Mackay Country Community Trust

 

Our project will focus on the 3 themes independently taking the best route to deliver the identified outcomes but with flexibility to allow manoeuvring when results and conclusions recognise unforeseen avenues. Emphasis will be given to features which can be advanced to give an understanding to the establishments of culture and principals of stability of diverse heritage for present and future generations to experience and enjoy. The outcomes will be determined to centre on the association of the themes to give a more detailed understanding of the integrated complexity of Mackay Country to help people to learn about their own and other peoples heritage.

 

 

1.         Hostel Experiences   For over forty years the people of NW Sutherland had been struggling with bureaucracy to have their children's education completed in the area where they live. Latterly the children were returned home at weekends but for many years they had been away from home all term then monthly visits home for the weekend. The idea was proposed by the young people who were the last age group to be educated at secondary school level via the Hostel system. It is a topic which has interest and relevance for everyone from 30 years old and over in the area. This aspect looks at educational history in the 20th Century.

 

2.         The Story of side schools will identify many historical aspects of the era. Side Schools were used when there were a number of children in a remote part. The Side Schools were conducted by a competent (but sometimes unqualified) teacher under the overall supervision of the nearby formal school establishment. These were usually wooden and corrugated iron huts. There have been side schools at numerous locations throughout Mackay Country. School's foundations of the old single—roomed Side school remain visible in some areas. Side schools were in operation during the 19th and 20th Century  

 

3.         Moving Times – a celebratory look at inward migration past & present, - Much has been written and many studies continue about the Highland Clearances (Scottish Gaelic: Fuadach nan Gàidheal, the expulsion of the Gael) which were forced displacements of the population of the Scottish Highlands during the 18th and 19th centuries. We wish to explore the reverse of this and look at the immigrants and newcomers to the area reasons & effects. The history of the area is a history of movement. As an investigative topic migration is uniquely inclusive.  Everyone either has family who emigrated out of Mackay Country or family who immigrated into Mackay Country.  Some families have both.  This makes it an ideal topic for a community based exploration and heritage project. This part of the project will look at a period form the 19th Century to present day.

 

 

We plan to explore and compare how maintenance of social relationships were preserved and how communities lived and developed ways to survive. We wish to evaluate the effects on the people and communities and the way the communities involved interacted with each other then and how this effects the now. 

 

We will explore the relationships of the environment with the people and the effects of the forces of the social situations they encountered. In the 3 aspects, initially appearing diverse and separate, there are many similar and common themes. People were forced due to social infrastructure, politics, environment, and economics to endure or manage with the circumstances provided or created.