Rumsdale - John McLeod’s Story Part B

A Highland Shepherd by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer1802-1873

Sheep Stell

Keeping sheep safe and in good condition in winter would have been very difficult for John McLeod. In a typical Caithness storm shepherds would herd the flocks to circular sheep stells that had been built for shelter. As well as shelter inside the stell for a small number of sheep apparently they were also used in quite a different way. In snowstorms sheep were kept outside the stells. They huddled in a mass on the downwind side. Those on the outside of the huddle continually eased themselves in along the wall on each side. Being on the outside of a curved wall there were no corners into which the sheep could be pressed, and, being circular, the stell performed its function in any wind direction. The shepherds then would need to check the flock from time to time as long as the storm persisted.

Sheep Stell at Rumsdale by David Glass

Diseases

Sheep diseases were common and had to be continually treated. The most common diseases the early Cheviots got were braxy, louping-ill, pining, sturdy, scab, and foot-rot.

Arsenic

Foot-rot resulted from sheep grazing on soft grassy land like that at Rumsdale, particularly about the end of summer when the dews became heavy. Sheep with foot-rot, an infected sore between the hoofs, go lame. Their hoofs were trimmed and dressed with carbolic acid. Or mobs of sheep were driven through troughs containing a solution of arsenic dissolved with potash to harden the hoof. The use of arsenic to treat all sorts of animal diseases was common.

Treating individual sheep for foot-rot

Scab 

Scab was a widespread contagious skin disease, caused by a parasite. The itchy sheep would scratch and rub making their wool come off in clumps. To keep the scab in check it was the old custom to smear sheep with tar and butter or grease.

smearing a sheep for scab
source: http://www.dacorumheritage.org.uk

The fleece was parted again and again and the mixture rubbed in. Later dipping grew in favour using a dip mix of spirits of tar, tobacco paper, soft soap, and pearl ash. 

Sometimes a stand like the one on the left 

was used to put the sheep’s feet through

and keep it still while smearing

When you gotta go you gotta go. 

This picture makes me smile. 

The ewe looks so dignified and 

didn’t know I was watching her !

Rumsdale – John McLeod's Story Part A

Rumsdale - Part A

Before blogging the life stories of the children of John and Christina McLeod raised at Rumsdale, I will describe a little bit about Rumsdale and the life of a shepherd there.

In 2011 I was driven from Thurso to Rumsdale by a good friend from Dunnet. Once off the sealed road and onto the farm tracks of the Dalnawillan Estate it is definitely 4WD country maneuvering round potholes, fords and round ditches. It beggars belief that a family could live forty years in such a remote peaty, location, having to be totally self sufficient and having to walk to get anywhere. 

Ruins of the Rumsdale shepherd's house

The ruined Shepherd’s House at Rumsdale lies on top of the remains of an earlier longhouse, the footings of which can be seen at the west end of the building. The ranging poles mark the corners of the longhouse.

In 1822, James Horne, the Langwell Laird, bought the huge Rumsdale property in central Caithness, Scotland, to provide summer grazing for his flocks. Horne’s idea was that the big mobs of older Cheviot ewes from Langwell would be taken to Rumsdale to be fattened before being driven to the autumn sales at Lairg. As well, the hoggets from Langwell were to be wintered over at Rumsdale.

Cheviot ewes and lambs at Badbea

Horne evicted the Rumsdale tenants whose families had been crofting on the fertile flats and meadows alongside the Thurso River for generations.

Faint lines in the grassland north west of the Rumsdale park show that rig cultivation took place here before sheep farming displaced the pre-Improvement township.

A Good Shepherd - John McLeod

To run the big new sheep farms Horne needed good shepherds. John McLeod was one of the few experienced Highlands’ shepherds, having worked at Ouagbeg and Ousdale. John must have been really outstanding, as he was James Horne’s choice to go to Rumsdale and manage the flocks at that big new farm.

John would have known it would be difficult to manage large flocks of Cheviot sheep in an unfenced marshy landscape. But with rivalry from southern shepherds, and evictions happening all over Scotland, John took the opportunity and with Christina and baby Kitty went inland to Rumsdale where they lived and worked for the next forty years. 

