The Rhanich email the Rhanich
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The Rhanich Farm is a commercial hill farm in the North of Scotland run jointly by Pam Shaw and Donald Clarke for nearly 30 years. Pam comes from Hastings and has always wanted to live on a farm and keep animals. Donald was born and raised on a farm next-doors to the Rhanich in Edderton. They met on a commune in Wales in the early 70’s. Pam’s mother Else lives with them on the farm.
Also on the farm live
> around 500 sheep
> 40 cows
> 10 goats
> countless chickens
> 2 Shetland ponies (Stormy and Bruno)
> 2 dogs (Tina and Jenny)
> too many cats (4 at the last count)
AND volunteer helpers and agricultural students.
Click on the thumbnail below
to see the location of the Rhanich.
Farm life involves the hill and the sea. From its perch at 120 meter above sea-level, the Rhanich overlooks the Firth of Dornoch. In winter that sometimes means that the snow stays on the ground longer than it does in the valley by the sea. But in summer the sea mists (the “harr”) often keep Tain and Edderton under a damp cover while the Rhanich gets the sun above. On clear days, Pam and Donald can see as far North as Ben Hope on the North coast of the country some 100 miles away. In winter it is common to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) during the long nights while in mid-summer the sky never really gets dark at all.
Ecology
There
are a few fields near the house "in-by"
that have been improved to lush grass but most of the land surrounding the farm
is heather and rough grazing. Wild ducks,
curlew,
partridge and birds of prey
are seen frequently. Because of the grain stores there are armies of sparrows
and other small song birds hanging around the house and stables. Jackdaws and
crows frequent the farm in large numbers and across the valley a pair of
ravens
have been nesting for a few years. Just across the valley lies Morangie Forrest
which is one of the last refuges
of the endangered
Cappercaillie.
Donald says he's never seen any "Capper" on his hills though; but he has seen
the equally rare
Black
Grouse on occasion. I have found
roe-deer
antlers
in the adjoining forestry and the skull of
red-deer in the fields. Foxes
sometimes stalk
the back of some of the in-by fields at lambing time. Donald also owns fields
in Edderton and by the sea (i.e. the Firth of Dornoch). The firth is a known spot for Dolphin watching and even gets the occasional whale
visiting. Barnacle geese and Icelandic swans regularly stop by on the fields
by the sea on their seasonal journeys.
History
The area around the Rhanich has been home to people
for a very long time. A
Pictish stone with the carving of a fish can be found
in a field in Edderton, the local village. Ancient chambered cairns, hut circles
and brochs are dotted around the area. All are testimony that ancient man found
this an ideal place to live : the sea for food and transport at his doorstep
and the hill for shelter and for grazing his animals behind him.
Reputedly, "Rhanich" means "place of weeping". Since before the early middle ages, the North East of Scotland had been under permanent threat from Viking marauders who would sail across from Norway or up from their English colonies (e.g. York) and pillage the small communities that were settled by the sea shore. Edderton, the village below the farm, seems to have been raided regularly. When this happened, the villagers would flee into the hills, perhaps following the "Black Burn" until they were safely hidden behind several bends in a deep ravine formed by the burn. There they would wait until the Vikings had departed and while they waited they would no doubt weep for the loss (yet again) of their harvest and their livestock - if not indeed for the loss of anyone who might have been left behind in the panic.
The land that is now the farm at one time held about 4 buildings and there are ruins of houses and animal enclosures that can still be seen.
At the Eastern end of the farm lies a hillock called in
Gaelic "Cnoc nan Gaimhnean" which has an old cairn (pile of rocks)
on its side. "Cnoc" is the word for a rounded hill and "Gaimhnean"
means young male calve or stirk. In the past, cattle from the North of Scotland
used to be "driven" to markets in the South by walking them along
established routes over land for many days or even weeks. One of these
"drove
routes" went over Cnoc nan Gaimhean and the cairn may well be a way-marker
for the drovers. The hill was an established place to rest the cattle over night.
And because sleeping in the heather is very romantic but not very comfortable,
an entrepreneurial spirit very soon built an ale house near the hillock where
the drovers could get a pint and a soft bed if they could afford it. The "Aultnamain
Inn" was still run as a pub until the 1990's when it was converted to a
private house.
Volunteers and Agricultural Students
Since the beginning of their life at the
Rhanich, Pam and Donald have had the help of countless enthusiastic volunteer
helpers. The Rhanich has been member of the international
Willing Workers on
Organic Farms (WWOOF) scheme for many years. Lately, they have been getting a
lot of helpers through a German website called
www.Ecojobs.de which
has been very welcome.
If you are a volunteer and you would like to know more about how to get to the farm, what to bring and what to expect, check out the Volunteer Helpers' Info Pages and have a look at the Gallery of Helpers.
Every summer for the past 10 years, Pam
and Donald have welcomed a student from the French Agricultural College
Purpan
on the farm.
More Local Interest links
Glen Morangie whiskey distillery on the road to Tain
Balblair whiskey distillery in Edderton Distillery owned by Inverhouse and featured on the Inverhouse website
Pictures of Tain and Edderton
(find them on the list on the left)
