Crofting.
Posted: Monday, 25 September 2006 |
Some of my most recent blogs were concerned with life on the croft in various seasons. Now I would like to touch, fairly briefly, on the croft itself. I will only mention the highland croft enclosure, with no disrespect to others.
Before land was enclosed by dykes the system for working the land was named "Run Rig" which became quite antiquated. One benifit of the new enclosed croft was that it contained the dwelling house, an improvement compared to the previous method, with dwellings well seperated from the arable land.
The name "crofter" had come into its own right, but unfortunately with an unhappy prospect with the clan system having fallen apart. The people of the land, no longer had the support of the chief, but became the subjects of his greed in his need for finiances to keep up an expensive way of life.Thus followed an unhappy period of time called the clearances; the highlands were nearly decimated as a result.
The crofting way of life somehow survived, and the problems of the day were at last brought before parliament so that in 1886 the long awaited security of tenure prevailed.
Crofting is still with us, and the eyes of the world still observe it, not really knowing what makes such small areas of land viable. Disputes still arise and and end up before parliment again to be resolved as new bills.
I believe that after all is said and done, the croft proved to live up to its name at the turn of the twentieth century up untill fairly recently. It wasn't a system by which people got rich, but it could be extremely satisfying, The freedom gained in the past brought in a unending harmony to a people who could appreciate it.
Before land was enclosed by dykes the system for working the land was named "Run Rig" which became quite antiquated. One benifit of the new enclosed croft was that it contained the dwelling house, an improvement compared to the previous method, with dwellings well seperated from the arable land.
The name "crofter" had come into its own right, but unfortunately with an unhappy prospect with the clan system having fallen apart. The people of the land, no longer had the support of the chief, but became the subjects of his greed in his need for finiances to keep up an expensive way of life.Thus followed an unhappy period of time called the clearances; the highlands were nearly decimated as a result.
The crofting way of life somehow survived, and the problems of the day were at last brought before parliament so that in 1886 the long awaited security of tenure prevailed.
Crofting is still with us, and the eyes of the world still observe it, not really knowing what makes such small areas of land viable. Disputes still arise and and end up before parliment again to be resolved as new bills.
I believe that after all is said and done, the croft proved to live up to its name at the turn of the twentieth century up untill fairly recently. It wasn't a system by which people got rich, but it could be extremely satisfying, The freedom gained in the past brought in a unending harmony to a people who could appreciate it.
Posted on Island Wanderer at 01:22