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The historic case of gold miners at Kildonan squabbling over a wheelbarrow


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On our trip round Sutherland parishes, we have now arrived at Kildonan which shares a border with Caithness, writes High Life Highland community engagement officer Lorna Steele-McGinn.

The first statistical account for the parish, dating back to 1792, describes it as mountainous and extending on both sides of the Helmsdale River.

Kildonan Manse.
Kildonan Manse.

The account also states that the word Kildonan seems to have Gaelic etymology, being a compound of cil (cell/chapel) and Donan (a saint’s name), although it is noted that this is unlikely to have been the parish’s original name.

The Highland Archive Centre holds a range of documents relating to Kildonan including school log books.

One such book records how the pupils were given hot cocoa in January 1924, with a schools inspector noting that it would aid the children’s health and wellbeing as very few of them lived near the school.

The log books also contain some glowing HMI reports.

One for Kildonan Public School in 1903 reported: “The highly efficient condition of this school is most creditable to the teacher, especially in view of the fact that an epidemic of whooping cough has recently caused the school to be closed for four weeks.

“The pupils show an intelligent interest in all they do and, both in their written exercises and in their oral work, they make an exceptionally good appearance.”

The teacher so highly praised for her work in circumstances which sound all too familiar was Maggie Gunn.

Kildonan also features in many of the archive’s deposited collections, from the details of miners searching for gold in the 1800s (found in D1359 – Sutherland Estate Kildonan Goldrush papers) to the items of local interest in D1249 - the papers of the Sage/Sutherland family.

The image above of Kildonan Manse, the date of which is not known, comes from the latter collection.

There are many stories to be found by reading the Kildonan police records.

The daily occurrence books, with their regular entries written by the men responsible for the station, reveal much about life in the area.

There is an entry about PC Mackay trying to locate stolen ferrets at Helmsdale station in 1905 and one about PC Ross trying to settle an 1869 argument between two gold miners over a wheelbarrow.

The gold miners’ case required three pages of notes to be made and had no resolution!


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