Tràigh Allt Chailgeag - Ceannabeinne

Today's photo is of Tràigh Allt Chailgeag ot the beach of the old woman at Ceannabeinne near Durness. So called because, according to local legend, because an old woman gathering peat for her fire stopped for a drink from the stream fell in and her body was found washed up on the beach days later.

Ceannabeinne is a clearance village between Durness and Loch Erribol. It was a thriving village until 1842 when James Anderson, the landlord at the time evicted the tenants of Ceannabeinne and nearby Rispond to make way for sheep. The land had originally been rented to Anderson by Eric McKay the clan chief of the McKays and Lord Reay, but he had been forced to sell the land to the Duke of Sutherland to clear debts. Unfortunately the terms of the lease Anderson had signed with McKay meant he had complete control over the land and, despite owning it, there was nothing the Duke of Sutherland could do to prevent the clearance. At the Time the Duke of Sutherland was strongly opposed to clearance and was investing serious amounts of money building crofts over the rest of his land to provide sustainable incomes for his tenants, probably because of the bad publicity his father, the 1st Duke, had recieved over the Strathnaver clearences.

The clearance provoked what became known as the Durness riots where a number of special constables from Dornoch travelled North to enforce teh evictions and were sent home unsuccesful. Eventually the Sherrif of Sutherland had to threaten to send in the 53rd regiment from Edinburgh (something it transpired he had no authority to do). Eventually the Duke of Sutherland was forced to intervene and although ultimately Anderson got his way and evicted the tennants they were granted more time to harvest their crops and sell their wildstock so they could plan what to do next.