Highland Shepherd by Rosa Bonheur 1859

On arrival at Rumsdale there may have been a recently deserted house and some furniture for John & Christina to use. But the McLeod family probably first lived at a small nearby settlement called Aultnabreck. The baptism records of Donald and Mary two of the children of John and Christina show they were born in Aultnabreck. 

Aultnabreck Ordnance 6 inch 1^st Ed Sheet XXVI 1843-1882

Showing the Rumsdale Enclosure on an old map.
Rumsdale Ordnance 6 Inch 1st Ed 1843-1882 Sheet XXVI

One of the first tasks for John would have been to get to know the new Rumsdale ‘sheep-walk’, as these big farms were called. The land was studded with lakes, swamps, marshes, bogs, moors, deep moss and bounded by the river Thurso. 

The weather!

Caithness has every type of weather, often within a few minutes. The sea coast regulates the temperature so it does not usually stay freezing for long. Summer is rarely hot. The winter days are short and the summer days are long. Winter snow on the Rumsdale lands where snow drifts would heap up on the hills and flats would have made life difficult for a shepherd.

Snow drifts block the railway line south of Altnabreac in 1895. I have included this just to show how cold it could get in the winter at Altnabreac and nearby Rumsdale

Massive Enclosure

The Hornes had a massive dry-stone dyke enclosure built at Rumsdale. It is not known when the dyke was built but it was probably near the beginning of the sheep farm venture. A dry-stone dyke is a wall that is built from stones without any mortar to bind them together. The wall is held up by a special construction method and by its own weight. Well made, it will last for centuries.  This enclosure was built approximately 12 acres in size and is still in good condition. It can easily be seen on the satellite pictures for Google Earth.  It would have been used to hold mobs of mustered sheep while they were being treated for diseases or being drafted and branded before being driven to market. The shepherd’s house was probably built during that time. 

Rumsdale Stone Dyke and Shepherd’s House

What did they live on?

It was common to pay shepherds ‘in kind’, letting them to have from forty to eighty of their own branded sheep. The value of these sheep was worked out between shepherds, with the owner taking the profit of his own flock.

Or if he was paid a wage, John would have received from £30 to £33 per year.

A very old and damaged photo of the McLeod’s house at Rumsdale

A shepherd had a house provided, plus grass for a cow, two acres of ground to grow potatoes, barley or turnips, and 65 stones of meal. 

Braxy Sheep

They were allowed to eat sick or braxy sheep. Sheep that ate icy food often died of braxy. Although braxy meat would not be eaten these days at that time it was said:

‘A braxy victim when it has been skinned, well pressed with stones in a burn to extract the inflammation, and then salted, makes no contemptible hung mutton.’ 

1841 Census

What labouring help John had at first is not known but the 1841 census shows two extra agricultural labourers living in the house (Ag Lab). They probably slept on the kitchen floor as was the custom. The remains of a shepherd’s bothy near the main Rumsdale house are still there. In the 1851 and 1861 census returns no extra farm labour is shown at Rumsdale. 

Horne’s breeding ewes would have been kept at Langwell for a few years. When they had dropped three or four lambs, the ewes were probably sent across to Rumsdale to be fattened in preparation for being driven south to the markets. The wether hoggets would likely have been sent to Rumsdale between two and three years old then kept until about three and a half years old before being sent to the markets. 

By 1841 the Rumsdale property was carrying 1600 sheep in summer and about 500 over-winter wethers which could survive tougher winter conditions than the ewes. 

                                   Photo 2011. A few sheep are still grazed at Rumsdale

Kitty McLeod 1822 - 1839

From Dalnawillan burial ground looking toward the Thurso River.
Kitty is buried just at the end of the stone wall. 

After their marriage John and Christina lived for about a year at Ousdale in an old longhouse near the road.

