Walking up a small hill to Arichonan, along a grassy path, you are immediately struck by the beauty of the surroundings. Within 5 minutes of walking, you are rewarded with the most stunning views of Caol Scotnish, a long freshwater loch encapsulated by lush hillsides. Romantically, you think to yourself, what a wonderful place this must have been to live…of course in reality life in a remote village in the wild Highlands of the 18th century would have brought many hardships, especially during the potato famine.
There are many abandoned ‘clearance’ villages across the whole of Scotland, hundreds probably. Yet Arichonan is one that will stay in my memory for a very long time. For a start it is one of the most intact clearance villages I have come across, you can still get a really good idea of the layout of the settlement and the size, structure and potential uses of the buildings. You can even see an old iron bed frame and a large, upturned caudron that would have been used for dying wool. But apart from the physical remnants, the thing that really strikes you about Arichonan is the story of the evicted tenants.
Like other settlements that were subject to eviction during the Highland Clearances, the tenants of Arichonan were being removed from the land to make way for more profitable large-scale sheep farming. Many landowners saw this as necessary development of their land, making far more economical sense than having smallholding tenant farmers, and often it was a way of funding a lavish London lifestyle. Neil Malcolm, the landowner responsible for the eviction was indeed a resident of Mayfair in London’s wealthy west end.
The tenants of Arichonan were not willing to leave their beautiful village, enraged by the way the eviction had been handled by the landowner, and so they decided to fight back leading to one of the most violent of the clearance stories. They fought off the factor when he appeared to give them final warning to leave, the factor later claiming ‘the crowd were using sticks and stones…I was dragged half over a dyke!’ The estate staff had several attempts to remove the angered Arichonan villagers, made even more challenging as the estate factor could not speak the native Gaelic tongue, each time they were chased away. Eventually the police had to step and evict them forcefully. Some tenants were arrested and thrown into nearby Inveraray Jail, which is now open to the public as a visitor attraction.
After the forceful removal 5 villagers were sent to trial and served sentences of a few months. Some moved to nearby towns, others eventually emigrated abroad to seek new opportunities. A beautiful, crumbling Arichonan remains silent and peaceful on a grassy hillside in South Argyll.
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Author: Kirsty Duncan
