Book 42 - Island: Diary of a Year on Easdale

Island: Diary of a Year on Easdale by Garth and Vicky Waite - first published in 1985

Garth and Vicky met by chance on a train in Scotland when they were both widowed and in their 50s.  They married, retired early and moved to the small island of Easdale off the island of Seil in Argyll.  This book is an illustrated nature diary of their first year on Easdale - 1979.  It is in the same format as Edith Holden's The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, which was published in 1977.

The diary includes details of what Garth and Vicky did and places they visited but it is mainly an illustrated account of the wildlife they observed - flowers, plants, mammals, birds, insects, marine creatures, reptiles and amphibians.  There are no pages without at least one of Vicky's paintings.  The diary entries, which are in Vicky's handwriting are interspersed with quotations and poems - some of them by famous poets and some written by Garth and Vicky themselves.  It is a gentle book to dip into and savour.   7/10

Islands covered - Easdale, Seil, Luing, Mull, Iona

 Former quarry workers' cottages

 Ruined quarry building, Easdale

 Harbour on Easdale

 Village from the summit of Easdale

 Ferry Waiting Room, Easdale

 Bridge over the Atlantic linking Seil to the Mainland

Book 41 - The Flight of the Cormorants

The Flight of the Cormorants by Mary Withall - first published in 2000


After enjoying a holiday on the island of Seileach in Argyll in 1990 American businessman and developer Milton T Humbert decides he would like to build his next large holiday complex on the neighbouring island of Eisdalsa.  With a golf course, a marina in an old slate quarry, indoor swimming pool, hotel, indoor recreation areas and either a bridge or sky rail across to Eisdalsa, it would completely change the characters of the islands, while bringing little economic benefit to the local residents.

Milton sends one of his employees, an Australian called Jack McDougal, to visit Seileach incognito and to produce a feasibility report.  At the same time Dr Alan Beaton arrives in the area to assist the local GP.  However the GP has a heart attack just before he arrives and Alan ends up running the practice almost single handed.  Both Jack and Alan are attracted to Flora, the local pharmacist and GP's receptionist.  When the locals on Eisdalsa and the neighbouring village of Seileachan find out what is planned for their villages understandably most of them are determined to oppose it.

The author lives/lived on Easdale and the islands are described very clearly. The novel contains a plethora of colourful and memorable characters suffering from a variety of health problems.

Seileachan and Easdalsa are in real life the neighbouring islands of Seil and Easdale.   Slate was quarried from the mid 18^th Century.  The heyday was in the late 19^th Century when over 450 people lived on Easdale Island but large scale quarrying came to an abrupt end on 22^nd November 1881 when the sea flooded the workings during a violent storm.  The quarry closed in 1911, although a small amount of quarrying for local purposes continued until the 1960s.

Islands covered - Seil and Easdale

 View from the summit of Easdale looking over one of the flooded quarries

 Seil from Easdale - one of the flooded quarries is in the foreground

 Former slate workers' cottages on Easdale

 Ellenabeich, Seil

Book 40 - Kidnapped

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson - first published in 1886

The main character and narrator of this novel is 17 year old David Balfour.  In 1751 after the death of his father he leaves his home in the Scottish borders and walks to the house of his uncle Ebenezer at Cramond on the shores of the Firth of Forth to claim his rightful inheritance. David's father was older than Ebenezer and should therefore have inherited the family estate but they fell out over a woman - David's mother.  Ebenezer, who is a paranoid miser first tries to kill him and when he fails to do this he arranges for him to be kidnapped and sold into slavery in America.

The Covenant, the ship David is travelling on, collides with another smaller ship, which sinks,  and the only survivor, a Jacobite named Alan Breck, is rescued and brought on board the Covenant.  He and David become friends.  The Covenant runs aground off the island of Mull and David is washed ashore on the island of Erraid.  He thinks he is stranded there until after several days he realises that Erraid is a tidal island and is joined to Mull at low tide.  He walks across Mull in search of Alan Breck and gets a boat to the mainland.

Alan's arch enemy is Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, who is known as the Red Fox.  He is a government supporter.  David encounters the Red Fox but while he is asking his servant for directions a sniper shoots the Red Fox dead.  David is suspected of being a conspirator and Alan Breck is suspected of being the murderer.  David and Alan meet up and flee together south across the Highlands heading for Edinburgh.  They are pursued by government soldiers and then David is very ill.  After several close shaves and adventures they finally reach Edinburgh.  With the help of Ebenezer's lawyer and Alan, David is at last able to claim his inheritance.

