Scottish Highland community once cleared of its people looks to regrowth with help of New York exile

The arrival of the Green Man in Applecross signals the community’s connection to the land - past, present and future.

A Highland community cleared of its tenants more than 200 years ago is celebrating new growth - with the help of a US descendant of a man pushed from the land for a new life across the Atlantic.

Residents of Applecross in Wester Ross are reconnecting with the site of the township of Torgarve which was once home to 40 people but which ultimately vanished after the estate was cleared of its people in the early 1800s by the seventh Mackenzie laird.

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A woodland at Torgave - which holds traces of the people who once called the area home - has been bought by the community as it connects with this part of land once more.

At the heart of the wood will now sit a sculpture carved by Colin Mackenzie, of New York State, whose great, great grandfather was cleared from Torgarve in 1830.

The Green Man carved for Torgarve by Colin Mackenzie, descendant of one of those cleared from the settlement around 200 years ago. PIC: Contributed.The Green Man carved for Torgarve by Colin Mackenzie, descendant of one of those cleared from the settlement around 200 years ago. PIC: Contributed.
The Green Man carved for Torgarve by Colin Mackenzie, descendant of one of those cleared from the settlement around 200 years ago. PIC: Contributed. | Contributed

In them most fitting of tributes to the regrowth of the community, the sculpture is of the Green Man - the pagan symbol for rebirth and the cycle of nature.

It represents both the past of the community - and the optimism for its future possibilities.

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Mr Mackenzie said: “I remember my father and Grandfather used to speak about the Highland connection a lot. So it has always meant a lot to me.

“My great, great grandfather was baptised in the community at Borrowdale , one of the villages in the Applecross district. They lived in another Applecross village – Torgarve. Neither community – Borrowdale or Torgarve - exist today.”

Colin Mackenze (right) said he was 'honoured' to be part of Torgarve's future.Colin Mackenze (right) said he was 'honoured' to be part of Torgarve's future.
Colin Mackenze (right) said he was 'honoured' to be part of Torgarve's future. | Contributed

On being cleared from Torgarve in 1830, Colin’s family crossed 3000 miles of North Atlantic ocean to make a new home in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

In 1911, his family moved to the state of Maine in the US, and in 1927 they moved on to Long Island.

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Mr Mackenzie’s Green Man singles a return to the homeland of his ancestors with the sculpture unveiled this week as part of an ambitious project to develop the former sitka spruce plantation of Torgarve into a thriving native woodland.

He added: “A lot of people in my family were landscapers and groundkeepers and gardeners which maybe reflected their Highland background in soil and land.

“I’ve always been interested in my Highland roots and after I met up with some of the Applecross people on social media, I learnt about this terrific Torgarve project and agreed to be part of it.”

The Torgarve woodland project – Restoring the Living Heritage of Coille a’Thorra Ghairbh - reclaims the site as a community woodland which restores natie woodland and promotes cultural and natural heritage.

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The Applecross Community Company, which is owned by the residents who live there, took control of the Torgarve site five years ago, with support from the Scottish Land Fund. The project is run in partnership with the Applecross Historical Society and funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Amy Clarkson is the woodland development officer for Applecross Community Company.

She said: “We want to really celebrate these land connections between past and present and future and Colin’s contribution speaks both to the clearances of the past, and the optimism of reclaiming the site for the community, with the Green Man artwork reflecting the vision of connection and kinship between land and humans.

“It gives me goose pimples to think that it’s so meaningful for Colin, many thousands of miles away, to be able to have some of his own craftworks into a place where his ancestors once lived.”

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Ms Clarkson added: “It’s been a ten- year aspiration to have a community woodland in Applecross and there is great support from the local community. Applecross has active crofting townships and a strong crofting tradition and a community-owned woodland fits really well with a crofting community.”

As well as holding the remains of the cleared village, Torgarve has traces of human habitation dating back thousands of years, including a Bronze Age roundhouse and an ancient corn kiln.

“It is unique in its field systems, its townships and its archaeology,” Ms Clarkson added.

“When it was identified as an opportunity of community ownership, there was a real strength of feeling that this was an opportunity to restore native woodland but also an opportunity to restore strong connections with heritage.”

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Amy Clarkson is the Woodland Development Officer for Applecross Community Company. PIC: Contributed.Amy Clarkson is the Woodland Development Officer for Applecross Community Company. PIC: Contributed.
Amy Clarkson is the Woodland Development Officer for Applecross Community Company. PIC: Contributed. | Contributed

A local joiner, George Graham, has taught volunteers traditional woodworking skills and together we have built a timber-frame shelter which will store tools and offer shelter to walkers.

“Colin’s contribution is very meaningful. We want the people to be remembered and celebrated. This is all about people, and our relationships with the living world.”

According to Highland Council, evidence of Mesolithic sites, recorded by the Scotland’s First Settlers project indicate the bay at Applecross has been settled, or at least visited seasonally, since the earliest times of post-glacial human occupation of the Highlands.

While no Neolithic sites have yet been identified, the presence of approximately 17 hut circles on Torr Mor and at Torgarve and more north of the bay above Rubha na Guaine, suggest a large population during the Bronze and Iron Ages.

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Despite the Norse raids of around 800 AD and subsequent Norse settlement, Torgarve retained its Gaelic name. Meanwhile, three neighbouring areas of land - Borrodale, Sardle and Langwell - took Norse names suggesting that the Scandinavians settled here instead.

By the 1820s four names are recorded on a surviving estate rental: Roderick MacDonald, Duncan Matheson, Finlay MacRae and Thomas MacKenzie although many others may have lived there.

The first census return in 1841 recorded that 40 people lived at Torgarve over eight households and a population of forty. Five of the heads of household are listed as farmers.

This followed the major period of clearance by the Mackenzie laird, who took over the Applecross estate in 1910. Torgarve may have taken in cleared families from neighbourhing townships for a brief period before its own population rapidly declined. By 1851, 19 people lived in six households with five of the households headed by women and occupations listed as agricultural labourers, a weaver, stocking knitter and journeyman tailor.

Ten years later and three of the remaining five households consisted of single women - a pauper, domestic servant and dairymaid.

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