View Full Version : Repopulating the glens
A friend is considering starting a huge campaign to try to restore the 19th century population of rural Scotland and in particular the population of the rural Highlands via the crofting population. Until now I've ignored his pleas to get involved with the planning of his great project. But watching Iain Stewart's Making Scotland's Landscape on BBC1 has made me reconsider.
What do you think of a possible huge campaign entitled 'Repopulating the Glens'? Would you support it or do you think it's the hobby horse of a fantasist?
John Little
06-Nov-10, 21:42
You think that people might go back to the glens and make a living from subsistence agriculture?
Ah hae ma doots!
On the other hand a more modern approach might reap some benefits. Something to do with sponsoring small businesses through tax breaks coupled with farming...... Scottish style kibbutzim?
I did not see the programme, but people lived in the glens before - and could do so again. Would they want to?
It's really a question of the desire to, the will to - and the cash.
Nae chance and very LaLa land if I may say so.......We cant even stop the migration from the Highlands and Islands, our young have nothing for them here. They are being replaced with incomers and I cant see them wanting to live in the glens.....no nail bars and takeaways there are there?
Dream on is all I can say!!!
C3....:confused
Nae chance and very LaLa land if I may say no nail bars and takeaways there are there?
Dream on is all I can say!!!
C3....:confused
There would be if there were enough people there to make it worth their while,
Aaldtimer
06-Nov-10, 22:00
This thread reminds me of a cartoon I saw in the '60s.
Two city types ogling at a scene of beautiful mountain and glens...one says to the other...
"Beats me why they don't build cities out here."...:lol:
would love to live in the glens http://forum.caithness.org/images/icons/icon7.gif
would love to live in the glens http://forum.caithness.org/images/icons/icon7.gif
Off you go then...nowt stopping you.!!
C3.....:roll:;)
The intimation here is that incomers are all ex city dwellers and couldn't live without city comforts and conveniences.
'Be a bit daft to move to the glens if that were the case.
It is however a fact that people moving to, for example, the Great Glen or Fort William area are very well provided for.
I enjoy American films about Loch Ness that seem to completely ignore the fact there is a bliddy great city at one end of it :lol:
Crofting is likely to be one of the most likely building blocks in any repopulation effort
But crofting is only part time agriculture and the healthiest crofts occur where there are good part time jobs. Dounereay has provided a source of investment for crofts in Caithness and Sutherland, likewise some of the best crofts around Lairg are backed by jobs in forestry, local government, telecoms and the like. Very few of us are prepared to live at the rock bottom subsistence levels of 150 or even 50 tears ago.
When I was valueing farms in the early '70's a family could live on about 100 acres of arable now you're looking at 500 acres plus to be a full time farmer but crofters have often hung on with their other jobs making up the income shortfall. Unfotunately I don't see any hi tec or telecottageing jobs providing the same basic level of employment to support repopulation of the glens even if the land was available.
The glens will be repopulated if there is a requirement/need or opportunities arise for doing so.
As posted here, crofting is probably not viable as full time, sufficient income.
What type of "campaign" does your friend want to start? Who are they campaigning for and against?
I wasn't aware that there was anything stopping people buying land and repopulating these areas, I would have thought it's just a case that people don't want/need to.
northener
07-Nov-10, 09:47
Crofting is likely to be one of the most likely building blocks in any repopulation effort
But crofting is only part time agriculture and the healthiest crofts occur where there are good part time jobs. Dounereay has provided a source of investment for crofts in Caithness and Sutherland, likewise some of the best crofts around Lairg are backed by jobs in forestry, local government, telecoms and the like. Very few of us are prepared to live at the rock bottom subsistence levels of 150 or even 50 tears ago.
When I was valueing farms in the early '70's a family could live on about 100 acres of arable now you're looking at 500 acres plus to be a full time farmer but crofters have often hung on with their other jobs making up the income shortfall. Unfotunately I don't see any hi tec or telecottageing jobs providing the same basic level of employment to support repopulation of the glens even if the land was available.
Well put.
It's a nice idea to 'repopulate' the Glens, but even if the infrastructure was put in place to enable fantastic communities like Scoraig to multiply, the income stream for residents would be very limited.
You could argue that Caithness and Sutherland are being 'repopulated' even as we speak. There has been a steady flow of people moving up who have made their money elsewhere and are in a position to settle without the worry of needing a robust income from the local area.
Unfortunately, this is matched (IMO) by the flow of our well-educated young people heading South for employment and educational opportunities. Not a good balance.
I'd guess that any glen repopulation would attract the same relatively wealthy older end - nothing wrong with that, but it would be a crying shame if the younger folk couldn't get a foothold in these communities too.
BTW - I'd move to somewhere like a 'Scoraig' community like a shot......if I could afford to live there.
Yes, in few years Wick and Thurso high streets will be crowded with people who can't remember why they are there :lol:
northener
07-Nov-10, 10:36
Yes, in few years Wick and Thurso high streets will be crowded with people who can't remember why they are there :lol:
I have bad news for you........;)
Dog-eared
07-Nov-10, 15:07
I doubt if the wealthy landowners would like to see their hunting playgrounds repopulated.
Try asking our local wealthy landowner, John Sinclair (Thurso). He owns a fair skelp of Caithness with many empty properties in the wilds.
cuddlepop
07-Nov-10, 18:01
We already have repopulatated the glens in Skye.
