As we left Helmsdale and headed to Thurso to catch the ferry
to Orkney, we saw the sign for Badbea Clearance Village. Always keen to learn
more about the Clearances, and to see the destruction first hand, I made a
quick right into the car park. Through the turnstile, we came upon a well beaten
path which we began to follow.
Badbea (pronounced Bad-Bay or Badbay) is perched on steep
cliffs above the North Sea and is on the east coast of Caithness, just inside
the boundary separating Caithness from Sutherland. The village was originally
settled by people who had been cleared from their crofts in Berriedale and
Ousdale. As the sign post says “Please be careful. The people are gone, but the
steep slopes, high cliffs and strong winds remain”. They weren’t kidding.
The plots of land that the crofters were given, were not
arable, rubble laden and at a perilous angle to the sea. At one time, there
were 80 families recorded as living here but by 1904, most had left. I’m sure
thankful doesn’t even come close to expressing their relief at moving to safer
ground. The former longhouses have all fallen into ruin but the foundations of
many are still quite visible if you know what you are looking for. There are a
number of drystone walls outlining former pastures, sheep enclosures and the
village itself.
The ground is wet and marshy. There is a natural spring that
runs through the former village that once provided drinking water for the
villagers but which now only sops the land. The crofters were unable to farm
anything more than a few vegetables for their own consumption. The men were
encouraged to work as fishermen in the herring industry, with boats leaving Helmsdale
and Dunbeath, several miles from the village.
Like any fisherwife, the women of the village not only
tended the land while the men were away, they also kept house and raised children
and livestock. When the men returned with their catch, the women worked to
clean the fish and ready them for sale at local markets. The women of Badbea
were in a precarious situation when faced with outside work in that they ran
the risk of children and farm animals being swept into the sea by the constant
winds. To keep everyone rooted, the children and animals were tethered to one
of the many rocks around the village!
Our walk back to the carpark was all the more strenuous as
we battled the near gale-force off-shore winds! For most of the walk, we were
one step forward, two steps back and had to hunker forward to keep planted on
the land. It was an endurance test at best and one I cannot imagine having to
live with on a daily basis!
By the end of the 1800s, most people had left the village
for a better life. Their mark on the Scottish highlands and the history of the
Clearances live on in the ruins of the Badbea Clearance Village.
