Recollections, from memory and from written sources, of drov...
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1964.38.A9; SA1964.38.A10; SA1964.38.A11
Original Tape ID
Summary
Recollections, from memory and from written sources, of droving on Loch Tayside; squatting on public land after the Clearances.
Strathyre was known as Nineveh because it took the drovers three days to get through it with all the pubs and shebeens on the way. Allan Walker can remember, as a small boy around 1897, seeing a great herd of cattle and goats going to the Falkirk Tryst. He recalls the Kennedy family, blacksmiths and formerly swordsmiths in Lawers, Loch Tayside, who shod the cattle. A park [field] at Killin used as an overnight rest by drovers was sold when the Breadalbane Estate was broken up, but it was once public ground. When Mr Walker's great grandfather, Donald MacNaughton, was evicted, during the Clearances, from Blar Liargan, Morenish, Loch Tayside, he and another man squatted there and built bothans [huts] for their families to live in.
Drovers were rough, robust men. There were great fights at Falkirk between Highland drovers and English cattle dealers. Mr Walker recalls reading, in an old newspaper from 1848, a report of the trial of a Highland drover who killed an English cattle dealer in the Bridge of Lochy inn. Drovers ran the risk of being robbed on the way home from the Falkirk and Crieff Trysts with their money. Mention of a drover known as 'an Drobhair Mòr (the Great Drover)'.
Item Notes
According to Jonah 3:3, "Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey."
Item Subject/Person
Kennedy family, blacksmiths
Language
English
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good