Seonaid Ruairidh 'an Martainn

 

Seonaid Mhartainn was born in the village of Siadair in 1898 and she died on the 6^th of November 1995. Her grand-daughter, Agnes Rennie, who still lives in the village with her family, had the privilege of hearing about her recollections of the time when she and her husband, Murchadh Dòmhnallach, and the two children they had at that time, moved to Gabhsann in 1924.

 

“ One day Sgodaidh’s wife and I came down to Gabhsann. We walked from Siadair. Walking down and walking back up again. The village was empty at that time. There was nothing here but the Big House. When we got home everyone was asking if we liked the place. “O, yes, we liked it. Yes, we liked it.” It was lovely right enough. It was green and clean. Nothing was ploughed except for the land around the tack. We came down again in the Spring. Tuesday after the Barvas Communions – February 1924. We came down then. Then my husband’s mother and his sister, Mòr, came down with us when we got a bit settled. We had a cow and some sheep and a little horse. My father-in-law came down with the cart and my own father came with another cart – one cart had peat in it and the other with what little we owned. We did not have much, just a bit of every kind of thing although it would not have been much at that time.

 

When the ploughing time came around, we began to turn the soil with the little horse. Doileag was her name. She was so small. The plough was tearing through the rough ground. I remember coming up the slope there and we said we would stop to see the Metagama coming round the Butt in 1924. We did not see her – but that was the way she came alright."

The full text of this conversation is available as an introduction to the Croft History of Baile Ard and Gabhsann, published as Vol 13 in the Croft History series produced by Bill Lawson publications