Cottage Holidays throughout Scotland

The breeding,  rearing, droving and trading of cattle was the economic mainstay of the Highlands for hundreds of years.  It ended at the beginning  of the  20th century when, for example,  in 1906 the last of the Skye droves crossed Kyle Rhea to the Glenelg shore.   Now there are only a few tangible reminders of this great trade that affected everyone in the north.  It ended when modern means of transport, such as the railways,  and refrigeration spread.  Prior to that there was no way feed could be found to get the cattle through the winter so there was little choice but to drive them, even from remotest parts, to local trysts, the fairs, and  then further south to the main trysts at Crieff and Falkirk.  Then they could be driven even further to London.

Now the old drove routes are still discernible in  some areas but often replaced by modern  roads.  The road south from Ullapool, over the Dirrie Moor to Garve is one and there are some green, grassy areas on the side of this road.  This  may have been where in days of old cattle were rested overnight  and fertilised the ground by their droppings.  Another, perhaps even more remote, is the road between Bonar Bridge and Dingwall over the Struie.  Even  now on the Ordnance Survey map there is a small area along this road at the southern end that is  marked as the “Drove Stance” where the cattle were kept overnight.   The cattle would have been brought down from even distant parts of Caithness and they would have taken some controlling at night as no doubt they sought to go back to where they had been bred on small farms and crofts.

The cattle were not like modern Highland cattle as they were smaller and mostly  black and,  particularly in the west, were called Kyloes.   I have always been fascinated by the old droving  trade and was eager to help over a venture  that began in Dingwall a few years ago.  Several people banded together and decided to do something to remember the droving sagas and so the Highland Livestock Heritage Society was formed.  Its broad aim was to commemorate the historic achievements of the livestock breeders and drovers  in the Highlands and Islands of  Scotland.  The idea was to create  in the heart of the Highlands a cluster of commemorative   facilities and  activities  with an exhibition, archival/research centre and a commemorative   sculpture with, appropriately,  Dingwall Mart at the centre.

Now the Society has achieved most of its aims.  There is a superb sculpture outside the Mart as shown in the photograph I took last year.  There is  a permanent exhibition inside the Mart and all the archival materials have been stored in the new Archives Centre in Inverness.  The exhibition was only possible by the many contributions and help   from a large number of people.  I submitted  a few photographs including one of the cattle shoes that were put on them near  Inverness when the  harder roads went  south.   The sculpture outside is very impressive indeed and will provide a landmark for many years to come. The old drovers, the cattle, the dogs and the long and often arduous routes south will not  be forgotten.  Take time to look at the displays and that sculpture as they are well worth the visit.

One of the advantages of looking at wild flowers is that whilst it may, to a certain  extent, be seasonal you can look in a wide variety of places.  Woodland, for example, will bring a wide diversity of species and whilst  open moorland may not have as many it is still fascinating.  Burns and river banks have their own flora and the now rare old  grasslands are a big attraction.  Other sites should not be neglected such as roadside verges and rough pasture.  Damp or wet areas are often very productive and even small ponds, let alone lochs and lochans  that have  treasures of their own. Obvious places to head for are nature reserves, whichever organisation is managing them, and there are a few devoted mainly to their wildflowers  and well worth visiting.

One of the main  problems over wildflowers is identification but there are now many admirable books on the market to help.  I tend to look at the  groups I can easily recognise and with other groups just lump them into a few obviously different ones.  Wild roses are a good example as there are so many sub-species even the experts cannot agree.  I tend to put the  roses under a few  species such as  dog rose and burnet rose.   Sedges are another example of this and, unfortunately  for me, I  have never been able to grasp the various ferns although people tell me they are not difficult.   I also find some of the aquatic plants difficult although they include some of my favourites.  The emergent ones and most of the floating  ones are fairly easy but the underwater  world of plants is more difficult.

