Life on the edge of Eddrachillis in 1871

An 1871 newspaper account takes us into the homes of people living around Kinlochbervie, Loch Inchard, Badcall Inchard, Achlyness, Oldshoremore and Scourie, where a good fishing season could make the difference between feeding a family and falling into debt. The sea we stop to photograph was where much of the household income had to come from, but hard work offered no guarantee of a return. A boat might earn well one year and scarcely anything the next, while men who had spent the season fishing could finish it owing money to the curers who handled their catch.

Coming ashore brought them back to crofts that demanded more work without offering much greater security. Families grew potatoes and grain on poor, stony ground, carried seaweed up from the shore for manure, cut peats for fuel and kept whatever livestock their holdings could support. A cow might provide milk and a few sheep something to sell, but there was little to fall back on when an animal died or a crop failed. Even a modest income from lobsters or gathering shellfish mattered, because the loss of a few shillings could reach straight into the meal barrel. The account leaves you wondering how much harder people could reasonably have worked when so many different things could undo their efforts.

Inside the cottages, two rooms might still mean a family sleeping crowded together, with smoke finding its way out through the roof, walls and gables. In one home the fire remained in the middle of the floor, filling the room with smoke while the family tried to live around it. Meals depended on what was available, which might mean porridge without milk, fish when it could be caught and potatoes for as long as they lasted. Tea and sugar were occasional purchases, and a poor season at sea could make itself felt in everything from what went into the pot to whether there was enough clothing for the children.

School offered those children a chance, and some parents were clearly determined that they should have it, but getting them there was another claim on a household already stretched. A child might walk miles to lessons, only to be needed at home when the potatoes had to be planted or the animals watched. Others lacked the clothes to attend at all. That is the part of the account that stays with me when looking at this coast. Behind the bay, a family could be doing everything it knew to keep itself fed, yet still have to choose between a child’s schooling and the work needed to get through the next season.

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