Episode 8 - Agnes Rennie

Together with Frank, Agnes lives and works on the family croft in the village of Galson. This croft, along with another they now tenant, was allotted to her grandparents when Galson was resettled in 1924 following the 1919 Land Settlement Act. (Galson had been cleared in 1863 by James Matheson, drug lord extraordinaire and was empty of people apart from the tenant farmer and his two shepherds). They still have a small flock of sheep, hens and two ponies and Agnes is a member of the Grazings committee, having served as Chair in the past. They have had a polytunnel for over 20 years and this year added a polycrub to the "covered garden". Agnes has had a wide and varied career both professional and voluntary which has included Community Cooperative Development Officer with HIDB, manager of what was at the time the recently established Gaelic publishing company Acair, the Board of Comann Eachdaidh Nis, the first woman to sit on the Crofters Commission, the board of Community Land Scotland and in 2005 was elected to the Board of the newly established UOG (Galson Estate Trust) of which she is currently the chair. Agnes also occasionally presents Gaelic radio programmes and does voice overs for Gaelic language documentaries, having recently done a fascinating series of six programmes about female spies from WW2. Music credit: Peatbog Faeries