The Immeasurable Wilds: Travellers to the Far North of Scotland

Horses in the Highlands: more observations from visitors.

As previously noted, Sutherland and Ross-shire relied heavily on the smaller variety of Highland pony until the road system developed in the far north during the 19th century. Donald Sage observed in Memorabilia Domestica that, in the far north-west "it would be impossible for a stranger without a guide to find his way through this region of mist and quagmire; and the only track by which man or horse could be led was along the banks of the rivulets, or on the tops of the small eminences by which the bogs were skirted. The breed of small horses then reared in the country showed a wonderful sagacity in threading their way through the dangerous morasses. These animals, in the coldest days of winter, unless during a severe snow-storm, were never housed: and when employed either in riding or bearing burdens, indicated a knowledge of the difference between hard and boggy ground, which made a near-approach to human intelligence."

Sarah Murray, travelling through Scotland at the very end of the 18th century, met four Germans mounted on Highland ponies. They told her that "when left to themselves, these sagacious little beasts on the most difficult and dangerous moors, would pat a suspicious place with their fore-feet, and try a slippery piece of rock before they would venture to step upon it, and were continually looking to right and left to discover which was the soundest spot, and after a mature examination would turn this way or that, or take a circuitous route to gain the safest footing."

The Reverend James Hall confirmed what these Germans claimed: "When the little Highland Horses came to any boggy, soft or miry piece of ground, they first put their nose to it several times, and then pat on it in a peculiar way with one of their fore-feet: and some way or other, from the sound and feel of the ground know whether they will not sink into it." They were patient too. Hall knew of a physician of Banff who was in the habit of falling from his horse and sleeping "for hours by the roadside. It [his pony] never once went away when he fell or lay down to sleep, but tarried till its master awoke." At the smithy,  ponies with sore feet "have been known....to hold up the foot of their own accord that gave them uneasiness, or required to be shod."

In fact, John MacCulloch suggested that they were rarely shod, and "even when this practice is adopted, they scarcely ever shoe the hind feet. The consequence is that their feet are generally excellent, nor did [he] ever witness lameness from want of shoe." Alexandre de la Rochefoucauld in 1786 noted that Highlanders "put post-nails at least an inch long in the horses front shoes, and not to shoe their back feet so that they don't slide."

John Knox in 1786 emphasised the tough life that these ponies led. He struggled with a Mr Morrison towards Loch Torridon, each mounted on a horse. "Every movement as we advanced required the utmost exertion of the poor animals to raise themselves out of the moss to gain another step. In this manner we spent a great part of the day through an uninhabited morass, without the appearance in many places of a path through." Knox was in the Highlands on government business, to suggest improvements, and here he stated that "from the declivity of the ground, and the vicinity of hills where sloping sides were covered with strata, an excellent road might be formed by a company of soldiers." It was to be at least another 50 years before such a road had been constructed.

Of all the visitors to the Highlands, no one seemed more concerned for his horses welafare than Dr Garnett, travelling in 1798. He frequently describes the quality of the stabling, giving it as much attention as the quality of his own accommodation in the various hotels he visits. So, at Achnacroig on Mull, he found the Inn 'tolerable', but the stabling "very bad indeed...after a considerable dispute between Mr Watts [the companion and artist on Garnett's tour], and the woman who acted as hostler, whether it was proper to give the 'food of chieftains' to horses, we got them each a mess of oatmeal and water." At Ballachulish, possibly at the same ferry house where Dorothy Wordsworth had such trouble (see The Immeasurable Wilds, 87-88), both their accommodation, and that of the horses was "very uncomfortable", and in general in Highland Inns, he observed that in the stables "...there are no separate stalls which is extremely inconvenient for the horses, and even dangerous."

There were various tricks that might be found in the less honourable Scottish Inns. Osgood Mackenzie warns that "when one stabled a pony at an inn, it always ran the risk of having its tail stolen." The hair was used for trout lines! James Hall mentions that ostlers sometimes rubbed tallow into the mouth of a horse "by which means, though your horse puts his mouth among the oats, and seems to eat, yet he can scarcely eat any, and when you are gone, thinking your horse has nearly finished what you gave him, Mr Ostler carries off your oats and too often converts them, as Swift says, into brandy." 

You can always rely on MacCulloch when it comes to complaints - on most subjects! He devotes four pages to describe the poor hospitality he received on Skye from a Mr and Mrs Nicholson, which included a charge of six shillings for feeding his horse, Roger, overnight. In fact "poor Roger had been turned loose on the seashore, to pick up what he could." MaCulloch was able to get his own back on the couple two years later, when he carried off some of their illegally distilled whisky!

The rocky and boggy ground in much of Ross-shire and Sutherland was simply not suitable for ploughing with horses, but these were more common further east and to the south.

Other images of working horses:

Finally, there were the leisure activities: