I was at a sad but wonderful Highland funeral today. It was a lady in her 90's brought up on a croft in the hills here in Sutherland in the 1920's depression, when life was hard. Somehow the family got enough money together for her to move away and train as a nurse in Glasgow, where she worked till she was in her 60's. Retirement meant coming home to the croft to help out her sister. These two wonderful yet tough women ran the croft until their deaths. This meant lambing in all weathers, at all times of the night or day.
Of the row of crofts scattered along the side of this Glen, there is now only one of the original families still crofting. This most traditional of all Highland things is dying. No-one wants to croft anymore because the price of sheep and wool has plummeted, making it almost impossible to do without another full time job.
It is the end of an era
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