Many of the characters in the book were real people e.g Alan Breck Stewart and the Red Fox.  Lots of Scottish dialect words makes the story hard to understand in places.  A few of the more obscure words had the modern equivalents given in brackets but there were still lots I had never encountered before.  That said it is a good old-fashioned adventure story.  I chose it because I thought most of the action took place on Erraid and Mull but in actual fact only a couple of chapters are set on the islands. 

Stevenson wrote a sequel to Kidnapped - Catriona.  This was published in 1893 but was never as popular as Kidnapped.    6/10

Islands covered - Erraid and Mull

Lochbuie, Mull

Book 39 - The Curiosity Cabinet

The Curiosity Cabinet by Catherine Czerkawska - first published in 2005

Alternate chapters of the book tell of the experiences of two women while they are staying on the same fictional island of Garve/Eilean Garbh but more than 300 years apart.  The parallel stories are linked by the island itself and by an embroidered curiosity cabinet.

In the present day recently divorced Alys revisits Garve, a place where she enjoyed several childhood holidays.  She meets up again with local fisherman Donal McNeill, with whom she and her brother played as children and this time she falls in love with him.  In the 17th century Henrietta is kidnapped while travelling from her home in Linlithgow to visit her brother and sister-in-law in Edinburgh.  She is taken to Eilean Garbh where, once she has got over the initial shock, she finds herself falling in love with Manus McNeill, the man who was paid to kidnap her.  The link between the two stories is that Donal is a descendant of Manus McNeill and the embroidered curiosity cabinet, which once belonged to Henrietta,  has been passed down his family through the generations and is displayed in the island's hotel, where it catches Alys's eye.

I started off enjoying the present day story the most but gradually became more interested in Henrietta's story.  7/10

Book 38 - Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers

Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers by Mairi Hedderwick - first published in 1985

This is a picture book for the under 5s.  Katie Morag is a small girl who lives on the fictional island of Struay.  There are at least 10 different books about her, all of which are beautifully illustrated by the author.  The stories are short and simple but entertaining and on each page there are lots of details to look at in the pictures.

Katie Morag's fashion conscious and sophisticated grandmother, who lives on the mainland, comes to stay on Struay for a holiday.  Her other grandmother - Grannie Island - doesn't get on well with her as she thinks she spends too much time on her appearance. Grannie Island on the other hand is a down to earth practical lady, who lives in wellies and dungarees.  She enters her sheep Alecina in the island show but on the day of the show Alecina goes swimming in a bog and ends up filthy.  While Granma Mainland is at the show Katie Morag borrows her shampoo and curlers and she and Grannie Island smarten up Alecina so well with them that she wins first prize.  Grannie Island comes to appreciate that Granma Mainland has her uses.  8/10

Struay is based on the Inner Hebridean island of Coll.

Arinagour, Coll

 Beach on the NW Coast of Coll

Hogh Bay, Coll

Book 37 - The Stormy Petrel

The Stormy Petrel by Mary Stewart - first published in 1991

Cambridge University lecturer Rose Fenemore arrives on the fictional island of Moila (which is supposed to be located between Mull and Coll & Tiree) to stay in a remote cottage for a few weeks.  Her brother Crispin is supposed to be joining her a day or so later but he is slightly injured in a train crash on his way there, so he is delayed.  One stormy evening 2 men arrive separately at her cottage seeking shelter but neither of them has a convincing story about why they are on the island.  Rose chooses to believe Ewen Mackay and together they set out to find out why the other man, who calls himself John Parsons, is on the island.  There is a bit of suspense and a touch of romance but the eventual outcome isn't that exciting.

I was certain that I had read this book when it first came out but I didn't remember any of the plot, so maybe I am mistaken or maybe I have read too many books in the last 20 years to be able to remember all the plots.   7/10

Book 36 - Fascinating Sinner

Fascinating Sinner by Mary Mackie - first published 2007

This books seems to have only been published in large print but inside the book it says that the copyright belongs to a Cathy Charles and the date given is 1984.  I'm not sure what that means?  Perhaps Mary Mackie wrote a book based on a short story by Cathy Charles?

Helen Ashcroft is invited by her old friend Ros to help her out by taking over her role as a live-in housekeeper/childminder for her single parent employer James McLeod on the island of Harris for a few weeks while she is away exhibiting her artwork in Edinburgh.  Helen works as a secretary for a celebrity magazine and her boss encourages her to go and gives her the time off because she wants her to spy on James MacLeod and write an article about him on her return.  James is an author but Helen soon realises that he used to be an actor known as Breck James.  She falls in love with him and is then torn between her agreement with her employer and her love for James.  After a few misunderstandings they all live happily ever after.  The story is predictable but the landscape of Harris is described quite well and the books is a quick and easy read.  6/10

Islands covered - Harris

 Ruined Chapel at Rubha an Teampaill, Northton, Harris

Rhenigidale, Harris

Drinishader, Harris

Book 35 - Mondays are Murder

Mondays are Murder by Tanya Landman - first published in 2009

This is a short but action packed children's novel set on the fictional island of Murrag, which is supposed to be adjacent to Coll and Tiree.

