The pressure from shooting estates in the Hielan Ways area results in a heavy land management program. Gamekeepers are employed by the big – and frequently absentee – landowners to manage their estates and maintain the grouse population artificially high, by means of heather burning and traps for ‘vermin’ (foxes weasels, stoats, crows).
On some estates there is often a conflict of interests resulting in a degree of hostility towards walkers.
Cabrach House
PRIVATE : KEEP OUT
confronted by a man
with a gun
Cabrach Graveyard
Moran’s grave
‘Big One’
* *
*
‘Lucent in tenebris’
they shine darkly
on the coffin path
ruins rowan sun
peewits curlews skylarks
cheese-press on the gable-end
of a tumbledown farmhouse
Cabrach Ruins
The Cabrach is littered with ruins; the homes of people who were forced to leave through circumstance, whether harsh climate, poor land, poverty, or dubious land management. Some of the ruins have cheese presses still intact. A trace of a way of life.
Often the site of these dwellings is marked by a lone and lucky rowan growing close to the house, planted by the folk who lived there to bring them luck.
traces of home
marked by a lone rowan
to ward witches
harsh climate
poverty
poor land
eviction
it’s still going on today
a wish tied to the branch of a rowan
a seed from a berry planted*
for good fortune
on Referendum Day
A paper 'wish' (with Alec Finlay and Ron Brander ) at Hillhead of Largue
*seeds from berries gathered from older rowans growing near some of the Cabrach ruins will be planted next to the ruins that don’t have one, as a memorial to the folk who lived there.
Two burns, two ruins, two rowans and a wish
A circular walk starting at
Aldivalloch (NJ 360 262) continuing by way of:
Allt na Craoibhe-caorainn (Rowan Burn) and
Allt na Craoibhe-cuilinn (Holly Burn)
a paper 'wish' tied to the old rowan at the ruins of
Hillhead of Largue
holly planted by
Allt na Craoibhe-cuilinn (NJ 324 245)
rowan planted at
Allt na Craoibhe-caorainn (NJ 323 258)
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| Click to enlarge |
Are you lost?
Often the main paths follow hard landrover tracks for miles- somewhat soul-less places to walk. It is a delight exploring away from the main tracks; following a deer path, an interesting hollow, or tracking a burn to its source.
Once while following a burn to its watershed spring, I came across a young gamekeeper who was setting traps. His first question was
‘Are you lost? ’
wetted feet fording
Allt Chuirn Deirg
secret pools
& soundscapes
tracking the burn
to its source
where deer shelter
among wild-flowers
keep on till the last
patch of green leads
up the bleak slope
Burning heather
Around April, patches of old heather are burnt to encourage new young shoots for the grouse to eat. Smoke rises on distant hills. The black burnt heather leaves scars on the land, and a foul smell in the air.
Crofts
crossing
to red-roofed
Upperton
new-burnt heather
& acrid Land Management
for an aftershave: Butt
The Red Well
green wellspring
among dearg heather
seven starved dead
now the hillside's tame
Shieling huts and shooting butts
Shieling huts and shooting butts are both temporary improvised shelters, typically found on the hillside, made from local materials, commonly turf and stone. On the big estates in the Hielan’ Ways old shielings intermingle with an abundance of shooting butts.
Shielings are a collection of huts, used as summer dwellings for transhumant farmers and their families, grazing stock – usually cattle. Shielings had largely fallen out of use by the end of the 17th century, although in remote areas the system continued into the 18th.
Grouse butt are hides, to shoot red grouse from. A shooting party commonly consists of 8-10 guns, concealed within a line of butts. The grouse are driven towards them by beaters.
from shieling to shooting butt
a rise in class
a fall from grace
Alec Finlay, Some Colour Trends
There is a place right in the middle of the Ladder Hills called Long Moss. You can get to it by crossing over a bealach from the south in Glen Ernan. Long Moss and Glen Ernan have an abundance of shielings. Another way of crossing from one place to another is by a new purpose built landrover track going to the top of a hill , littered with grouse butts.
shieling
shooting butt
deep in the Ladder Hills
a bealach connects
two old shielings
before sheep
before grouse moors
cattle grazed
where 3 burns meet
on lush Long Moss
and south on the fairy hillock
of Glen Ernan
did they pass this way
on summer nights
to share stories?
there’s no path now
over the bealach
landrover tracks on
Sgòr Gorm
a gormless scar
shooting right to the top and all down the other side
