The Moidart Timewarp
by Tim Roberton

1826 - 1850
In which Victoria came to the throne, Ranald MacDonald sold his remaining estates including Eigg, Canna, Lochshiel, Glenuig, Roshven, Inverailort, Arisaig, Benbecula and South Uist. The census returns showed a continuing increase in the Highland population and, emigration to Canada and Australia in particular continued. The potato crop failed and great hardship ensued, followed by further major waves of emigration.

1826 Survey of Highland and Island schools by the Gaelic Society of Inverness established that 500 schools were in existence, of which one third were parochial schools, one quarter SSPCK and the balance of forty percent were Gaelic. TC Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830 p 464

1828 Some clearances in Ardnamurchan occurrred at the base of Ben Hiant….it supported about twenty six families, which were distributed over the component townships of Coire-Mhuilinn, Skinid, Buarblaig and Tornamona. At one sweep, the whole place was cleared and the grounds added to the adjacent sheep farm of Mingary. The evictions were carried out in 1828…..by Sir James Milles Riddell. Stories of the Highland Clearances, Alexander Mackenzie (1883), Lang Syne Books P106

1828 Dorlin chapel beside the ruined Castle Tioram (where there had been an earlier chapel), was built in 1828 by the Rev. Norman MacDonald, who was buried inside it nine years later. It included living accommodation on the upper floor which was shared between the priest (who had his own garret room) and the owner, Miss Isabella MacDonald. Catholic Chapels of Moidart and Glenfinnan, by Alasdair Roberts

1830 George IV dies and is followed by William IV, who is to reign for seven years.

1830 By 1830, the Highlanders had become a society of small-holders living in great poverty on congested holdings either on crowded islands or next to extensive sheep farms: their existence hung above all else upon the condition of the potato crop, and if this failed (as it did so tragically in the 1840s) nothing could prevent the collapse of their economy and a subsequent exodus on a scale that would eclipse by far the Sutherland clearances. TC Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830 p 358

1834 Forebears of current inhabitants of Prince Edward Island were the MacVarishes and Stewarts from Mingarrypark on Loch Shiel. In an interview, they recollected how their family had left there in about 1834. Their life before leaving had been very hard. They had one or two cows, but no meat to butcher, so they used to bleed the cows to make black pudding (marag). They left by way of Fort William and had no idea where they were when they landed. They had some oats and potatoes (for planting) and went to some woods and cut down a lean-to. Next Spring they crossed the mountains and settled where they have stayed ever since. On the Crofters’ Trail, David Craig, page 104

1837 Queen Victoria came to the throne, which she was to occupy until 1901.

1837 Brilliant sailed to Sidney from Tobermory with a passenger complement of 322, of which 105 came from Ardnamurchan and Strontian. – John Dye

1837 “Donald Macdonald of Kylesmore was imprisoned for six weeks, charged with theft”. Inverness Courts disk at HC Archives reference 35/60 – Gordon Barr

1838 The Clanranald estates ran from Moidart to Arisaig on the mainland and on to South
Uist in the Isles. Ranald George MacDonald, eighteenth captain of the clan, sold up all by 1838, retaining only Castle Tirrim, which supported his threadbare claim to be a landed chief for another 35 years. The Highland Clearances, John Prebble p250. One by one, Reginald George Clanranald disposed of his estates. In this manner not only Eigg, Canna, Eilean-Shona, Glenuig, Roshven, Lochshiel or Dorlin and Glenmoidart, but Inverailort, Arisaig proper, Benbecula and South Uist, were steadily got rid of, until at length nothing remained of what was once something like a principality save the little, barren, uninhabited island of Risca, in Loch Moidart, and the roofless walls of Castle Tirrim. - Moidart Among the Clanranalds p202 Charles MacDonald, Ed John Watts
Kinlochmoidart was owned by the Cadet branch of the Macdonald family and was not part of this disposal. Some of the purchasers were: Lochshiel and Eilean-Shona, Alexander Macdonald of Glenaladale, about 1811; Glenmoidart, Macdonald banker of Dalelea about 1814; Glenuig by Major Macdonald of Bail Finlay in Uist; Inverailort by General Cameron, previously living in Erroch, Lochaber. - Moidart Among the Clanranalds p202 Charles MacDonald, Ed John Watts

1838 Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths in Moidart 1838-1855

Figures marked “-“ have no returns in the records The Great Highland Famine which come from church recordsby TM Devine and John Donald
p58 table 3.1 Annual deaths, Moidart
1838-55 source SRO, RH21/48/2 and
p65 table 3.7 Baptisms and Marriages
Moidart 1830-60 – Jean Lawson

1839 Father Rankin came to Moidart and soon after arriving, wrote 'In this [Moidart] Mission there are two Chapels - one of them is tolerably good and the other is miserable.' Ranald Rankin lived at Dorlin from his arrival (he was there recorded in the 1841 and 1851 census), and his widowed sister Jean Kelly or Rankin (ten years his junior and born in Strathglass) was housekeeper. In both years a female house servant and a male farm servant were maintained. Catholic Chapels of Moidart and Glenfinnan, by Alasdair Roberts

1840 “Fr Charles MacDonald says there were excisemen at Egnaig and Briaig and that smuggling had been suppressed by about 1840”. (Gordon Barr)

1841 Statistics show (see bold figures below) that despite major waves of emigration over the previous century, Moidart population achieved a net peak in 1841. The bold figures also show that the population in the West Highlands was 8.5% of Scotland in 1831, but by 1951, this had dropped to 2.3% . This was caused not only by the decline in the West Highlands, but by the increase in Scottish population overall.

West Highland Survey

Fraser Darling, West Highland Survey.Oxford University Press 1955.

1841  Moidart Census Returns (available Fort William Library on Microfilm):

Angus McDonald 51
Alexander 15
Catherine 1

John McDonald 51
Isabella 50
John 11

Brunery:-
Donal McDonald 40
Janet, wife 35
Alexander 13
Mary 13
Margaret 8
Archibald 6
Anne 4
(boy) 1

Lochans:-
Lachlan Chisholm 30
Mrs Chisholm 30
4 children Susan Young, Governess

23 inhabited houses, 2 empty
76 men, 95 women

Moidart Census Returns 1841, Reel 16, Inverness Central Library – Jean Lawson

1841 Macdonalds in 1841 census in Parish of Acharacle, extracted by Iain Thornber: