Making a life with a croft
The strips of ground above Helmsdale make a useful introduction to crofting when we stand beside the Highland Clearances memorial. A croft is a small holding of land, usually rented, although some crofters own theirs. It might include a house, a few fields and the right to graze animals on shared ground elsewhere. What makes it a croft is the particular system of rights and responsibilities attached to it, rather than its size or appearance. Clearance and resettlement helped create many such holdings, but the people working them today are tending livestock, growing crops and maintaining land alongside the other demands of earning a living.
Living in a rural area, I see how much cooperation goes into that work. People share equipment, rent additional ground and help one another bring in a harvest, because a few acres do not conveniently require a cheap little version of every machine. Grass ready for cutting still needs suitable weather, and livestock need attention regardless of what somebody’s other employer has planned. These remain individual holdings, but access to another person’s equipment or time can make a considerable difference to getting things done.
Some crofters have deliberately chosen this life, while others work ground connecting them to parents, grandparents and earlier generations. Whatever brings someone to crofting, the work remains demanding, but those connections help explain why deciding whether to continue involves more than calculating the return. Maintaining a holding can also mean looking after a place somebody else has handed on, with the hope that another generation will follow. Tenants need protection when putting years of work into land they do not own, although the restrictions can frustrate landlords. Somebody once described a croft to me as a small patch of ground surrounded by legislation, which gives us the flavour without requiring a legal discussion beside the road.
At Duncansby Head, we encounter a more immediate aspect of crofting as we walk towards the 'Stacks' among sheep and their plentiful droppings. Common grazing extends the ground available beyond individual holdings, with arrangements that are less obvious than the animals. We have come for the coastline, but we are also crossing somebody’s working landscape. In the audio blogcast, we explore how those grazing rights work and why keeping a croft going can depend upon neighbours, employment elsewhere and a relationship with the land that reaches beyond its current holder.
To learn more, listen to the blogcast or book one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.