The Hanging Tree

We walked from the remote corner of Mull where we are living to some even more remote spots. Out towards the coast, along a 'raised beach' (an area that was a beach in a previous geological period but now lies above the fallen sea level in this one), stopped to watch an otter hunting in the water, scrambled up a gully to the cliff top, carefully observed by deer from surrounding high ground, suspicious of our intentions

Set back from the cliff top are a collection of abandoned stone dwellings. It would be natural to write "ruined", "dilapidated" or "derelict", but these words seem a disservice. They were left empty in the 1860s; but 160 years later the lintels are still in place, the verticals stand square and true, the carefully fitted stones remain firm in place - on a shore that receives the full ferocity of westerly gales. These homes were built to pass through generations, not to be left to ghosts

Of course we are looking at the remains of the 'Clearances': the forced removal of tenant, subsistence farmers from the land so that the owners could switch the land use to more profitable sheep production. History records that some 200 people who lived here were collected in transit camps and then loaded on to ships for journeys on which many perished. One man reportedly escaped this fate by hanging himself from the ancient Ash tree just visible through the window

We stood and looked and thought about powerful people deciding that it is appropriate to remove to another country the powerless and voiceless whose presence here they find inconvenient

The stones kept their silence