions Invergarry is less than typical
of West Highland dwelling houses, but the generous use of massive
timbers points to an aspect of the material culture of Clan Donald
territories that may not be appreciated. When it was reported that
the house of MacDonald of Barrisdale in Gleann Meadail on the north
shores of Loch Nevis was burnt, it is said that the family took
refuge in a hut built of wattles. This is a detail entirely typical
of the once well-wooded mainland of the west coast. One of the
government factors reportingto the Commissioners of the Forfeited
Estates in 1753 wrote:
'The
whole houses of the country are made
up of twigs
manufactured by way of creels
called
wattling and covered with turff.
They are so
low in the roof as scarce to
admit for a
person standing in them,
and when
these are made up with pains
they endure
ten or twelve years. They thatch
them with
rushes.'
From
this point, the Prince was truly fo'n choille and sheltering away
from populated areas and lines of communication. Shielings and
temporary seasonal structures were utilised. The Prince and his
companions set out from Kinloch Arkaig at about 5 o'clock in the
evening of 18 April and walked across the bealach to the head of
Loch Morar. He was sheltered in 'a small sheal house near a wood1,
on the Meoble side of Oban, by Angus MacEachen of Oban, the
son-in-law of Angus MacDonald of Borrodale. Another account suggests
that this building served as a pen or gathering place for animals
and may have been only seasonally occupied.
Temporarily occupied shielings were the commonest form of shelter
for the fugitive Prince but their apparently low status as buildings
tends to except them from
detailed description. In the circumstances however, they were 'fit
for a Prince'. These were the hill pastures occupied during the
summer months by cattle and other stock which were carefully tended
by their owners. These grazings were customarily at some distance
from the main settlement or township which, cleared of stock,
reserved the cultivated ground for the unhindered growing of crops.
This is an ancient practice often referred to as 'transhumance'
which has been common in Europe and elsewhere in the world where the
occupiers of the ground have been constrained by climate and
topography to move their flocks and herds to seasonally available
pastures. This way of life remained in use in Scotland until the
late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, by which time hill
pastures were either neglected or taken over by large numbers of
Blackface or Cheviot sheep introduced during the Clearances. The use
of shielings
survived into the twentieth century in areas of the Hebrides such as
Lewis and allowed the practice to be studied closely as a living
tradition. So many of the shieling sites are still in evidence in
the upland areas of western Inverness-shire and in Clan Donald
territories and can also be studied on the ground.
Characteristic of the shielings and today still the mark of their
identity are these small buildings used as shelter and dwelling in
the weeks and months of seasonal occupancy when principally the
women and children tended the domestic stock, milking the cows (and
sheep), and making butter and cheese. These were known as bothain
and have been distinguished as bothan cloiche, 'stone bothies',
and bothan
cheap,
'turf
bothies', used
respectively where appropriate raw materials were available for
building. Construction involved foundations of stone with turf walls
and turfs over roofing timbers which themselves were often removed
back to the township in the winter while the shieling was not in
use.
 Some
surviving examples of shieling huts in Lewis are of older, cell-like
type, constructed entirely of stone, corbelled in to the apex and
overlaid with turf. They were circular or oval, 2-3m in diameter and
up to 2m high. The more commonly found type of shieling, both on the
mainland and in the islands, was a chambered structure of roughly
circular or oval construction, about 3m across and 1.5m high with a
roof of turf overlaid on timbers. One end would be used as a
fireplace and about half of the internal area would be used as bed
space, separated off by a line of kerb stones and raised to form a
platform on which heather bedding was laid. The bothain,
standing singly, in pairs, or in groups of three or four, up to
exceptionally eight or nine, were sited on or close to areas of
better pasture generally between the 50m and 350m contours. They
would be in easy reach of the townships and probably no more than
two miles from the permanent habitations. They were customarily
built on small plateaux in sheltered positions, in proximity to a
supply of fresh water which served to water the beasts and keep the
dairy utensils clean. Some shielings were located for concealment
where animals and people could seek refuge, a necessity during the
long period of clan feuding of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries and a fortunate expediency also during the Jacobite Wars
of the eighteenth century.
The
details of layout and construction did not attract scrutiny and
comment until the time when they were falling out of use. Hugh
Miller, the Cromarty stonemason and author, described a shieling in
Eigg still in use in the 1840s. The finer details caught his
attention:
'The
shieling, a rude low-roofed erection
of turf and
stone, with a door in the
centre some
five feet in height or so,
but with no
window ... There was a
turf fire at
the one end ... while
the other end
was occupied by a bed of dry
straw, spread
on the floor from wall to wall,
and fenced
off at the foot by a line
of stones.
The middle space was occupied by the
utensils and
produce of the dairy - flat
wooden
vessels of milk, a butter-chum, and
a tub
half-filled with curd; while a few
cheeses, soft
from the press, lay on a shelf above.'
Had
the Prince landed in Eigg, doubtless he would have found shelter in
a place such as this, and from Hugh Miller's description of this
small summer arcadia, it could in our imagination be 'fit for a
Prince'.
Illustrations:
1.
Longhouse of the
byre-dwelling type in Eriskay in which Prince Charles Edward stayed
in July 1745.
2.
Both, Cnoc Dubh,
Ceann Thula bhig, Uig, Lewis. Scale; 5 feet to one inch.
Shieling hut of
stone with turf
cladding, showing low doorways, hearth, bed space and shelves built
in the thickness of the wall, drawn in Lewis in 1863.
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