1801 population: 1,208 - people lived in scattered tiny clachans in huts of turn or dry stone plastered on the inside with clay. They raised black cattle and goats, grew potatoes and inferior oats, used their wooden plough to break the earth, brewed rough beer and distilled raw whisky.
1811 population: 1,155
1815 – thirty to forty families emigrated to America
1821 population: 1,004
In the 1820s and 1830s -- - - the houses were made of stone with thatched roofs tied down with rope weighted with stones. The inside was dark and dreary although quite warm. The walls were often bare stone - - - the windows were often small holes in the wall on the inside, let in very little light, and only very occasionally glazed. The door was a plan of wood sometimes with sacks pulled bac. The floor was hard packed earth, at times covered with sand, cobbles or flagstones.
1831 population: 1,153
1833 the nearest post office was at Bonar Bridge, Creich, about 113 kilometres away until Tongue post office opened. Mail left Durness by runner on a Monday and Thursday where it met the mail coming from Golspie. It arrived back in Durness on a Tuesday and Friday. A runner was someone who walked with the mailbag. Once a month a carrier, probably a horse and cart, went to Tain. At the start of the 19th century roads had started to be made in Durness, prior to this mail came by boat.
The only help the crofter would have was a cotter who in return for labour would receive a very small portion of rough land. He would have to clear and cultivate and erect some living shelter that would be smaller and less elaborate than the crofters.
1834 – Rev. William Findlater: “The principal amusements in Durness are playing at the ball and shinty on the fine sands of Balnakeil - - - - - The natives are generally lively in their dispositions, social in their habits, although it cannot be said they are remarkable for their cleanliness, cattle and people using the same shelters - - - - “
1834 population: 1,180 (206 families)
1841 population: 1,109
1871 population: 1,049
1881 population: 987
1891 population: 960
1901 population: 903
The first permanent medical practitioner - - - the visiting doctor would arrive by boat to Rispond and leave after the necessary treatments. Durness was having difficulty in persuading a doctor to reside permanently. On one such visiting occasion the doctor was deliberately detained from meeting the boat to leave by the application of too many drams. By the time the next boat arrived he had been made so welcome and applied with copious amounts of whisky he would not leave!
1906 Mains water arrived piped only as far as Durine to begin with and cost five shillings for an outside tap and ten shillings for an inside tap.
1912 - Hew Morrison edited a Parish Register of Durness.
The register commenced in 1764, the year in which the settlement of the Rev. John Thomson as parish minister took place, to 1814. Hew Morrison notes that evidently Mr Thomson was not a proficient Gaelic scholar - - - - "he could not master the spelling of popular local surnames but he has preserved in the register a careful and minute phonetic rendering both of names of persons and places".
1914 – it was around this time that the last whisky to be distilled in Durness was made. A local man in his eighties was sent to prison for illegal distillation and tax evasion. The spring at the bottom of a croft in the Durine was used to cool the still.
1921 population: 610
1935 the first automatic telephone exchange was erected at Rockville opposite the school.
1955 there were four telephone kiosks in the parish.
1977 – the last inhabited croft house was fitted with an indoor toilet and bathroom
1815 – thirty to forty families emigrated to America
1821 population: 1,004
In the 1820s and 1830s -- - - the houses were made of stone with thatched roofs tied down with rope weighted with stones. The inside was dark and dreary although quite warm. The walls were often bare stone - - - the windows were often small holes in the wall on the inside, let in very little light, and only very occasionally glazed. The door was a plan of wood sometimes with sacks pulled bac. The floor was hard packed earth, at times covered with sand, cobbles or flagstones.
1831 population: 1,153
1833 the nearest post office was at Bonar Bridge, Creich, about 113 kilometres away until Tongue post office opened. Mail left Durness by runner on a Monday and Thursday where it met the mail coming from Golspie. It arrived back in Durness on a Tuesday and Friday. A runner was someone who walked with the mailbag. Once a month a carrier, probably a horse and cart, went to Tain. At the start of the 19th century roads had started to be made in Durness, prior to this mail came by boat.
The only help the crofter would have was a cotter who in return for labour would receive a very small portion of rough land. He would have to clear and cultivate and erect some living shelter that would be smaller and less elaborate than the crofters.
1834 – Rev. William Findlater: “The principal amusements in Durness are playing at the ball and shinty on the fine sands of Balnakeil - - - - - The natives are generally lively in their dispositions, social in their habits, although it cannot be said they are remarkable for their cleanliness, cattle and people using the same shelters - - - - “
1834 population: 1,180 (206 families)
1841 population: 1,109
1871 population: 1,049
1881 population: 987
1891 population: 960
1901 population: 903
The first permanent medical practitioner - - - the visiting doctor would arrive by boat to Rispond and leave after the necessary treatments. Durness was having difficulty in persuading a doctor to reside permanently. On one such visiting occasion the doctor was deliberately detained from meeting the boat to leave by the application of too many drams. By the time the next boat arrived he had been made so welcome and applied with copious amounts of whisky he would not leave!
1906 Mains water arrived piped only as far as Durine to begin with and cost five shillings for an outside tap and ten shillings for an inside tap.
1912 - Hew Morrison edited a Parish Register of Durness.
The register commenced in 1764, the year in which the settlement of the Rev. John Thomson as parish minister took place, to 1814. Hew Morrison notes that evidently Mr Thomson was not a proficient Gaelic scholar - - - - "he could not master the spelling of popular local surnames but he has preserved in the register a careful and minute phonetic rendering both of names of persons and places".
1914 – it was around this time that the last whisky to be distilled in Durness was made. A local man in his eighties was sent to prison for illegal distillation and tax evasion. The spring at the bottom of a croft in the Durine was used to cool the still.
1921 population: 610
1935 the first automatic telephone exchange was erected at Rockville opposite the school.
1955 there were four telephone kiosks in the parish.
1977 – the last inhabited croft house was fitted with an indoor toilet and bathroom
1982 – mains electricity finally reached the township of Laid
1986 Television arrived in Durness. The erection of a relay mast at the highest point overlooking Sangomore headland gave a signal to most of the village.
1989 the last button telephone on the British mainland was replaced by an upgraded system. This remote roadside kiosk half way between Tongue and Durness
1997 population: 350 people in 150 households, live in the main in a group of townships strung along the A838
1998 provision was made for mobile phone reception in the area
The policing of Durness is from Rhiconich where the one-man station has the biggest beat in Britain covering crime from Laid to Kylesku.
1986 Television arrived in Durness. The erection of a relay mast at the highest point overlooking Sangomore headland gave a signal to most of the village.
1989 the last button telephone on the British mainland was replaced by an upgraded system. This remote roadside kiosk half way between Tongue and Durness
1997 population: 350 people in 150 households, live in the main in a group of townships strung along the A838
1998 provision was made for mobile phone reception in the area
The policing of Durness is from Rhiconich where the one-man station has the biggest beat in Britain covering crime from Laid to Kylesku.
Sourced from various books on Durness
Photograph above, Achnahanet, Durness, by Gordon Hatton and used here under his common creative licence
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