The Laird of Langwell and Rumsdale

The farm at Ousdale (aka Ausdale) was owned by James Horne Esq. Horne had purchased Langwell and extensive Caithness lands, including Rumsdale, from Sir John Sinclair in 1816. The plan was to use Rumsdale to provide summer grazing for the Langwell flocks which would then be driven to the autumn sales at Lairg and further south. Donald Horne, the nephew of James Horne, had been busy ‘improving’ Rumsdale and is said to have removed six tenants in 1822. 

Ousdale in 1934. The house in the top left corner was built on the
old foundation stones of the longhouse where Christina and John
lived when they were first married and where Kitty would have
been born.

Ousdale

1822, the year John and Christina were in Ousdale was probably a very busy one. John would have been getting further experience with the sheep, both on Langwell, and likely being sent to Rumsdale to become familiar with the property there.

Childbirth

Christina was pregnant. She had no mother to give her advice but her half-sister Marion Sinclair, wife of John Gunn, and living in nearby Badbea had quite a few children by then. Marion had been like a mother to the children when Christina and her siblings were orphaned and was known to be a kind and hospitable person so she would have been there to support Christina. Childbirth was a perilous time for women in those days. There was a 'Howdy' or untrained midwife living in Berriedale at the time who may have attended Christina. See my blog article:

http://greyhenswell.blogspot.co.nz/2015/12/widow-mcpherson-article-xiii-rambling.html

It's a Girl

Christina and John's first bairn Kitty was safely delivered. She was named after Christina's mother Katherine who had died when Christina was young. On 3 December 1822 John took his new daughter along to be baptised in the Latheron Parish.

Kitty would have soon been taken to Rumsdale with her parents and grown up being part of the busy family life there.

That’s about all the information that is known about Kitty McLeod. 

She Died Young - Only 17

At the Dalnawillan Burial Ground there is a McLeod grave stone that bears the following inscriptions.

• Side 1: John McLeod, shepherd 44 yrs, Rumsdale, d Rangag 5.5.1872 aged 74, wife Christina Sutherland 27.6.1874.
• One end of stone: This stone placed by surviving family now far from the scene of their youth but their thoughts often meet at the graves of their beloved parents.
• Side 2: In memory of Catherine McLeod their daughter died September 1839 aged 17 years.
• One end of stone: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.Thes IV:14

My great grandfather Alexander McLeod, one of Kitty's brothers, had the stone laid many years after his parent’s and Kitty’s deaths. He visited Scotland from New Zealand in 1913. I note he has called her Catherine. He may not have been aware that the name on her birth record was Kitty as the two names were commonly used interchangeably and also he was born after her death. He certainly was aware that her life and death were part of his family history and must be remembered.

I Don't Know What Happened

I have not been able to locate any clues as to the cause of Kitty’s death at the age of 17 years. But as indicated by the term ’beloved parents’ this was a close and loving family and Kitty’s early death would have been a source of great grief.

Being buried with kin was important for Highland people and many years later the bodies of John and Christina were carried across country from Rangag to be buried with their daughter Kitty.

I Went There

It was a very significant experience for me to travel from New Zealand to the remote Dalnawillan cemetery in the Scottish Highlands and find the grave of this beloved family.

Marriage of Christina and John

Neighbours for Years

Living in the neighbouring settlements of Badbea and Ausdale most of their early lives, Christina and John would have known each other well enough. 

Ouagbeg

As a young man John McLeod had been sent by James Horne to work as a shepherd at Ouagbeg. Ouagbeg lies at the top of the Langwell Strath below the hill of Morven on the Langwell estate. Langwell flocks were being grazed there – possibly established by Sir John Sinclair and taken over by James Horne when he became the owner of the Langwell Estate in 1816. 

The remains of Ouagbeg, now known as The Wag beneath Morven

His thoughts turned to Christina Sutherland at Badbea.

‘Och aye, it was bonnie. John McLeod rode his horse across country a long way tae court Christina. He was very keen. Those stories are not forgotten in the district an' within the McLeod family so many years later,’ Elizabeth, the curator of the nearby Laidhay Museum said to me one day. 

Marriage record of Christina and John

Marriage at Kildonan

1822 May 5th John McLeod Shepherd of Ouagbeg and Christian Sutherland of Badbea at Kildonan. 

• Note: Some documents use the name Christian while others use Christina. Such variations of names are common in old Scottish records. I will use Christina for simplicity.

