Shiaba
Posted: Friday, 22 June 2007 |
Back to photos of the Ross of Mull, again some of the photos were taken on this visit, some on previous visits, which will explain the change in the weather in the photos,
Shiaba, Ross of Mull was where my family were living in the 1840’s when the then Duke of Argyll (sorry can’t remember the number) decided he could make more money from sheep than people (don’t tell me the sheep were here first), fortunately for my family London did offer my family work, a home and (for the time) a fairly decent life,
The first ruin is the school,
here are a lot of photos of ruins,
Blackhouses on Mull were built with rounded corners and two walls of stone with an infill of small stones, on Lewis and Harris I have seen the infill with earth,
I have been told these large walled areas are where the families stored food to last the winter and that they would have been covered to keep the stores dry,
a dyke, you can make out most of the dykes and walls as well as houses,
the views from Shiaba,
new violets growing on Shiaba’s soil, this made me think of the ‘Rite of Spring’, Shiaba had once been a thriving community that was cleared in just a few years, the people wrote to beg leave to stay but it fell on deaf ears,
Shiaba is now a protected world heritage site, there is a horizontal water mill, it would be good if the mill and at least one of the houses could be restored like the Norse mill on Great Bernera and Arnol blackhouse, there is a Ross of Mull historic society which has done a lot to preserve the history of the Ross,
Shiaba, Ross of Mull was where my family were living in the 1840’s when the then Duke of Argyll (sorry can’t remember the number) decided he could make more money from sheep than people (don’t tell me the sheep were here first), fortunately for my family London did offer my family work, a home and (for the time) a fairly decent life,
The first ruin is the school,
here are a lot of photos of ruins,
Blackhouses on Mull were built with rounded corners and two walls of stone with an infill of small stones, on Lewis and Harris I have seen the infill with earth,
I have been told these large walled areas are where the families stored food to last the winter and that they would have been covered to keep the stores dry,
a dyke, you can make out most of the dykes and walls as well as houses,
the views from Shiaba,
new violets growing on Shiaba’s soil, this made me think of the ‘Rite of Spring’, Shiaba had once been a thriving community that was cleared in just a few years, the people wrote to beg leave to stay but it fell on deaf ears,
Shiaba is now a protected world heritage site, there is a horizontal water mill, it would be good if the mill and at least one of the houses could be restored like the Norse mill on Great Bernera and Arnol blackhouse, there is a Ross of Mull historic society which has done a lot to preserve the history of the Ross,
Comments
So many lonely places and not just in the Highlands and Western Isles. Some of the last clearances were in Shetland, there are equally lonely deserted Toonships in Dunrossness. Nor should we forget that equally traumatic "clearances" occured in the Lowlands. There it masqueraded under the name of "Improvement," and the landowners were lauded as forward thinking men. Most of the victims went to the industries of the central belt and so there is not the resonance evoked so well in the picture, "The last of his Clan."
Hyper-Borean from On the strand
Hyper-Borean, yes I know much of the history of the cleances and have read some of the Napier Commision report, I have only wrote about one village because this is just a blog post and this village is personal to me, however having visited other islands I did get a shock at how empty of people Mull is,
island threads from lewis
Island Threads, great pics - I love that area, but it is quite thought provoking how empty it is and how full it must have been at one time. The houses at Shiaba just llok like they need a roof and hey, off you go. Near Calgary in Mull there are a lot of "tobhtaichean" just like these and also at Cracaig and Galcgugaraidh near Treshnish.
