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’?