New Age travellers have moved to Scotland. Are they scroungers or
visionaries?
Ian Sutherland
reports from the shores of
Loch Ness.
CONVENTIONAL wisdom has it that there is no law of trespass in
Scotland. Such is the comforting power of myth. But in recent weeks a
60-strong group of so-called ''New Age travellers'' -- encamped in a
muddy wood near Invermoriston at the western end of Loch Ness -- has
found out the hard way about legal realities north of the Border.
The Criminal Trespass (Scotland) Act, 1985, is no dusty piece of
semi-abandoned legislation. It has teeth.
A number of travellers have been fined at Inverness District Court --
and it seems that more arrests and convictions are likely. Councils and
police say that they are unemotionally responding to complaints. The
travellers claim that ''the system'' is hell bent on eliminating its
critics.
Most of them are veterans of ugly confrontations south of the Border.
They tell stories of being ''under siege'' by riot police. Invermoriston
is not Stonehenge or Glastonbury -- and the Northern Constabulary does
not run to riot shields and body armour.
For all that, the New Age travellers are convinced -- rightly or
wrongly -- that they are being harassed to ensure that Scots MPs vote
with their English colleagues when the controversial Criminal Trespass
Bill is debated in the House of Commons on November 13. If enacted, the
new measure will permit councils in England to confiscate travellers'
vehicles and impose draconian penalties on persistent offenders.
Ian Forrest has been on the road for four years. His rationale for
living in a van sums up the philosophy that has drawn hundreds of
intelligent young people into a nomadic lifestyle.
''In the 1980s I bounced between periods of work and unemployment.
Life in the cities is utter hopelessness. We've seen what modern society
is about -- and it doesn't work.
''The country is in recession and the State is trying to deflect
attention from that. They are trying to point the finger of blame at
people like us. It's been done before against Jews and blacks.''
The Invermoriston dissenters seem convinced that we are on the eve of
destruction. Violence, racism, crime, addiction, alienation, mental
illness and repression are inevitable consequences of an urbanised world
which denies the essentially cyclical character of nature.
Ancient peoples moved around, allowing the environment to recover from
human activity. According to New Age traveller Hamish Berryman, settled
societies kill growth and the only way forward is back.
''The whole point about nomadic lifestyle is not to treat the land
you're living on lightly. Look what happened to Dartmoor. Things like
sitka spruce turned Dartmoor into a vast barren space. We want to act as
mobile tree-planters, bringing back varieties such as oak, Scots pine
and birch.''
But New Age travellers are attacked for claiming dole money while
effectively biting the hand that feeds them. Can they justify having
their cake and eating it?
Van-dweller Phil Fletcher says: ''It's libelous to say we don't want
to work. We are no different from the unemployed in the cities. Lots of
them don't have homes either.''
The travellers claim also that settled residents in the Invermoriston
area are supportive. That is hard to assess. Most want to remain
anonymous.
One man said: ''Look, there's a lot I could say against the New Age
travellers. But equally, I don't really think arrests and fines are the
way to deal with any problem. There has to be another way.''
New Agers have been banned from some pubs. At the same time, they are
offered odd jobs by Inverness-shire businesses. Scotland's traditional
travellers have experienced that kind of ambiguity for centuries.
Now, the New Age travellers have written to Highland Regional Council
seeking a meeting of minds. Broadly, most settled residents seem to
favour that approach too. Ultimately, human contacts could render
repression unproductive in PR terms.
That process has started. Last Friday Jemma Seth-Smith and Fiona
Cobbold, students at New College, Durham, were stuck for a place to stay
during a hitch-hiking tour of the Highlands. They ended up dossing down
in a New Age caravan. And they say that stereotypes are ridiculous.
''We don't have any prejudice towards the travellers. They were really
friendly. We had a good time. If anyone else gets the opportunity to
meet them, go for it.''
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