All has come to the highlands to find out about Kenneth's father Donald
Mackenzie I've travel around Scotland a lot but the furthest north of them have
been open since today was Aberdeen now I'm considerably more north through the
northern I've ever been in my entire life
look at quiet
we've gotta be kidding me
when you think of west coast of Scotland you think of rugged mountains locks
that's exactly what we have here just one of the most beautiful places
I've ever been to in my life and I've traveled quite a lot the fact that
finding out that my ancestors come from this area sort of makes you think okay
so I love mountains I like being near the sea and this this but seems to be
taking every single box coincidence maybe but I could have come from a big
city I don't know I'm dying to see where
drama lived
so this is pool year it's not about places it there could have been many
people living there this scattered around beautiful but remote to say the
very least a peaceful place you can't hear anything
I'll offer Paul is meeting historian dr. ben thomas so this is the modern plot of
land which was also Donald's plot of land back in the day and I think you
just see nicely the delineation of the Croft with the hedges on either side
here there's a real good sense I think of how small this patch of land actually
was and how kind of quite rocky and undulating some of this land actually
was as well it's not that big I expected it to be much bigger and incorporate
that hill over there I think it's a really good indication that crops were
actually very small so you look at the fence line they're coming down it's
about an acre isn't it it's again very very small you've got a very clear sense
that yes there'll be space to be careful yes there'll be space for a small amount
of crops but really this is it well and I think there's a great pressure on
crops or the crofting lifestyle croft just have to look elsewhere for sources
of income there's me thinking it would be likes waves of land going off and
rolling here and it was this what's really strange is looking at looking at
that ve there my ancestors would certainly have had that exact view yeah
and that that's what she probably hasn't changed in all that time that freaks me
out a little bit if I'm honest so you look at that you think they probably
woke up in the morning looked out so that if your honor and I'm looking at
exactly the same thing nearly two hundred years later that is odd very
strange you mentioned that Croft is like Donald would have had other jobs what
sort of jobs are you thinking about well I mean a crafter could have done a
number of occupations that could have fished they could have worked as a
labourer but dog himself actually do something very unique I think she's gone
public alike just now
so forth I would like to show you this doctorate here which is the estate
rental records and we can see this is Donald here Dom Mackenzie post what do
you think post means he's a postman well not just a postman but he was actually a
post runner or what the job at the post run it was was to deliver the post both
by walking and by running so it pull up like so yeah - how far I mean where's
what area are we looking at here well Donald around the post between pull
you and a place called Dingwall and I can show you on the map here so here we
have pull you yeah and here we have Dingwall you've got to be kidding no so
you can see that that's there's a marathon every day 60 miles between the
west coast to pull you and the east coast Dingwall he crosses the good part
of the country though he maybe goes to Inverness to deliver post to deliver
post every week and he would cover that distance in a course of about three days
wow that's incredible every week every week I'm back and back so it's 120 miles
every week and we know at the time that Don was doing this he was in his 40s in
his forties he was forties by this time so you can imagine it's a bit like me to
be honest like this bit like you every love suit every week 120 miles yes dad
yeah I I live down and can't nothin think you know what I'm gonna give her a
bit of a run to London you know how long you did that for well he certainly did
that for at least a decade probably longer I'm so we're talking incredibly
fat man here and the reason I brought you to this particular spot is because
the other side of Locker this was the route that Donald took to deliver the
posts so you can see how rocky precipitous these cliff faces are did he
run along the coast so did he hit the top and run across the
he's running along the coast but there's a formation known as bull rock here and
at times who'd be scrambling if not climbing himself
Donald's job was vital running the post to and from isolated communities was the
only way to stay in touch the first male coaches had been introduced around 20
years earlier in 1784 but horses needed feeding and stabling making them too
expensive for the remote Gallic so the post was delivered on foot with Donald
one of the first ever post runners the really important thing about this post
route at this time was that he was carrying the males for not just the
Gallic area not just pull you but for Lewis the island of Lewis as well so
this is a guy with the males for 30,000 people on his back every week I mean to
do that I mean I'd like to see someone do it now I mean I would say me you know
if I'm honest but I'm pushing 50 now and I don't think I'm really up for it but
that to carry that sort of weight and to do that run every week for over a decade
in his forties is frankly staggering well we do actually have a good
description of Donald's post run here in this book this is a book that was
written in the 1880s and it remembers life in pull you in and gaol I only
letter carrier was one of my father's sir Hector's at assays little Duncan the
right to miss remembers that he says Duncan when he actually does mean Don's
a bit of kilted Indian rubber it's a contemporary expression meaning kind of
tough for bendy so I think it's a really good kind of evocative
description of Donald's going quite sprightly who with the sheepskin
knapsack on his back to keep his dispatches dry for Mackintosh waterproof
had not been dreamed of then Wow left the West on Monday not the 60 miles done
on Wednesday and returning on Thursday did delivered up his mail to my father
on the Saturday was ready to trip off east next Monday
doing his 120 miles every week I never heard of his being a day off work in
many a year it Justin stuff does it he's just going bang bang bang bang Sunday
the day of rest would be the only day that Donald wouldn't be working he must
have been fit as a flea and one thing that we do know about Donald was that he
did lift and incredibly on age as well we pick him up in the 1841 census and
he's into his 80s by that point so he's incredibly long-lived so there is
genetic structure is subtly so fit enlisted is a tease in that sort of
period as well and they always a good for you yes to the day and a I'm gonna
get over whiskey
I was really looking forward to coming to pull you not only to see my
great-great great-great-grandfather's Croft where he lived where the family
lived and the views that he saw but to find out also that he was a he was a
postman but he used to run the post from over there about three miles all the way
across trucking around the Loch all the way to the other side of Scotland what a
bloke this was his backdrop for most of his
life amazing
before this I knew nothing about my ancestors and very little about my
granddad but now I've got something to hang my hat on
I know all about my granddad's war which is incredible and I know about my
ancestors in this particular branch of the family that takes me back to the
highlands of Scotland the Mackenzies and to be here part of it all and know it is
magic
you