Many people  specialise in  certain  groups of plants and one of the favourites  is the orchids.  One of their many  attractions is simply their names such as butterfly orchid, frog orchid and  early purple orchid.   The latter, as the name suggest, is one of the earliest to flower.  Amongst the orchids there are still some difficult  groups such as the spotted and marsh orchids. Some are locally abundant such as spotted orchid and  marsh orchids.  One  aspect of orchids  is that you can find them in the most unexpected places    For example a few years ago just south of Inverness I came across, purely by chance, a small area of mixed grassland and moorland that was grazed by Highland cattle .    There were over ten  species of orchid  including butterfly, frog, small white,  early purple and, in the wetter parts, marsh orchids.    Some of the orchids are only found in certain  types of specialised areas such as pinewoods  and some are very rare.  The locations of some of these  rarer ones are  often kept secret because  of collectors.  This has eased in recent years and the many guide books give away their location.

One aspect  of wildflowers is the way in which, for centuries, many   have been utilised by ourselves.  This includes  thatching for using  wide range of plants from  heather to wild iris and turf to bracken.   Then there is the very  wide and often ancient use for medicinal purposes let alone the culinary ones.  They have even been used  as emblems for different  Clans and foraging for them  as food is still very popular.     Wildlife relies on wild flowers in many ways such as foodplants for caterpillars of butterflies and moths,  Why not choose a group yourself to concentrate on this summer?  I would thoroughly  recommend the orchids.    By far the best book on orchids is “Wild Orchids of Scotland” by Brian Allan and Patrick Woods published  by HMSO in 1993.

One off the iconic mammals in the Highlands is the red deer stag particularly in the rut in the Autumn.  The hills echo to the roaring or bellowing of the stags as they try to vocally outdo any other stags in the area.  Serious fights between stags enhances  this image although such encounters are very few and far between and nowhere near as often as the various media maintain.  If there was one image that exemplified  this reputation it was the painting in 1851 by Edwin  Landseer of “Monarch of the Glen”.  This was a 12 point stag known then as a “Royal” pictured against a high hill in Scotland.   It gave an image of a stag ruling all he surveys whereas in   fact it is the hinds that rule the roost.   The image of red deer stags was always boosted further by the essence of the shooting  trophy world where a salmon, red grouse and red deer stag could be compared with the best trophies from anywhere.

If the red deer were seemed to epitomise the deer scene there was little in terms of a challenge.  After all of the four deer to be found in the Highlands,  excluding the mystery of the muntjac, it was by far the commonest and the most widespread.   Fallow deer were always in small groups and scattered as if they could not survive the winters.  They came from deer parks and were a favourite for their looks and varying colours.  The park with a small herd of white fallow deer  on the east coast near Berriedale has been there since they were first introduced in 1900.   Sika deer have been a problem in recent years and will continue to be so and nobody really knows what will happen to the frequent sika/red hybrids that seem to be taking over in many areas.  In some areas of the Highlands there are now more sika than  red deer.

The smallest, by far, of the four deer is the roe deer that in the past have received little   attention compared with the red deer.  At this time of the year their coat is a foxy red with a buff caudal patch.  When  roe deer have young the kids  have spotted coats that afford them excellent camouflage.  Unlike the red and sika, that invariably have only one calf,  roe often  have twins and sometimes even triplets.    Roe deer are the only hoofed animals in which the implantation of the fertilised eggs is delayed.   This delayed implantation enables them to produce their kids at an optimum time in the summer.   Perhaps this is why they have twins or triplets.

Now the roe deer is the most widespread deer in the Highlands and this is for a number of reasons.    The control of their numbers depends on a number of factors.  One of the reasons is the damage they do to young trees either by debarking by the bucks with their antlers or by fraying to eat the bark.  Roe deer venison has never been popular in the Highlands although it is considered a delicacy on the continent.  Most of the roe deer carcases are sold to the continent where they  attract much higher prices than  the red deer venison.   However, the system of “trophy” heads of roebucks  in the Highlands is famous for stalkers all over the world.