The Lady Again

The lady had spoken of a time when the district would be “riddled and sifted of its people”, when “the jaw of the sheep would drive the plough out of the ground”, that “the homes on the lochside would be so far apart that one cock would not be able to hear his neighbour’s crow”.

This prophecy came near to fulfilment at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The flax industry faltered, losing ground to the cheaper and easier spinning and weaving of cotton. The fourth Earl of Breadalbane began the
process of rationalising the agricultural economy on his estates. He began forming enclosed and compact farming units from the open holding and gave these farms to tenants who he thought could work them efficiently
and diligently. The dry stone dykes enclosing the fields date from this period. While this change was necessary for a proper use of the land many were to suffer because of it. There was a great exodus from the lochside.

Many found labouring work in the fast-growing cities, others were to go overseas where they founded Scots colonies, with others from the Highlands who had suffered a similar fate. Many were to prosper greatly.
Extant letters from the time speak of the hardships on Loch Tayside compared with the hope of prosperity in Canada and the United States of America. But all had left part of their hearts on Loch Tayside, and their
descendants still return to see the place about which they had heard so much. There was indeed “a riddling and a sifting” and the rapid decline in the population, which was to progress over a hundred years, began.

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