A memorial commemorating a group of 19th century Highland women who successfully drove off sheriff officers sent to evict them from their land has been unveiled.
Known as the Coigach women, all of them from the lands around Achiltibuie in Ross-shire, they resisted the officers and local police, sent by their landlord on five separate occasions in 1852 and 1853.
On Friday, on a hill overlooking the beaches where the sheriffs attempted to hand over the eviction papers, three pipers played The Summer Isles as the memorial, made entirely from rock hewn from the surrounding coastline, was officially unveiled. A crowd of more than 200 local people and others from across the world whose forbears had lived here gathered on the hill to witness the commemoration.
For the group of local community leaders and fundraisers and the artists who created Lorg na Coigich, Will MacLean and Marion Leven, it was the culmination of a 12-year project.
Iain Muir, chair of Coigach Heritage, paid tribute to the artists and the communities of Coigach and Achiltibuie for making it happen.
Mr MacLean said: "As a community, we hope that it helps generate an income that we can put to good use to further the sort of vision that perhaps our ancestors had for this place back in the 1850s. This wasn't for it to be an empty land and there are still clearances here and now and the cost of housing is prohibitive.
"The monument itself is four standing stones encircled by two rings of stone. The central stone represents the community while the three stones round about it represent three of the women ringleaders. They are protecting the community which is represented by the main stone."
The names of the women who led the Coigach rebellion are all missing from the official records, but the oral tradition in this part of the western Highlands has preserved them and their deeds. They are: Mary Macleod, Anna Bhan Mackenzie, Katie Macleod Campbell, Margaret Macleod and Catherine Stewart.
The sheriff officers, who were later joined by local police, had sailed from Ullapool up Loch Broom to serve three evictions. On each occasion they were met by crowds of local people, led by the women, who seized the legal documents before they could be served 'above the shoreline' before burning them.
Though the sheriff officers were eventually forced to turn tail and give up on their action, the authorities remained keen to exact whatever reprisals they could. Katie Macleod Campbell was thus barred from ever living on the estate and when she later married, both she and her husband, according to local historians, were forced to build their house below the shoreline's high water mark so that it became frequently flooded.
Catherine Margaret MacLeod, Baroness MacLeod of Camusdarach, referred to the Coigach women when she made her maiden speech on entering the House of Lords last year. Her family was reared in this area and attended the unveiling. She said: "I was profoundly moved by the memorial. It means so much to the communities here, many of whom are directly descended from the Coigach women. It's such a proud moment."
Mhairi Thornton, who drove the campaign to create the memorial, said: "We are all so proud that this has been achieved. So many people in this community and in others throughout Scotland and beyond all contributed something because they were captivated by the courage of the women of Coigach."
Kevin McKenna will be writing a full piece on the brave women of Coigach to publish later this week
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