Assynt, subtitled “Home is where the croft is,” is a short documentary that brings viewers to the Scottish Highland community of Assynt, where residents live on traditional crofts.
The croft is a uniquely Scottish term, describing the smaller, less fertile plots of land that poorer people were forced onto, following the infamous Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries. Crofters lived on their crofts and farmed for subsistence, grazing sheep on shared land. Unable to support themselves on the croft alone, most also worked in fishing, kelp, or peat to support themselves.
It was a very hard life. But Lewis MacAskill, whom the viewer is soon introduced to, doesn’t see it that way. He is one of just over a thousand residents of Assynt, who chose to stay and continue the crofting tradition.
“I regard the croft as an extension of who I am as a person,” MacAskill explains.
The small community of Assynt. Photo: Screenshot
Drawn to the landscape
MacAskill introduces us to some of the other members of the community. Anna is a sheepdog owner and trainer, whom we see herding sheep using the same techniques people here have used for centuries. Stuart is a passionate fisherman, who shares his love of Assynt’s natural landscape with his young son.
We also meet some of the creatives who have, MacAskill says, been drawn by the unique landscape and material culture. We see a potter using local materials, a fiddler, and a spinner on her spinning wheel.
The spinning wheel came to Europe from the Middle East by the 13th century, and was widely adopted by the 18th century, replacing the older drop spindle and distaff. Photo: Screenshot
MacAskill moved to the croft a decade ago, and doesn’t regret it. Having grown up visiting every summer, he has always felt drawn to the land and knows others feel the same. But a small, isolated community like Assynt is constantly in danger of depopulation. MacAskill hopes that people keep choosing to move back and stay, heeding the same call he did.
The film ends on this note, with a montage of scenes from life in Assynt and the landscape it sits in, while an elderly crofter sings a traditional Scottish song of homecoming.
