IN SEARCH OF A
VILLAGE
The
grandeur of the North-west Highlands of Scotland is breath-taking.
Wrought by the elements over great periods of time, this part of
Scotland is a geologist's dream, a source of inspiration for the
native bard and an ever-beckoning invitation to the tramper and rock
climber. Hills and mountains near and far and great rocky outcrops,
straths and misty glens, peat swamps and mossy bogs, lochs and
burns, make up this unique physical, and oft-times strangely
spiritual environment.
Here each mountain stands in marked contrast to its neighbours,
differing in shape and outline and colour. The hills are humped or
gently sloping with low growing vegetation in hues of green and
brown and yellow. With every corner turned, a fresh landscape
presents itself, fascinating, awesome and beautiful; offering its
solitude where time becomes irrelevant. People interacting with the
environment in their struggle for survival; have altered the
vegetation on the hills and moors developing niches here and there.
However the basic features remain, as they have been for many
thousands of years.
The recorded section of the McKenzie family history begins in one of
the more fertile of these valleys a few miles north from the town of
Ullapool in Ross-shire. Today Ullapool is the ferry port for boats
travelling to the Hebrides and a stopping off point for tourists
driving round the far north of Scotland in the long fine days of
summer. Two hundred years ago, in 1788, it was founded by the
British Fisheries Association to take advantage of the shoals of
herring off the West Coast of Scotland.
The ancient route of those who came to settle or to plunder was by
sea. Today Ullapool can be reached from Loch Alsh in the south by a
road which runs through Glen Carron and Achnesheen to Garve and then
beside Loch Broom before joining the main Inverness road. From
Gairloch one travels via the coast road and then alongside Little
Loch Broom before joining the main road at Braemore and the nearby
Falls of Measach.
To reach the lands known to our McKenzie ancestors we must
travel north out of Ullapool following the road as it runs gently
uphill through Morefield, past the turn-off to Rhue and then down
almost to the sea at Ardmair. Here it winds a little as it rises on
the way to Coigach and Ben Mor. If we pause before crossing the
River Kanaird and turn north-eastwards, and look at the top of the
green slopes above the strath, but below the cutting made for the
road, we see a cluster of double-storeyed white houses. If the eye
then moves down to the river again it is easy to visualize the
boundaries of the original crofts and of the lots of last century.
This is Achindrean. Further away to the north is Ben Mor Coigach,
the sentinel and backdrop.
Traditionally, Achindrean, or Ach'an Dreaghainn in the Gaelic, was
the name of the area which ran from an old foxhunter's house near
the bend in the river down to the bridge on the main road. The whole
valley of the river Kanaird is known as Strathkanaird, the name now
officially used for the village itself. The Kanaird River flows out
to the loch of the same name, passing below the village of
Blughasary, which in the 18th century was part of Achindrean farm.
At that time the forests in the area were oak and Scots pine along
with silver birch and rowan. Now the oak and pine have vanished. The
silver birch survives only in crevices and folds in the hills where
conditions favour it. A few rowans are still growing in the village,
some purposely nurtured. The rowan, or mountain ash, had mystic
significance for people in the middle ages and in this part of the
Highlands each house had its rowan tree growing close to the well to
ward off witches. The broken trunk and branches of an old rowan
still struggle for life on the croft where the McKenzies may have
lived.
By the roadside, leading to Blughasary, and near the site of the old
school, the main vegetation is low growing and cushion-like,
particularly in the boggy areas. A close examination reveals a mat
of miniature wild flowers, rushes, sedges and mosses. There is the
common tormentil (Potentilla erecta) with its tiny
buttercup-like yellow flowers, the heath milkwort (Polygala
serpylliflia) with its deep blue flowers and a moss (Pogonatum
urnigerum) with closed yellowish capsules.
