23/05/08 - "come in for a wee Dram".

We travelled north, Marea's relieved because I've stopped asking "Have
you seen the monster yet?" We never did see Nessie - I can't
understand why...

The road took us past the Moray Firth, into the Sutherland Clan
country. It was this area in the 19th century thousands of peasant
families were evicted by the Duke of Sutherland to make way for
'improvements'. It was thought that sheep farming would be more
profitable than collecting rents. The evicted families were moved to
smaller areas of less hospitable land, sometimes on even on cliff
edges These exposed areas were so bad that in some places apparently
children, chickens, and cows had to be tied up to stop them being
blown off the cliff. This whole saga of evictions became known as the
Clearances and the evicted families known as Crofters. Many Crofters
were forced the leave their land and head for the cities, or emigrate
altogether to other countries.
With all this in mind we were quite surprised to see a 100 foot statue
of the 1st Duke of Sutherland standing on the hill/mountain of Ben
Bhraggie behind the village of Gospie. Whats more, the plaque gives
thanks "...to a judicious, kind and liberal landlord..." - I guess
when the Duke's family erect the statue, they can write whatever they
like. Apparently there was a campaign to have statue reduced to
rubble. However it still stands.
We drove on into the county of Caithness, which reaches to the top of
mainland Britain. Here we stopped of to check out the Whaligoe steps,
just south of Wick. 337 steps (the guide book said 365 steps - there
may have been more when they were built in the late 18 century) lead
down pretty much a cliff to a small inlet that was used by up to 20
fishing boats all crammed together in the 19th century.
One of the reasons we went to check these steps out was because the
guidebook said we may see Puffins. Well we saw hundreds of birds
nesting on the cliff edge, but no Puffins. Later we were told by
Davie - a very helpful, friendly, welcoming local with one of those
Scottish accents that Daniel can't understand, that "the only Puffin
we would see, would be from ourselves when we walk back up the stairs"
;-) Davie with his cousin have voluntarially maintained the steps,
which he is very very proud of.
Davie invited us to sleep in the carpark overlooking the cliffs and
giving fantastic views of the sea. We could even see a couple of oil
rigs a way off shore. We'd no sooner finished our dinner and Davie
invited in for a "wee dram" Lucky the bottle was less than half full,
as I am sure Davie would have insisted we stay round to drink the
whole bottle! Thank you very much for your very kind hospitality
Davie!!