Auchindrain, Western Highlands Scotland

For more than 5,000 years farming has been an important way of life for communities in Scotland, and more especially in the Highlands where it was essential for the people in these remote outposts to be self-sufficient. At Auchindrain, a successful township or 'farming village' was established many centuries ago and continued to be worked in the traditional way until the 1960s. Originally the land encompassed by the Auchindrain Township extended for some 4,000 acres but today the Open Air Museum here stands on only a small part of the land that has been left relatively untouched since the 18th century.

Among the 20 or so buildings remaining at Auchindrain, many of the houses and barns have been carefully restored to illustrate vividly the life led by the poor Highland farmers. At one time thatched, many of the dry-stone single-storey buildings now have corrugated iron roofing, but the basic layout of the homes has changed little with time. Each home consisted of four main areas, a kitchen, a day room, a dairy (or 'closet' where the butter and cheese were made), and a byre for the animals. Cattle and sheep were once considered such a crucial part of the farming community that it was common practice for them to live under the same roof as the family. Unlike today, livestock were kept primarily for working the land, and for the provision of milk and wool.

Located in old 'Campbell country', the Duke or Argyll leased the land to small groups of tenant farmers. More than six tenants were living and working at Auchindrain Township at one time, but during the 1930s the number decreased to three remained, and eventually just one man continued to farm the entire site until his retirement in 1962. It was a hard life for the whole family, each absorbed in their daily routines. Whether tending the animals, working in the fields, maintaining the buildings or the land, spinning the wool, or making the dairy produce, they would work from dawn till dusk. In later years some of the men also worked for the Duke in other activities away from the Auchindrain Township, some as gamekeepers or shepherds, or even in the fishing industry.

Set against the Argyll hillside, the museum site makes for a thought-provoking and extremely interesting stop along the road to Inveraray. Walking among the ruins, the barns and sheds, and the various houses displaying conserved objects of past occupants, there is a real sense of community spirit, the type of caring and sharing that could only exist in a place where the inhabitants were working together for the sole purpose of survival. It is incredible to realise that, outside of the industrial trading estates and the modern conurbation, such a basic way of life continued to be followed during the first half of the 20th century.