Uist Beò have caught up with one of North Uists young crofters, Kenneth MacLean. Crofting from Carinish, Kenneth is run off his feet in the local community helping out neighbours and looking after his own stock. However, since he was a child he’s noticed a difference in his local community.

‘When I was in school, there wasn’t that much interest in crofting, but I would say that the course that they run in Sgoil Lìonacleit has definitely helped things. There seems to be a big increase in people my age and younger in crofting, and especially with girls getting involved.

If you went to a sale or something there weren’t that many girls or young people about at the sale, but there’s definitely a lot more now. I don’t really know what caused it. Even my own sister, she loves it and there’s nothing that I can do that she can’t do herself. She’s as good as any guy I know on the croft.’

The crofting class at Sgoil Lìonacleit runs over two years and students get some hands-on experience with Neil MacPherson, who lives across the road from the school. In these lessons, young people get to work on Neil’s croft with the sheep, fencing, building stone walls and learning about harvesting and the corn that grows best in the islands.

‘It was really quite hands-on. It was great. There was classroom stuff as well, but we all preferred being out and about and doing stuff. We learnt about basic paperwork like movement documents and things like that if you’re selling a sheep or buying a sheep.

There are also lots of guys that you see on YouTube. They’re big farmers and they’re selling their own merchandise. Whenever you go to a sale now, all the kids are going about with their gear. I think that’s definitely made it seem kind of cool to be involved in crofting and farming.

Maybe, next we’ll be seeing some online content from The Carinish Croft! 

‘I’d say that’s all definitely helped things for the younger generation. There was a startup meeting for a young crofters club that was held in Stornoway. I was meant to go up myself, but the ferry was obviously cancelled. They held it on zoom for us, thankfully and there was a good attendance from Uist online.

The event saw over 100 young crofters congregate and encourage each other and they hope to make this a more official club in the future. ‘It was definitely very well attended. So, it just shows that there’s definitely a keenness there for crofting and farming in the islands.’ 

On the croft in Carnish, Kenneth along with his sister and his father, keeps over 100 cheviot eves and recently sold 60 lambs at a sale in Dingwall. The Lochmaddy mart has taken a slight downturn in the last year, but things are looking brighter for the mart with a sale happening later in the year. The sale is being run by United Auctions and Kenneth is one of two of the people who are taking bookings for selling on the day. We hope it’s a success and continues for years to come.

While talking money, Keneth mentions that the prices have been very healthy for selling lambs in the last season and he speculates that our balmy Uist spring has played a part in that!

 

‘There was a lack of lambs on mainland Scotland and the rest of the UK due to the bad weather in spring. We were lucky we didn’t get half as bad out here. 

It’s not often that us Uibhistich are boasting about our Hebridean climate. 

‘There’s loads of factors in it all as well. They’ve clamped down on imported meat, which has helped the crofters, but it hasn’t helped the people buying it in the shops because it’s ramped the prices up. There’s also a knock on effect from Brexit. It’s one of the few positives that’s kind of happened because of it. 

The welfare standards are so high here, the meat from here is sought after compared to what you can buy from elsewhere, like New Zealand and such places. That has definitely helped our prices too.’

Not only is a day at the mart good for the pocket, but it’s also good for a laugh and a bit of community spirit. Kenneth mentions that: ‘it’s so important to get the North Uist one up and running again. It’s a very sociable day where everyone can get the crack with everyone. It’s always a good day. Of course, people always enjoy getting their cheque at the end of the day as well.

Crofting, at times ins’t easy to get into when an individual doesn’t have land to work or keep stock on, but Kenneth encourages other young people who have an interest in it to get involved in the community and help out so they can learn from others and see how things work. 

‘Get out there and help their neighbour or friend with animals, or volunteer at local agricultural shows or sales and if you work hard enough and show enough of an interest then opportunities can arise.

I suppose, eventually, that it just depends how forward you are asking people if you do see a vacant croft. The worst the person can say is no, and the best they can say is yes. So I would say, without being rude, is to be as forward as you can. Sometimes it can work in your favour.

When asking Kenneth about his plans for the future, he comments that:

‘I’m going to keep at the crofting.  Oh, yeah. I’m going to be one of those stubborn old people at the sale that should have given up ten years ago, but won’t. I’ll be there for a long time to come.