00:00This is really the core of Scotland's identity. These places that tourists come up to see,
00:07this place where I live and my friends, my neighbours, we all live and we work,
00:11our history is what makes us. It is what this place is all about. If that disappears,
00:18you know, then what are we? You know, it takes away our Scottishness almost.
00:27Altamore is just two miles. It's part of the wider area of Cidnafervie and this has been my family
00:33croft since 1820 when we were cleared from Strathnaver, originally cleared during the
00:39Highland Clearances. So it's become my life mission campaign to kind of protect this land,
00:45keep it in the family after what my family went through and they would grow all sorts of things
00:50on this crop. Wheat, I think there's an old mill down there that you can see and it's an old
00:56ruin now, that's where they would make the flour. Potatoes, lazy beds, so up until this year I've
01:03been digging potatoes in the lazy bed, traditional style. Starting to branch out, modernise things a
01:09bit more this year because I realised the lazy bed is the hard way to grow potatoes. I dig my
01:16own
01:16drains with my spade and these are all the things that my family before me did.
01:23There's the wild geeks there, you can see a lot of them here.
01:31I was contacted by Gary Crombey and we arranged to meet in Tulloch Castle recently in Ringwall and he
01:39pitched the idea of his historic musical to me which is all about the herring girls, the silver darlings,
01:46the fish, the herring that they would go and follow. Specifically in 1920, just after the herring boom
01:53and just at the moment that the fish started to dwindle and they were noticing, they were bringing
01:58you know the nets in and they were noticing, well there's only a few fish here and it's a crisis
02:03in
02:04the communities, what do we do now? And then the white fish came in. So it's about that moment of
02:10change
02:10change and how the communities conquered that, what they did next and how they adapted.
02:16One of the locals that got in touch with me was about Robert McBeath's celebrated war hero here and we
02:22have a monument about him and the kids go to Canada every seven years and learn about him over there
02:29and visit his grave. One of the herring girls in 1901 I believe went to the east coast following the
02:36herring
02:37and came home with Robert McBeath as a wee boy and adopted him because his mother was giving him up
02:44and so somehow while she was there she discovered this and she said I'll take him and so she came
02:50home with this wee boy and then he turned into you know the war hero sadly lost his life and
02:56just two
02:56years after you know the musical set. So these things are very important and when you've had
03:02family members that were literally you know terrorized out of their homes during the Highland
03:06Clearances and they had to walk over hillsides with all their belongings and their animals and eke a
03:13new life and sleep under rocks and in caves and have babies in caves while the houses were built.
03:18These things matter you know so you that makes it all the more important to protect what you have and
03:24protect our Scottish identity in you know places like this. What would be really really lovely would
03:30be to hear stories that anyone has about the herring girls themselves back in 1920. The photos would be
03:38lovely and it would really help shape this musical. The draft's already written out but we really you
03:47know some extra colours with true stories and it will definitely help the music side of things as well.
03:54So
03:54you
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