Poppy Fields and 4 other teenagers accept a free holiday on Murrag in return for being guinea pigs for a new activity centre that Mike and Isabella are opening on the otherwise uninhabited island.  However there has already been one suspicious death before their arrival and within a few days 3 other members of staff have been killed.  A big storm means that the island is cut off from outside help.  Poppy turns detective to work out who the murderer is but in doing so she puts her own life in danger.  7/10

Book 34 - The Island Pilgrimage

The Island Pilgrimage by Fay Sampson - first published in 2004

Middle aged married university academic Margaret Jenkins is helping her close friend Methodist minister Brian to write and produce a play about the life of St Columba.  He organises a trip to Iona (referred to as Hy in the book) for the youth group at their church, who are going to perform the play.  He invites Margaret to accompany them.  While on Hy they both realise that they are strongly attracted to one another but Margaret manages to resist the temptation to take the relationship any further.  The rest of the book is about her emotional turmoil and the repercussions as their respective spouses become aware of their feelings for one another.  Initially I found Margaret rather irritating but as I read on I began to admire her for not giving in to temptation.   7/10

Islands covered - Iona

 Celtic Cross near Iona Abbey

 West coast of Iona

 St Columba's Bay, south coast of Iona

Book 33 - Emma's Island

Emma's Island by Honor Arundel - first published in 1968

One of my favourite books as a child was The High House - also by Honor Arundel.  I bought a copy at a library book sale while on a day trip to York for a few pence and read it many times.  Years later by chance I came across a second hand copy of Emma's Island, which is a sequel to The High House.

In The High House 13 year old Emma's parents are killed in a car accident and she moves to Edinburgh to live with her absent minded artist aunt Patsy.  Emma's Island starts 2 years later by which time Patsy has married fellow artist Stephen and the 3 of them move to the fictional island of Stranday, which is apparently located close to Coll and Tiree in the Inner Hebrides.  Patsy and Stephen open a gallery and Emma helps to run the house and quickly adapts to life on an island.  Patsy and Stephen have a baby daughter and Emma has her first romantic encounter when some archaeologists come to the island to do an excavation.  This is an old fashioned novel, which seems a bit tame today but it is still an engaging story.  7/10

Book 32 - The Man who gave away his Island: A Life of John Lorne Campbell of Canna

The Man who gave away his Island: A Life of John Lorne Campbell of Canna by Ray Perman - first published in 2010

I should read more biographies, as so often they are illuminating, informative and inspiring and this one is no exception.  John Lorne Campbell was born into a Scottish landowning family in 1906.  On the surface they were wealthy and John was educated at Rugby School and Oxford University.  However in John's lifetime his family's houses and estates in Scotland had to be sold off to repay the debts passed on by previous generations.   John developed an interest in Gaelic history, culture and language and in 1933 he travelled to Barra, where he became friends with the author Compton Mackenzie.  He met his future wife Margaret Fay Shaw on South Uist in 1934.  She was an American by birth but she was also interested in Gaelic culture and music.  They married in 1935 and in 1938 John borrowed heavily in order to buy the island of Canna.  He spent the next 43 years struggling to make an economic success of the island.  He persevered despite various setbacks, including a World War, various staffing problems and a mental breakdown.  He also found the time to write and collect numerous books about Gaelic culture, to make recordings of native Gaelic speakers in order to preserve a fast vanishing language and musical heritage and to campaign for better services for the people of the Hebrides e.g. improve ferries.

John and Margaret had no children and John decided the best way to secure Canna's long term future was to give it to the National Trust for Scotland, which he did in 1981.  He didn't always agree with the NTS about how to run the island but he and Margaret continued to live on Canna until their deaths in 1996 and 2004 respectively.  John died while on holiday in Italy and was initially buried there but 10 years later his remains were exhumed and he was re-interred on Canna in the small birch wood that he had planted behind the Catholic chapel.

This is a sympathetic portrait of a naturally shy man who cared passionately about improving the lives of the inhabitants of the Hebrides and in preserving their Gaelic cultural history and traditions.

