Almost a century ago, a woman named Catherine Long lived in the townland of Claggan in the parish of Glendowan. She practically supported her husband and family by spinning flax, with a spinning wheel.
She had two servants named Isabella Mac Daid and Mary Duffy. This woman's husband bruised the flax with an instrument called a 'brake', and then put it through another process called Scutching which was done with a board two and a half feet long and three inches wide. The unscutched flax was held in the left hand on a board resembling a mason's plumb-board, and a piece of timber was used in the right hand. It was beaten down with the edge of the board to rid the fibre of the core, or woody part of the plant. It was then sent to a man called a Heckler, who combed it on a box, which was covered over with spikes like nails. When it was all caught on them, it