A church marriage in Scotland, required marriage banns to be read in church in advance. John and Christina must have visited the Kildonan parish clergyman Alexander Sage to arrange for their marriage. They probably paid him about 3 pence. The proclamations of banns of marriage for John McLeod Shepherd of Uagbeg and Christian Sutherland of Badbea were made for the third time at the Kildonan church on Sunday May 5^th 1822. 

Strath of Kildonan with the kirk

Wedding Day

To get to his bride from Ouagbeg, John probably rode a horse, eight miles along the edge of the Langwell Water to Langwell House then south to Berriedale, passed the Grey Hen’s Well, before turning left on the Badbea track. Badbea is about fifteen miles from the Kildonan church.

Uagbeg, Ousdale, Achnacraig and Kildonan Kirk. John Thomson's Atlas of Scotland 1832

On the morning of the wedding John and Christina would have crossed the new Ousdale bridge, then walked five miles to the fishing village of Helmsdale and ten miles up the Kildonan Strath, to the Kildonan church. They needed two witnesses to the marriage to come with them. People from Badbea may have formed a procession leading the happy couple to the church.

The Ousdale bridge now disused.

The Kildonan Strath in 1822 was a sad and empty place. Kildonan was heavily populated before 1813 when violent mass evictions took place. A second major clearance occurred in 1819. The wedding party would have passed through the remains of many small villages, hamlets and passed sheep pens made from the ruins of recently cleared houses. 

At the church, two wedding services were traditionally held. The first service usually held just outside the doors of the church, where Rev Alexander Sage would have married the couple in Gaelic. Once the Scottish ceremony was finished, the minister would lead a procession into the church where the ceremony would be performed once more, only this time in Latin.

The pulpit and memorial stone of Alexander Sage at Kildonan

At the end of the ceremony was the exchanging of rings. In her photo, Christina is wearing a plain wedding band on her left hand. I do not know if they had any celebrations after the wedding but it was common practice to do so.

David Wilkie, The Penny Wedding, 1818

Ousdale

After they were married John and Christina went back to Ousdale for a year, living in an old longhouse near the route from Sutherland into Caithness. Their first daughter Kitty was born in Ousdale late in 1822. 

Christina Sutherland and John McLeod taken many years later.

 

The early years and backgrounds to the lives of Christina Sutherland and John McLeod can be read on my blog The Grey Hen’s Well. It was a time of severe hardship, evictions of tenants, emigration from Scotland and struggle for survival for those who stayed behind.

http://greyhenswell.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/christina-aka-christian-sutherland-1798.html

http://greyhenswell.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/mcleods.html 

McLeods of Rumsdale

McLeods of Rumsdale

John McLeod, shepherd of Rumsdale, and his wife Christina Sutherland. What drove their family flock to New Zealand? Scotland's diaspora - 'herd' it before, hear it again.

Taken from John and Christina's grave at Dalnawillan cemetery, looking toward the Thurso River.

Rumsdale near the source of the Thurso River

In this blog I will tell stories of the descendants of John McLeod (1795-1869) and his wife Christina Sutherland (1798-1872) who lived and worked for forty years at the sheep grazings of Rumsdale near the source of the Thurso River in the Scottish Highlands.

Eleven Bairns

John and Christina's first daughter was born in Ousdale while ten children were born in at Rumsdale. This McLeod family were deeply impacted by the clearances and the establishment of large sheep farms in Scotland. While John's skills as a shepherd were recognised by the Lairds of Langwell, James and Donald Horne, who employed him all those years, many members of this McLeod family, hoping for a better future for themselves, joined the diaspora and emigrated to New Zealand. They settled mainly in the Manawatu and kept a close family bond with each other for the rest of their lives. Alexander (aka Sandy) McLeod, the tenth child, was my great grandfather.

Grey Hen's Well

I have another blog, The Grey Hen's Well http://greyhenswell.blogspot.com where I have posted stories of the hamlet of Badbea and its inhabitants. Christina Sutherland was born there. I will link some of the stories of her early life and family here.