Ancestral nudge

A while ago I was thinking about the ancestors, my droving forbears who took the cattle from the Highlands, all the way south to market. In my family's case this was as far as Yorkshire. Droving was a careful and lengthy business, as well as perilous, because you had to keep the herds in top condition with plenty of food and rest along the way, while not losing any. You would cover only ten to twelve miles a day. The livelihoods of your community depended on delivering the animals in good condition, getting a good price and delivering the cash home afterwards.

Droving declined when the railways came. A market stance would be set up at a station, where drover-dealers would buy and sell before cattle were sent south in their thousands. One such was at Muir of Ord, now a golf course. And on the stairwell at the Muir Community Hub, this tapestry commemorates that.

That's a long winded way of saying, here's a nice piece of cloth.