Scottish stones

Traveling down the coast of western Scotland,

to Lerwick, we passed

rolling hills near the sea,

a working croft, smoke rising from its chimney,

scattered stones from walls that 

once divided fields

but that no longer

separate land from land,

and moss-covered stones 

on a bluff in an old churchyard,

testament to those long gone.

Yet the blue sky above remains

as does the land.

I will remember 

the history of these stones.

We travelled south of Lerwick to spend the day at the Croft House Museum, open only April to the end of September. Read a little about this fascinating slice of life from mid 19th Century HERE. 

Back in the days of the Industrial Revolution and before the potato famine, clearances happened all over Scotland and England as landowners evicted fishermen and crofters from traditionally-held lands to make room for sheep. The demand for wool collapsed, leaving empty fields and abandoned crofters' cottages.