14 SCOTSMAN.COM @thescotsman THE SCOTSMAN Tuesday 13 February 2018 THE SCOTSMAN Tuesday 13 February 2018 SCOTSMAN.COM @thescotsman 15 THEFeat SCOTSMANures 200 Why we should all embrace the ethos of Swedish death cleaning

Liz Connor is inspired to tackle some of the junk in her home – and feels much better for it

’m looking at the pile of junk I’ve pulled from Iunder my bed. The void beneath my mattress has become a no man’s land of things I don’t use but can’t bear to part with: old university projects, ancient diaries with entries that would make you shudder with embarrassment, clothes I’m convinced might come 00Decluttering will help you regain control of your life, says back into fashion, fancy-dress author Margareta Magnusson costumes, a broken MacBook, unused Christmas presents... because there are less things Hold on to the precious stuff the list goes on. for them to get lost in,” Of course, you don’t have to I’ve decided it’s about time I Margareta says. “It gives you throw away everything in a stop hoarding random relics more time and makes you less minimalist rage. “Save the under the bed – and start stressed.” things that make you happy, ‘Swedish Death Cleaning’ or your life easier,” says instead. The phrase translates It can be done at any age Margareta. “Throw away the from the Swedish word I know what you’re thinking things that have accumulated ‘dostadning’, and relates to – at 28, I’m (hopefully) not that you no longer need.” the practice of clearing out fit for the grave yet, but For private keepsakes that one’s possessions before Margareta insists that death are priceless, such as my wind is behind it: a depth of experience could be slotted. An more than half the entire world and shifting ore by sea would death. The idea is, it saves cleaning can be done at any hilariously angst-ridden one foot of water blown into experience that made me very output of copper. And some be by far preferable to shifting your loved ones the onerous age, and you don’t actually diaries, Margarita suggests four foot-high waves if you’re wary when I went to Balcary of it coming from here – from it over land. tasks of having to sift through have to wait until you know creating a ‘Throw Away’ box. caught unawares. with the intention of going over Hestan. This tiny island in the Wales had its own copper your items and find homes you’re on your way out. It’s a “When I find things that have The little Approach by boat is similarly to Hestan to see it for myself, Solway Firth, the ore dug out mining industry, particularly for them once you’re gone, method for reevaluating your absolutely no value to anyone tricky, the Solway notoriously leaving my home in Balintore here with pickaxes by the three in Anglesey, where copper and also frees you from the possessions, taking stock else, but enormous value mercurial and temperamental: in the crisp bright weather of miners resident in the cottages has been exploited for over psychological burden of being of what’s important. and for me, they go in my Throw 650 shipwrecks recorded as late February, arriving in the noted in the 1841 census as 4,000 years, and where Parys surrounded by chaos and removing what’s not. Away box,” she says. “Once occurring on this section of worst possible conditions, a Peter, Stewart and Samuel Mountain was once the largest clutter. “Just look around you. Many I am gone, the box can be the Galloway coast between huge storm having swirled Gourlay, aged 40, 40 and 15 copper mine in the world. of your things have probably destroyed.” 1789 and 1988, nine of which over us on our way with years old respectively, from Copper from Wales, Cornwall It’s not as depressing as it been around for so long that island with a were on – or very near – Hestan winds you could barely stand Kirkcudbright and Wigtown. and Scotland cladding British sounds you do not even see or value So how does it feel? Island. up in, rain and sleet bolting One has to ask if they were naval fleets, protecting their The phenomenon was coined them any more,” she explains. After an initial wave of dread The easiest way over is by the down in stair-rods from the not all related. Two brothers wooden boards from the by Margareta Magnusson, a “Your exhaustion with and regret upon leaving the winding ribbon of mussel beds lowering clouds that pushed maybe, and the oldest son of depredations of the sea, the Scandi who describes herself all this stuff may appear charity shop, I soon feel better known as The Rack – what early afternoon into evening one. And how it must have encrustation of barnacles, and as “somewhere between out of the blue one day. looking at the pleasantly clear and began my treasure hunt Clockwise from top left: a name! That was definitely hours before its time. An eerie been for those three on Hestan: providing smooth passage 80 and 100”. Having lived When someone cancels a space under my bed. It feels rich seam of for real. Hestan island; the mudflats at going into the book when I sight, to stand huddled in the its only inhabitants, very likely through the water. by the mantra for years, weekend visit or a dinner, like a weight has been lifted Hestan was proving to be an low tide; author Clio Gray wrote it. But once again speed trees of the lane that leads building the cottages in which Copper making those ships Margareta has just penned you feel grateful instead of off my shoulders. extraordinary place with an is essential, for at the Rack’s from Auchencairn to Balcary, to live, cottages dating from the most manoeuvrable vessels a book on the subject, The disappointed, because you It seems, whatever your age, extraordinary history. base at Almorness Point there’s watching the white-splashed that exact same time; two men of their time, far more efficient Gentle Art Of Swedish Death may be too tired to clean up death cleaning is good for It’s a small slump of an island a fast filling burn ready to cut line of wave-tops moving and one boy digging out the than the Spanish or French Cleaning. It’s already gained for their visit.” the soul – but for the elderly, – barely half a kilometre long the Point off from the Rack slowly, but with grim and with mines, hacking into the rock of vessels against which they