Eye on Millig: The challenges of farming on the hills above Loch Long

THE OLD farming settlement of Stronmallanach is high on the hillside above Glenmallan on Loch Longside.

Today its remains are two distinct sets of buildings some 250 metres apart, connected by a track.

Recent Eye on Millig articles have looked at the hamlet of Glenmallan and then Glenmallan School, with both ceasing to exist in the past century.

This week, the focus is on the hillside settlement. It is long gone, but people who lived there are still remembered.

The settlement dates from the 1590s and ceased to be inhabited in the 1860s, after the death of the only remaining occupant, retired farmer John McLean, who was in his mid-eighties.

In the 1970s, the hillside around the settlement was planted with conifers, and this century several big storms toppled many of the trees, causing substantial damage to the remains of the two farm buildings.

Its hillside location brought advantages, including easy access to open areas of land suitable for cultivation, good drainage from the generally sloping ground, and the warmth afforded by a setting which faced to the south and west.

The two sets of buildings were almost certainly farms — and the census of 1841 refers to two farmers.

It seems reasonable to suppose they worked in co-operation, perhaps as a joint tenancy.

While records go back to the late 16th century, there is the suspicion that the site could go further back in time.

While the present ruins are in stone, it is likely that the original buildings would have been built of turf, in common with many of these old settlements.

One puzzle concerns the water supply. With both sets of buildings on the main ridge, there is no stream nearby, so where did the supply come from? Were there wells?

Quite possibly, the only hope of providing answers to these questions would stem from archaeological investigation.

The demise of the settlement was probably inevitable, if only because it was well removed from the lochside highway, from which it is a steep climb.

However, Stronmallanach was not quite as cut-off as it might seem, as an 1860 map shows clearly a roadway or track from the site extending up through Glen Mallan to Glen Douglas, where it joins the east-west route through the glen.

The difficulties of transporting building materials to the site for upgrade to a modern, mortar-built farmhouse, would have been significant, so in a sense, the surprise is that the settlement survived as long as it did.

A Luss Estates survey from 1776 shows that even by that date, much of the ground comprising Stronmallanach was already being used for grazing sheep — at best some 43 acres would have been available for other agricultural use.

The census of 1841 shows that four households down by the highway had between them nine agricultural workers present, over and above those actually residing at the two farms.

Sheep farming was not labour intensive. There would have been a need for more hands where arable farming was being pursued, but it is still hard to see how so many could have been utilised at Stronmallanach.

Some might have found work at neighbouring farms, but even so, there would have been limits. Perhaps some people eked a living from agriculture mixed in with other work, such as fishing, forestry and road maintenance.

By the time of the 1861 census, though, the total of agricultural workers in the same locality was down to two.

By the turn of the 20th century, the whole of the hill extending from Stronmallanach to Glen Douglas was being run as part of one sheep farm, which also extended to the west flank of the hill to the east, Cruach an-t Sithean.

All of it was worked by one farmer and two shepherds, based at Craggan, beside the Glen Douglas road end.

A family grave at Faslane Cemetery has a headstone which tells of a 'Stronemallanoch' family. Behind the names are many stories.

It reads: “Here lyes the remains of Ann Campbell, spouse of Duncan McGregor, tacksman (rental farmer) of Strone Mallanoch, died 2nd March 1776, aged 30 years.

“This stone erected by Peter McGregor, gardener, Glenmallan, to the memory of his father, Peter McGregor, farmer Stronemallanoch died 22nd September 1847 aged 76 years, his spouse Mary McLean died 23rd February 1852 aged 72 years, their son Duncan, late manager of La Bonne Intention Estate, Demerara, died July 1844 aged 33 years.

“Their daughter Zillah died 28th February 1850 aged 37 years.

“Their grandchildren, son and daughter of Peter McGregor, Glenmallan. Catherine, died 29th July 1862 aged 5½ years. Peter, died 5th August 1862 aged 7½ years.

“Peter McGregor, Glenmallan, died 24th June 1895 aged 75 years. Also his wife, Elizabeth Rue, died 16th May 1908 aged 88 years.”

Peter McGregor junior, the gardener, was based at Glenmallan House, a large 19th century villa near Glenmallan bridge, where he worked for Miss Drummond, daughter of an Admiral.

Today it is owned by the Ministry of Defence, but it has lain empty for years.

There were other McGregors living at Stronmallanach at this period, and they may well have been related.

One of the couples, Gregor McGregor and Mary McDougall, moved from Stronmallanach to Stuckiedow in Glen Fruin not long before Ann Campbell’s death, and they had several children while living there.

Peter McGregor senior, meanwhile, appears to have been quite a colourful personality. It is clear from the Old Parish Registers that he incurred the annoyance of the minister at Row, now Rhu, for not reporting the births of Zillah (1813), John (1816) and Peter (1819) until long after the events.

As well as running the farm, he also operated an illicit still.

An anonymous article published in the Lennox Herald newspaper of November 11, 1899 states: “When Arrochar House was an inn, the proprietor was in the habit of taking an occasional keg from the grandfather of the writer.

“Sometimes the clergy had some sympathy with the illicit operations. On one occasion, the revenue officers had mustered at Arrochar with the intention of making an elaborate search.

“Mr Proudfoot, the minister at Arrochar, had wind of this plan. Knowing that Peter McGregor at Glenmallan had a sma’ still there, he sent his servant girl down the road to give warning that the rangers were coming.

“When the rangers got that length, they found nothing. That servant girl was the respondent’s wife’s mother.

“One night, Peter McGregor went along to Murligan for a jar at a ‘kirstin’ (christening). On his way home in the early morning, he heard a mavis singing.

“The bird sang in Gaelic, but in English its message was ‘Take a taste Peter, take a taste Peter’. So Peter took a taste out of the jar.

“Again and again, the bird’s song had the same tale, on which he again acted.

“Only on reaching home did he discover that the stick on his shoulder now supported only the handle of a jar!”

Peter Proudfoot was the local minister from 1817-43. It is possible that people like him might have had some sympathy with the illegal distillers, as a means of supplementing their meagre incomes.

Peter McGregor junior, the gardener at Glenmallan House, was highly regarded in the community, and in the Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1860, he is mentioned in a number of places as one of the authorities consulted on local place names.

He also made his mark in an unexpected way when he caught a record-breaking skate in Loch Long in 1851. Its length was 9 ft 2 inches, breadth 7 ft 1 inch, and weight 220 lbs.

The giant fish was described as the largest skate ever caught in Loch Long, and indeed in any of the sea-lochs within the Kyles of Bute area.

The McGregor family made their mark in various ways, but the younger generation did not see their future at Stronmallanach Farm.

This was an era of agricultural change, with consolidation of holdings into increasingly large farms, so they may have had little choice in the matter.

Email your Eye on Millig story ideas to milligeye@btinternet.com.

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