A Plan of that Part of the Parish of Golspie Lying betwixt the Policy of Dunrobin and the Bay of the Little Ferry The Property of the Right Honourable Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland. Made out from an accurate Survey by John Home c.1772
Even those historians who have ‘repeatedly put Patrick Sellar on trial’, to borrow a phrase from Ian Grimble, have conceded one aspect of his legacy, that he was ‘a great farmer.’ An important element of this reputation was his improvement of the farm at Culmaily which was his _ rst venture into farming, initially in partnership with Estate Commissioner William Young. Leading historian of the clearances Eric Richards described ‘the stagnant lochs, the birch woods, the black peats which used to cover the land… transformed into the _ ne _ elds of Culmaily’. James Hunter described Sellar as a ‘consummate agriculturalist’ in his latest book on Sutherland, and Culmaily as ‘emblematic of what improvement could accomplish.’ An act of alchemy has been accepted by historians, even those who have characterised the wider transformation of the Sutherland estate as a failure.
Objects of wonder and delight