History of Sutherland - Part 1
The county of Sutherland has a history
extending over 6,000 years, however many recent changes have
altered its boundaries. This northern area was the Southland or
Sudrland of the early Norse settlers in Orkney. But even that was
not the beginning of its story.
The Ordnance
Survey maps clearly mark many sites which date back to the days
before written history. The earliest hunters and fishers of 4,000
B.C. have left traces of their occupation of this land in
‘middens’ i.e. heaps or strata of broken shell, pieces of charcoal
etc. Vestiges may be found east of the Meikle Ferry, Dornoch, at
Achuvoldrach Ferry near Tongue, and at the Little Ferry,
Golspie.
Their successors,
immigrants from the mainland of Europe, built the great chambered
tombs, many of which are in ruins – great, grey heaps of stones on
a hillside. They may be seen at Fiscary, near Bettyhill, at
Skelpick in Strathnaver, in Strath Fleet at Torboll, at Torrish in
the Strath of Kildonan, at The Ord, near Lairg and in many other
locations.
The next group of
incomers also left their visible marks on the county in stone rows
in the Strath of Kildonan on the slopes of Learable Hill and at
Torrish; in stone circles at Dalharrold in Strathnaver at
Aberscross near The Mound, and at Braegrudie above Rogart and
Achinduich south of Lairg. There is no doubt that these rows and
circles were planned with geometric precision by men of the
highest intelligence. Closely linked with these works are stones
which have cup and ring marks, hollowed out by the expert
craftsmanship of skilled men. Some of these may be found on the
shore of Loch Hakel near Tongue, at Torrisdale west of Bettyhill
on the north coast and on Learable Hill in Kildonan.
Dalharrold,
Aberscross & Braegrudie.
On this hill is
also one of the many standing stones to be found in the county. As
the name suggests, they are solitary massive upright pillars of
the local stone. Other examples are at Ospisdale, at Dalnamain
(west of The Mound), at Glen Loth and at Invershin Mains.
Dun
Dornaigil.
These early
Sutherland folk (Bronze Age and Iron Age farmers) made their homes
in hut circles – now simply saucer-like depressions which would
have been roofed with divots, enclosed by a circular line of
boulders protruding from the heather. Literally hundreds of hut
circles have been found – at Dalharrold in Strathnaver, Achinael
in Strath Carnaig, Dremergid in Rogart and many other areas.
Close by are
often found earth-houses, underground passages, their stone roofs
vaulted with flagstones and probably used by the people and the
stock when danger threatened. These souterrains, as they are
sometimes called, are visible at Kilphedir and Suisgill in
Kildonan, above Kirkton Quarry near Golspie, at Cracknie near Loch
Loyal and elsewhere. A thousand feet above an earth-house on the
shore of Loch Eriboll, near to five lochans, is an unusual
roundhouse, set in remote inhospitable country safe from enemies
of any description, human or animal.
Of course, there
was need to defend one’s self from enemies and different kinds of
defensive structures were built during the centuries – promontory
forts like Seanachaisteal on the north coast near Durness; hill
forts like Ben Griam Mor near Kinbrace, and Duchary Rock, in
Strath Brora; vitrified forts like the Dun of Creich near
Spinningdale.
The brochs, too,
were part of the defences. Many of them have been robbed of their
dressed stones but there are enough left to show the original
skill of these early builders of dry-stone masonry. It is worth
taking the trouble to find Dun Dornoigil in Strathmore, Grummore
in Strathnaver, Sandy Dun near Bettyhill, and Clachtoll near
Stoer.
There is a clear
link between some of these ancient monuments and the beginning of
what is termed history. For example, some of the standing stones
were later hallowed by the early Christian missionaries who
incised the cross of the Christian faith on the outward signs of
pagan places. Such incised crosses are to be seen at Tuiteam
Torbhach by Rosehall, Farr Churchyard near Bettyhill, Learable
Hill and Clach an Eig in Kildonan, St. Demhan’s stone by the side
of Creich cemetery. These old pagan places were reconsecrated by
the missionaries of the seventh and eighth centuries. And with the
coming of these travellers from over the sea, the mists of
prehistory begin to dissolve. History, as we see it, shows a
clearer outline.
