Strathnaver Museum & Mackay Country Community Trust Moving Times & Museum Tales
Mackay Country Community Trust Ltd.
Where is Mackay Country?
Mackay Country or, Dùthaich Mhic Aoidh, comprises the communities in the north west corner of Sutherland, Scotland. The parishes of Eddrachilles, Durness, Tongue and Farr make up Mackay Country today. Historically the actual boundaries have varied and at times reached as far south as Lairg. Other old names for roughly the same area include The Province of Strathnaver.
In the seventeenth century Sutherland was just a little triangular area in the south east of the area now known as the County of Sutherland. Sutherland was created as an earldom originally. A sheriffdom or shire was declared by Charles I in 1631 and included a much larger area. In 1747 a new shire system did away with hereditary rights and in 1889 a county council system was created by act of parliament. All of these forms are political and administrative units. Sutherland’s boundaries were gradually expanded until Assynt (previously in Ross) and Strath Naverne became incorporated into the far larger County of Sutherland with the boundaries with which we are familiar today.
In 1828 the last of the Reay Estate, comprising the last of the lands owned by the Mackay Clan Chief, Lord Reay, were sold to George Granville Leveson-Gower, Marquis of Stafford (1st Duke of Sutherland on his death in 1833) and Elizabeth, Duchess of Sutherland, proprietors of The Sutherland Estates. By 1834 almost all of the County’s 1,297,803 acres were owned by Sutherland Estates. That pattern held throughout the nineteenth century. In the past one hundred years that dominance has fragmented very significantly.
What is Mackay Country Community Trust Ltd?
The organisation was created in the year 2000 by representatives from 11 key communities as a result of their work on cultural issues during The Dùthchas Project. The current legal structure was established in 2007 and is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in Scotland (Company No. 331267) with Charitable Status (Scottish Charity No. SC038792). It was formed to manage the Mackay Country Project; an initiative started to bring together communities from across a wide region of over 1,200 sq km formed from the 4 parishes of Eddrachilles, Durness, Tongue and Farr in the North West of Sutherland. Two and a half thousand people live in Mackay Country; at least 30,000 people visit Mackay Country each year.
Mackay Country’s Aims are:
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To encourage active participation of the wider community in identifying, safeguarding and keeping alive their cultural heritage including the Gaelic language.
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To bring together arts, culture, language and the environment in an exciting way to establish a clear identity for the area.
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To work in partnership with other community groups, private businesses and the public sector to create economic and social benefits from the area’s heritage.
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To enable active learning, skills transfer and research at all levels.
Who runs Mackay Country?
The Secretary, Ronnie Lansley, Durness, and The Treasurer, Frances Gunn, Tongue, do a tremendous amount of work day to day to create projects, jobs and events. The other Board members all bring a crucial set of skills and energy to the work of the organisation. They are Murdo MacPherson, Kinlochbervie; Mary Mackay, Durness; Rhona Graham, Skerray; Meg Telfer, Skerray; Kris Scott, Skerray; Mhairi Magee, Bettyhill; Sandra Munro, Bettyhill and Janette Mackay, Strathy. Mackay Country’s greatest strength is the large number of supporters and volunteers in each and every community. These are the people who come up with ideas about what they want us to do and put their backs into making it happen. We are unusual and fortunate in having such a range of ages from school pupils to the oldest members of our communities who all help out and learn in their own ways.
