INFORMATION ~ CROFT

Crofting, as the term is used within the Counties of Argyll, Inverness, Ross & Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney and Shetland ( the crofting counties) is entirely " a creature of statute ". In other words, while the word croft was coming into use increasingly from the 18th and 19th centuries for the lands held by generality of the poorer agriculturalists within the area, crofting tenure as we know it today was created by a series of Acts from the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1886 to the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 1976.

Two preliminary points can be made at the outset which are of some significance. The word " croit " or " crait " is merely a Gaelicisation of the English " croft " which is of Anglo Saxon / Old Teutonic origin. The term croft was apparently used in pre-reformation times in Scotland to designate land set aside for religious uses or for a local saint - Croit mo Luiag (Balylaggan), Lochnesside, is an example amongst many in Gaelic areas you have St Barrs croft, Dornock, and St Cuthberts Croft at Peterculter.

These crofts were definite areas, usually arable and with marked boundaries. In this respect they contrasted with the larger davochs and later Peighinn ( or peeny ) lands which of course were more a measure of value than of land extent. You have Sir Walter Scott in his " Tales of my Landlord" using the designation on Croit an Righ - Dalry in Edinburgh.

There is of course very limited record of the terms and designations in Gaelic for land holdings apart from comparatively scant descriptions in the records of forfeited estates in 1715 and 1745 and some church records. The old Highland Chiefs claimed to hold by the sword and as the process of granting them feudal titles from the king began in the 15th and 16th centuries the title deeds were drawn by Lowland lawyers, mostly in Latin but using Lowland / feudal concepts.

About the 17th century surveys were made of suitable farthing lands and other resources and settlements of displaced small tenants were made on these at Loch Eport in Uist, Melness and other shores. These were probably attempts by the landlords to develop fisheries and the term croft again was adapted for use in that it met the criteria of a definite area arable in nature, and with exact boundaries and no rights in common to any other land.

In all communities in any case - or all but the most primitive - specialisation occurs. The tailor, the miller and many other craftsmen if they are to be enabled to carry out their primary duties have to be excused from many of the duties imposed and exercised in common on and by the rest of the community. There from early times specific plots of land were given for the exclusive use of these functionaries instead of depending on a cash incentive as in a more advanced monetarist society.

These plots of land along with those allocated to people encouraged by the landlord ( or directed by them would probably be more accurate ) to engage in commercial enterprise - Fishing and later Kelp collecting etcetera - were the first to which the term croft or croit in its original sense could be and was properly applied.

Crofting thus arose out of the necessity of an advancing society to specialise and is essentially analogous or comparable to the way in which the owners of mines, factories and other enterprises found it necessary or expedient to build houses for their workforce. As society within the highlands increasingly advanced from a none Monetary to a commercial trading economy the advantage of freeing more people from their community - co-operative activities and duties became obvious. It ensured for the landlord / Chief / entrepreneur that the services of the people involved could almost exclusively be devoted to the enterprise while it was needed; it also provided a subsidiary income to eke out a low wage and a means of subsistence at slack times.

As the Chiefs became more feuldalised and more aware of the world outside the Highlands and the clan system so increasingly did they seek to exploit such natural resource as their land provided to give them a financial and economic status more in line with the lowland and English landlord than the old concept of a patriarch of a heroic age. And with the consequent exploitation of natural resource so did the necessity of creating a workforce free to devote the greater part of their time for this purpose - and hence the development of the crofting system in its original from - arise

This process was well under way by the middle of the 17th century and no doubt as well as outside influences an additional stimulus from within would be given to those Chiefs and landlords from the activities of the pre-Reformation Church from medieval times onward in promoting crafts, agriculture and trade.