Mountainman from Tobermory
The "aristos" are still around, some with tartans on festive occasions, with their castles and their shopping errand Bentleys. Did I hear FC as madame la guillotine suggest rev-ving up the evolutionary process? One of the advantages of voluntary migration is that one is able to leave lots of luggage behind. Shake the dust of memories (personal and ancestral) off the feet/shoes.
mjc from NM,USA
IT I understand that you were writing from your own experience. It is an experience so many people share. Even those of us who cannot trace the lines back to the abandoned places can find a resonance there. Somehow places that were once lived in, and probably loved, evoke more loneliness than true wilderness. I find Sorley MacLean's poem "Hallaig" very moving for this reason. mjc you are right again except that this time the "aristos" have no heritage just money. They seem to feel that this allows them to buy "rights' over the rest of us and ,sadly, as recent court cases have shown this applies on both sides of the Atlantic.
Hyper-Borean from The shieling
Orrff with 'is 'ead!
Flying Cat from Madame Guillotine
mountainman, yes some of the houses at Shiaba have their 4 walls, it’s a bit ghostly really, I don’t think the current Danish owner will allow the roofs, I heard he complained about the footpath yet he apparently only visits once or twice a year to kill deer, I know there are other places both on Mull and other islands and the highlands like this,
island threads from lewis
mjc, not all aristos are bad, the grandfather of the duke that carried out the evictions did a lot of good things for the people in the eighteenth century, the factor that recommended the eviction was from Islay, I don't have memories as I was not born on the islands and I didn't know my family was from a village that had been cleared until I contacted the Ross of Mull historical society, I was also told what a beautiful place Shiaba was so ofcourse had to visit and it is beautiful, but mass eviction because the people living there don't suit some people is wrong and it is not just rich people that do it, so where did you leave your luggage? I left mine in the SE,
island threads from lewis
H-B I know there are too many people that share our experience and eviction still goes on, I was lucky in finding my g.grandfather as I knew his younger sister’s granddaughter and his sister was born in 1855 when scotland’s records started but I can’t find my g.grandmother and this is my female line so I would really like to find where she came from, the duke of argyll in 1779 took a census of the people on his estate which helps a lot, but the man that did Mull only collected the names of the men,
island threads from lewis
I left my luggage and old shoes in the tropics, land of the flightless and thus extinct Dodo. My ancestors landed there four generations before I popped up (doubtless screaming bl**dy murder even then): why their junk did not take them elsewhere I do not know. I rectified their mistake and got the heck out of there on a banana (well, a cargo) boat as soon as I could. Parents and siblings followed soon after. If I were younger, I would be off to Australia or, probably, New Zealand's south island. The grass is certainly greener around Dunedin or the Milford Sound than in Santa Fe or Albuquerque, New Mexico!
mjc from NM,USA
You say, mjc, that your ancestors in their junk arrived in Mauritius 4 generations before your birth. I wonder; were they voluntary migrants or were they part of the enormous upheval of peoples that the Brits and the French delighted in in colonial times. Not all migrations in those days were slave/blackbird/ indentured labour or convicts, some were simply "encouraged.' The rather flawed ratioale seemed to be that displaced people work harder than indigenes. Hence the now intractable problem of ethnic Indians in Fiji. The mad thing is the same policy relocated Fijians to the New Hebrides. The French in their turn relocated Vietnamese to the New Hebrides and Tahitians and Wallisians over most of the French Pacific. The same process was rife in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean. Truly "The World Turned Upside Down." as the bands played in the nascent USA.
Hyper-Borean from The Dodocanese
Chinese merchants, Hyper-B., Hakkas from the mountains of old Canton Province, inserted to provide necessary shopkeeper/import-export services for the freed slaves and Indian indentured coolies. I could not wait to see the larger world (i.e. to get the h*ll out of there). Have a good weekend, Hyper-B., IT and others.
mjc from NM,USA
There were no natives in Mauritius, Hyper-B. Main ethnic group originates from Indian subcontinent, the second one being mixed descendants of slaves. Add in a dash of Chinese, a sliver of French, serve the British on a salver, and the concoction is ready. In Africa, but not of Africa is the best way to describe the overcrowded barracoon (V.S. Naipaul's nomenclature).