They're full of "2nd home owners" that grace themselfs with their presence on occasion.
Why do you think local schools are closing.:(
People who make these fanciful suggestions never seems to live in "the glens"..
I dont Know a single crofter who doesnt have a second job.:roll:
Mrs Bucket
07-Nov-10, 19:04
you would need a fair bit of cash behind you.
Dog-eared
07-Nov-10, 19:12
You hear these incomers in Skye and Lewis loudly bragging about how they are "two-winters " people or "Four-winterers " as though it is a great ordeal.
Meanwhile sitting quietly in the corner will be some local "sixtyfive-winterers " !! :lol::lol:
It's interesting that Scorraig has come up because it's a good example of a success story so far. For those of you who don't know it it's the peninsula south of Ullapool between Little and big Loch Broom. No roads no services access by boat from the Dundonnel side or a 5 mile walk in along the south shore.
The last original resident moved on in I think in the early '60's and the new residents are all from outwith the area with a healthy new age outlook. The school has been reopened and the part time jobs range from violin making to boat building, footpath construction and small scale home wind generators with as much self sufficiency and freedom from petty bureaucracy as possible.
The repopulation wasn't opposed by the crofting landlord Dundonnel estate and their Inverness lawyer unusually supported the recolonisation. I haven't visited for several years but I know that the original settlers are getting up in years and perhaps at the stage where medical services and home helps begin to figure. The next generation may have itchy feet and then you're on the classic cycle again of Highland out migration to get a taste of the wider world and who is left behind?
I am surprised nobody has mentiond the Highland Park option
"Hic" - I'll start that again...
Why not turn the Highlands into a National Park?
That way we could keep the Dome and the scenery!
oldmarine
08-Nov-10, 18:44
A friend is considering starting a huge campaign to try to restore the 19th century population of rural Scotland and in particular the population of the rural Highlands via the crofting population. Until now I've ignored his pleas to get involved with the planning of his great project. But watching Iain Stewart's Making Scotland's Landscape on BBC1 has made me reconsider.
What do you think of a possible huge campaign entitled 'Repopulating the Glens'? Would you support it or do you think it's the hobby horse of a fantasist?
If people were forced to do so, it would not work. On a voluntary basis, who knows?
Whitewater
09-Nov-10, 00:33
I worked with many crofters during my years at Dounreay, they all had to work very hard to keep their crofts as a going concern.
Errogie most certainly knows what he is talking about, my knowledge is limited to my experience with my many crofter friends in the work place but I can see from the limited knowledge I collected from them that Errogie is on the ball.
It is a nice idea to have the glens repopulated but I just don't know if it could work. The Clearances were a blot on the Highlands, but in hindsight, all the people who went had nothing and I'm sure many of them had much better lives in their new homes once they were over the initial shock and got settled into their new lives.
northener
09-Nov-10, 08:01
It's interesting that Scorraig has come up because it's a good example of a success story so far. For those of you who don't know it it's the peninsula south of Ullapool between Little and big Loch Broom. No roads no services access by boat from the Dundonnel side or a 5 mile walk in along the south shore.
The last original resident moved on in I think in the early '60's and the new residents are all from outwith the area with a healthy new age outlook. The school has been reopened and the part time jobs range from violin making to boat building, footpath construction and small scale home wind generators with as much self sufficiency and freedom from petty bureaucracy as possible.
The repopulation wasn't opposed by the crofting landlord Dundonnel estate and their Inverness lawyer unusually supported the recolonisation. I haven't visited for several years but I know that the original settlers are getting up in years and perhaps at the stage where medical services and home helps begin to figure. The next generation may have itchy feet and then you're on the classic cycle again of Highland out migration to get a taste of the wider world and who is left behind?
I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that the community is stil thriving Errogie. I was up there about 5 weeks a go and got chatting to one of the residents. She was saying that, as you say, some of the older residents would have to consider healthcare issues. But there was continuing interest from people wanting to move in. Hugh Piggott (the wind turbine expert) is still going strong.
It is certainly a fascinating place, I'd love to see more communities like this springing up.
neilsermk1
09-Nov-10, 13:52
What is the reason for this, why do it ?
What is the reason for this, why do it ?
Why not?
It would be crofters, they did it once and could so again.
I would be interested in doing something like that,
You can campaign all you want, but it won't happen until there is a way for people to make money by doing so. The economics of farming are horrible, just so you know, and it takes quite a bit of acreage to make any money at it in most cases.
That being said, if suddenly there was a huge oil find up by Braemore or some event like that, you would see those glens full in no time. If people have a reason to live and work there, you would not need a campaign to get them there.
Bruce H
You can campaign all you want, but it won't happen until there is a way for people to make money by doing so. The economics of farming are horrible, just so you know, and it takes quite a bit of acreage to make any money at it in most cases.
That being said, if suddenly there was a huge oil find up by Braemore or some event like that, you would see those glens full in no time. If people have a reason to live and work there, you would not need a campaign to get them there.
Bruce H
that is true, there is little or o money in small farming, but it woul be a start toward self sufficiency,
with just a few acres you could have your own organically produced food etc, livestock for meat,
Duncansby
10-Nov-10, 16:14
But on that acerage you wouldn't be sustained for very long - or with a very varied diet.
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