Where they found
small groups of folk, Gaelic-speaking Celts or Picts, the monks
taught the Christian message. Of the Pictish language
unfortunately no written example has been identified. There do
exist, however – in Dunrobin Museum for example – some Pictish
symbol stones, beautifully and elaborately carved, as yet
enigmatic but obviously carrying some sort of message. The saints
of the Celtic church are more clearly identified. Any place name
beginning with ‘Kil’ shows that here was a small chapel dedicated
to Christian worship, as at Kil-donan, Kil-phedir, Kill-in,
Kil-braur, Kil-malie, Kil-main etc. Off the coast of Tongue lies
the island of St. Columba. Not far away and long before Columba,
there was a holy place on the Island Naombh. These two islands
were both sacred though no one can tell when their sanctity was
first acknowledged.
Left: Farr Stone.
Right: Pitish Symbol Stone, Dunrobin Museum.
It is known that
by the middle of the ninth century, Kenneth MacAlpin, King of
Scots, is reported in the Scottish Chronicle to have ‘destroyed’
the Picts. As a result, they lost their identity.
The Scots attacked them from the west
and south. the Norsemen attacked them from the north. And the
kingdoms of north and south Pictland were no more.
The old litany of the Celtic
church is a reminder of the havoc and dread felt and suffered when
the Norsemen landed in Sutherland. “A furore Normanorum libera nos
Dominus.” – from the fury of the Norsemen, O Lord, deliver us.
A survey of place
names gives a picture of those districts where the Vikings made
their most lasting impression. They held and named most of the
seaward parts of the straths and nearly all the coast lands of the
county, in fact, the land most fit for cultivation below five or
six hundred feet. e.g. Helmsdale, Golspie, Skelbo, Embo, Stoer,
Scourie, Laxford, Wrath, Durness, Eriboll, Hope, Tongue,
Skerray.
Because Norse
buildings were made largely of wood, very little remains are to be
found. The cluster pillars and part of the nave and choir of
Dornoch Cathedral are of the thirteenth century period. But Bishop
Gilbert, the founder of the cathedral, was no Viking. He was of
Flemish descent by way of Moray. His cathedral is the oldest
church still in use in the county. At his own expense, he began
the building of the cathedral in Dornoch in 1224. A year earlier,
this great man, Gilbert de Moravia (Gilbert Murray) had been
consecrated Bishop of the Province of Cat, that is of Caithness
and Sutherland. The ceremony is traditionally said to have taken
place in the old church of St. Barr, one of the seventh century
missionaries in the north. The site of St. Barr’s chapel is at the
east end of the cathedral churchyard. The Bishop’s Palace, now an
hotel, stands opposite the cathedral but is of much later date,
sixteenth century.
Bishop Gilbert
fought many times against the Viking invaders. His brother,
Richard of Skelbo, was killed at his side during the Battle of
Embo on Dornoch Links. A wieve (lifelike) image of him lies on top
of his sarcophagus in his brother’s church.
Light and incense for the
cathedral church of the diocese had to be furnished by other
churches in the province, including Balnakeil Church near Durness.
In 1275, this tiny north coast church contributed 7 merks to help
Pope Gregory’s Crusade to the Holy Land. (7 merks was worth about 9¾
Scots money or 7s. 9½d. in sterling.) It is a far cry from Balnakeil
in the north of Scotland to Jerusalem in the Middle East. Tradition
says that not only money but men made the long journey.
Hundreds of years later (in 1623 to be exact)
a man was buried in Balnakeil Church. He was Donald Macleod,
reputed to have been an illegitimate son of the great Donald
Mackay and to have been born on the island in Loch Stack. He is
supposed to have committed 18 murders, which may have weighed on
his conscience, for he believed an old witch when she told him
gleefully that she would dance on his grave. Donald Macleod, or
McMurcho as he was called, arranged for a niche to be built in the
wall of the church where his body might finally be placed and the
witch’s prophecy frustrated. On his tombstone are these words:
Donald Mhic Murcho here
lies low.
Was ill to his friend, worse to his foe.
True to his master in weird and woe.
Could
it be that ’his master’ was The Evil One’?