mjc from NM,USA
mjc I think I read on someone else's blog you will soon be moving to a greener place in the usa, going up north, nm has a very dramatic landscape and I remember some fantastic sunrises and sunsets but I do not like hot,
island threads from lewis
As I thought mjc, the usual mix of colonial interference. I knew that Britain moved lots of Indians to Southern Africa, Ghandi spent a slice of his youger life there, but I have not looked as closely at the Indian Ocean/ Arabian Gulf as I did the Pacific. I find it strange that colonial powers had this odd belief in the benefits of relocating subject peoples. The Brits and the French seem to have been the worst but that may simply be because they were the biggest colonisers in recent history. I think the Italians were guilty of it in Abyssinia/Eritrea as well and the Spanish and Portugese in S America and Africa.
Hyper-Borean from An Island of apparent sanity
Anti-colonial rants aside mjc, thanks for the good wishes. You have a good weekend too, and enjoy the fireworks on Wednesday.
Hyper-Borean from The same Island
Yes, NM isn't bad at all (oh well, not so bad after all). I like the place very much. In the High Desert of NM, if you stay in the shade and keep hydrated, it's not too hot; and in the evening it cools down quickly, particularly when the wind comes down the canyons, howling. I am glad you have nice memories of New Mexico, IT: did you stay up north, or managed to get to Albuquerque and further south? Move to s. Indiana village where wife hails from is for end of year, and we may even keep a pied-a-terre in NM. Que sera, sera.
mjc from NM, USA
Great photos. My great grandparents Duncan McCormick & Catherine Campbell were living there & had to move. My grandfather was born about 1853 & emigrated to NZ in 1879
Malcolm McCormick from Ashburton, New Zealand
Hello Malcolm, thanks, pleased you like the pics, was your grandfather born in Shiaba and have you been there?
island threads from lewis
I have visited Shiaba on a few occasions, both on foot (from Scoor) and by boat. It occupies a very spectacular location, although it is somewhat exposed. It is difficult to imagine the numbers of people living in Shiaba in the 1840s, although I suspect some of the dwellings are now hidden by a more recent forest plantation. There are also deep stands of bracken, where you can quickly become covered by sheep ticks! A formerly obvious feature in Shiaba was the red roof on the shepherd’s cottage, though this has now fallen in. Close to the village is a sea inlet which has a small beach, which disappears at high tide. I understand the closest dwelling to the shore was once a shop (provisioned by boat). Away from the paths to Scoor, the land is very boggy. I note the census shows Malcolm McCormick’s forbears living in Shiaba in 1841. In 1851 and beyond, people of the same names are recorded as living in Lee (just a few miles distant). In 1861, there is a record of an Archibald McCormick, born in about the year Malcolm records for his grandfather. I wonder if Malcolm knows where the other people from Shiaba went after eviction? Some of my distant relatives lived in the locality, (McLean – around Uisken and Ardalanish), and I believe most went to the Glasgow area, between the 1840s and 1890s. Deceased relatives previously recounted that some locals left from an emigrant ship which anchored in Ardalanish Bay. Perhaps those from Shiaba?
Alan Mair from Warrington - UK
Hello Alan, my gggrandfather Hector McKinnon was in Shiaba 1841/51, the family are in Ardachy 1855-59 birth records, 1861 Croften, I have not been able to find Croften but on the census it is between Bunessan and Suie, Hector died in 1862 at Knocknafenaig and his widow Margaret/Peggy is in Ardchiavaig 1871, Uisken 1881, Margaret died at her daughters house in Glasgow 1886, I feel the family was being constantly push from place to place until they died or left, my ggrandfather is their second son Dugald, born in Shiaba 1850, went down to London in 1879, I understand 2 sisters went to the usa but the other siblings all stayed around the Glasgow area, I have met people from Canada and Australia whose family came from Shiaba, if you have family from Mull are you on the Mull list? You may notice on the 1841 census my Hector McKinnon is living with a McLean family in Shiaba,
island threads from lewis
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