headlines here in the UK, it can be the greatest gift you inspiration and a quarter wide – stranded before the tide appears to be unstoppable determination, the bluff of the cliff above one routinely came into conflict. thanks to its frank and honest So how do you get started? leave your loved ones. “Once in the Solway Firth, girt by anywhere near. And I know across the mudflats separating of the two tiny shingle beaches. By 1850, the height of copper approach to mortality, and Magnusson recommends someone has gone, things steep cliffs punctuated with about those burns, having the bay from Hestan. Almost completely cut off from mining on Hestan island, the our complicated relationship dividing your belongings by can be chaotic enough,” caves and geos for most of its almost been marooned and I never got to see the the rest of humanity, very likely British Fleet was considered with hoarding. category and tackling the Margareta says. “Sorting circumference. It’s barely a lost by another at Humphrey’s extraordinary rock formation keeping up a small croft to the greatest in the world. “Death cleansing means easiest one first. She suggests through everything is sad mile off-shore but guards its Head on Morecambe Bay – on the island known as The provide them with food, milk One of the smallest islands of removing unnecessary starting with clothing, and sometimes, but I really do Hestan Island in the Solway Firth – guarded by rocks and secrets well, accessible only at which is the Solway’s twin Elephant – which presumably and eggs. Scotland contributing to that things and making your avoiding sentimental items not want to give my beloved low tide and only for a couple as far as shifting sands and had some other name before The rewards must have been claim by means of three men home nice and orderly when like photographs, otherwise children and their families treacherous mudflats – was once home to a small copper of short hours. Even at the treacherous tides go. At that anyone here knew what an worth it for the Gourlays to and their three pickaxes. you think the time is coming you’ll get stuck in memory too much trouble with my mine. It is now the location for Clio Gray’s latest novel lowest of neap tides the sea time I had to fling myself into elephant looked like. I never stay here, and stay they did, And if that doesn’t merit a close for you to leave the lane. stuff after I’m gone.” doesn’t leave it completely, a channel that was empty one got to explore the caves, surveil one part of the workings going visit to Hestan Island – if you’re planet,” writes Margareta Aside from pulling the plug merely murmurs about its minute, up to my waist the next the cottages or visit the extant 70 metres into the heart of hardy enough to get there – in her no-nonsense guide. on a borderline hoarding ●●The Gentle Art Of Swedish edges, drawing back to reveal Even at the lowest – no other choice but to throw copper workings, nor sit upon Hestan. And valuable enough well. What would? Rather than being macabre, issue, the method reveals that Death Cleaning: How To ● ho has heard of Everyone loves lighthouses, the mouth of Auchencairn vast mudflats across the bays of neap tides the myself and the dogs in, the the highest point of the island to negotiate the trickiness of she believes cleansing there’s also a joy to spending Free Yourself And Your Hestan Island? Not but copper mining on a tiny Bay, Kirkcudbrightshire.” of Balcary and Auchencairn. sea doesn’t leave it current almost taking my legs where Edward Balliol – King of getting the ore off the island. ●●Hidden Pasts: Part Three ● yourself from a lifetime of an afternoon picking through Family From A Lifetime ● Wmany, I suspect. Scottish island? Now that My books had let me down. A quick march across those completely, merely out from under me, the four Scotland for a few momentous There’s no harbour, and any of the unnecessary belongings can mementos of the past. “I’ve Of Clutter ● No more had I, until I flicked was unusual, and as a writer Never a pleasant feeling, and flats might seem the obvious of us scrambling out on hands years – built his garrison fort. vessel over 50 tons would have Scottish instate a permanent form discovered that it is rewarding by Margareta through Dixie Will’s Tiny of historical fiction unusual there wasn’t much more on approach, but no. That murmurs about and knees and legging it back Which brings me back to the beached itself on the mud Mysteries of organisation that makes to spend time with these Magnusson Islands as it landed on the always intrigues. As soon the internet, which was a apparently benign surface is its edges, drawing to the car park covered in slimy start, to the copper mines. below the shallow waters. by Clio Gray your everyday life run more objects one last time, and is published counter at Tain Library as I got home I started going surprise. Eventually I sourced dangerously deceptive, riven back to reveal vast grey mud, never so glad to see Hestan, one of the few places But get away that ore they did, is published smoothly. then dispose of them. Each by (where I work part-time) and through several touring guides Monograph Number Six of the through with shifting quick- mudflats across the our little campervan as then. in England and Scotland to be taken to Swansea – presumably this month “When you death clean, item has its own history, and Canongate, I saw several key words that of Scotland, old and new, Auchencairn History Society, sand pouches and hidden bays of Balcary and Yet another reason to productive of such a valuable because the only other major by Urbane it stops you from running remembering that history priced £12.99. piqued my interest: Scotland, but the most that was said of The Story of Hestan Island, channels, and a tide that can Auchencairn choose Hestan as a novelistic commodity; Britain – in the copper mining in Scotland was Publications around the house looking is often enjoyable,” says Available Lighthouse, Copper Mines. Hestan was a “small islet at from its author Mark White, turn in a second when a strong backdrop into which such an early 1800s – contributing in Bridge of Allan near Stirling, at £8.99. for your bag or your keys, Margareta. now.