1846 - Bliadhnaichean Cnàmh a’ Bhuntàta – Failure of the Potato Crop
“The practice of going to the Caithness herring fishing, to which
at least one person from almost every family goes annually, commenced when the manufacture of kelp ceased. Till the autumn of 1846 the produce of their crofts, and of their fishing at home or in Caithness, sufficed to maintain them; but on the failure of the potatoes in that year they were in distress.”
Sir John MacNeil Report to the Board of Supervision, 1851.