Caleb's List by Kellan MacInnes

Author:Kellan MacInnes [MacInnes, Kellan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Walking, hiking, trekking
Publisher: Luath Press Ltd
Published: 2013-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

Dipper

A second stile gives access to the open hillside and a sign marks the boundary of the Ben Lawers national nature reserve. It’s tricky getting both dogs through the ‘dog flap’ once they’ve spotted the sheep on the other side of the fence.

A buzzard flies overhead as I follow the path across short grassy turf high above the Lawers Burn tumbling over its smooth round boulders. Looking down the hillside towards Loch Tay, signs of the past; old walls, ditches, overgrown roads to peat cutting banks and shielings.

Across to the east I can see a dry stone dyke, a plantation wall, encircling the summit of the little hill of East Mealour. The construction of a dyke around ‘Easter Mailer of Lawers’, and its subsequent planting with trees, is recorded in the Breadalbane Estate accounts for 1789. Most of the trees were felled over the years and only a few isolated pines remain. A shepherd stands at a gap in the old wall whistling to call an unseen sheep dog. I hurry on by with Cuilean and the Labradoodle.

On the banks of the Lawers Burn there are many relatively well preserved old shielings close to the path. Sheep graze over them and stonechats perch on the ruins. Like neighbouring Ben Lawers, the first ascent of Meall Garbh probably started from one of these summer shielings located at a height of 2,000 feet from which it is an easy walk to the summit.

The shieling huts or bothies were built of turf and stone. Grass and moss have grown over the walls on the outside but the shape of a dwelling is still recognisable. The ruins of these buildings are relics of transhumance when cattle, sheep and goats were moved to hill grazings accompanied young people who lived at the shielings all summer to guard their livestock from foxes, eagles and the odd far roaming wolf.

Recently archaeologists from Glasgow University excavated a rectangular shieling hut below Meall Garbh and some nearby ruins, including part of a small stone dairy or store. Based on bits of pottery found they produced evidence for the use of the site in the 16th and 17th centuries. Inside the shieling on the floor of trampled earth a fire spot or hearth was found, tucked just inside the doorway and much needed. Wild camping in a tent at 600 metres, even in summer, can get very cold at night. Stone pot lids were also found, the kind of object usually discovered on prehistoric sites but clearly used on Meall Garbh for the storage of dairy products such as butter and cheese, which documentary sources record were made at the shielings. At other sites in the Highlands remains of illicit whisky stills have been found secretively located amongst the shieling ruins.

Many shielings were built on sites with fine open views. For the people who stayed on the mountain to tend the livestock, it must have been like a summer holiday albeit a working one. Some of the most beautiful Gaelic songs and poetry were written about the shieling life.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.