Sadly Canna doesn't seem to have prospered in the last few years for various reasons and in 2012 the population fell to 8.  As Ray Perman says "When he gave Canna to the nation John Lorne Campbell was aware that he was passing on a burden, as well as a treasure.  He had devoted his life to it and the cost, both in the money he ploughed into it and the proceeds forgone, meant nothing to him."  He also quotes Winnie MacKinnon, a long term resident of Canna, referring to the high turnover rate of new residents on Canna "They come here to get away from everything, but what they need is to get away from themselves.  This happens time after time."   I also like the quote from The Gaelic Poems of Father Allan MacDonald (transcribed and published by John Lorne Campbell in 1965) given at the top of the chapter about John's death:  "The time or place of our death doesn't matter, Since happiness doesn't need a funeral."
9/10

Islands covered - Canna, Rum, Eigg, Muck, South Uist, Barra, Eriskay and Mingulay

 Canna - looking towards the Church and ferry terminal

 Canna House - John and Margaret's home

 Escallonia Tunnel at the entrance to Canna House
Looking south towards Rum

 John Lorne Campbell's grave on Canna

 North Coast of Canna from Compass Hill

Book 31 - An Eye on the Hebrides

An Eye on the Hebrides: An Illustrated Journey by Mairi Hedderwick - first published in 1989

Mairi Hedderwick is best known for her children's picture books about a little girl called Katie Morag, which are set on the fictional island of Struay.  In 1988 she set off on a tour of the Hebrides in her old VW camper van.  The journey is best summed up in her own words: "The journey was alone and continuous.  It encompassed 40 islands, 750 sea miles, 4,500 land miles, 30 boats, innumerable breakdowns both mechanical and spiritual, 4 big storms, thousands of midges and far too many soul-searing sunsets.  An everyday for 195 days the discipline of sketching, sometimes 5 or 6 times a day."
The book is lavishly illustrated with her sketches and paintings.  The book is impressionistic, while the illustrations mostly show a great eye for detail.  It contains some information about the human and natural history and geology of the islands but is more of a diary and an account of the people she met, snippets about their lives and the conversations she had with them.

I love the way she sums up Benbecula: "Benbecula is pivotal not only to the religions of the Uists but to their administration, education and economy.  It has little else to recommend it."  Poor flat and boggy Benbecula!

8/10

Islands covered - Arran, Great Cumbrae, Bute, Gigha, Islay, Jura, Seil, Easdale, Luing, Kerrera, Colonsay, Oronsay, Mull, Iona, Erraid, Ulva, Gometra, Lismore, Tiree, Coll, Barra, Vatersay, Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula, Grimsay, Berneray, North Uist, Muck, Eigg, Rum, Canna, Skye, Raasay, Harris, Scalpay, St Kilda, Lewis.

Book 30 - Death of a Snob

Death of a Snob by M.C. Beaton - first published in 1988

To avoid a lonely Christmas Police Constable Hamish Macbeth, who is based at the fictional village of Lochdubh on the west coast of Sutherland, accepts an invitation from a friend of his ex-girlfriend to come and stay at her health farm on the fictional island of Eileencraig.  She is convinced that someone is trying to kill her and Hamish agrees to investigate.  However it is one of the other guests, an outspoken and unpopular lady called Heather Todd, who is found dead at the foot of a cliff and Hamish suspects foul play.    This novel won't change your life but it is amiable enough.  It is one of those crime novels like those of Agatha Christie where no one is particularly upset about the murder, as the person who was killed wasn't greatly liked anyway.  6/10

Book 29 - Star Gazing

Star Gazing by Linda Gillard - first published in 2008

Marianne Fraser has been blind since birth and she was widowed in her twenties when her husband was killed in the Piper Alpha Disaster.  She shares a flat in Edinburgh with her sister, who is an author.  One day by chance she meets Keir Hardy on the street outside her home.  They share a love of music and he takes her to stay in his remote cottage on the Isle of Skye near Broadford.  However Keir is a geophysicist and works on oil rigs and although she finds herself falling in love with him, Marianne is scared of getting too close to him in case she loses him too.  Then she discovers she is pregnant but decides not to tell Keir.  The story is a bit slow moving and towards the end I found Marianne's attitude to Keir very annoying. However there is a satisfactory outcome and Skye is described quite well. 6/10

Islands covered - Skye

 Broadford Harbour, Skye

Book 28 - Over the Sea to Skye

Over the Sea to Skye by Sally Stewart - first published in 2007

Don't expect this novel to change the way you view the world but it is an amiable enough story with a happy, if predictable ending.

Louise Maitland's brother and his wife are killed in a car accident leaving their young children - Jamie and Fiona as orphans.  Louise takes them to live with her father and rather austere aunt Janet in an old manse on the Sleat Peninsula of the Isle of Skye but then decides to stay and live there herself, rather than return to her life as a chef in London.  A Canadian Iain Macrae, whose ancestors left Skye several generations earlier, meets Louise and the children by chance on several occasions.  He falls in love with Louise but she rejects him.  Meanwhile a millionaire businessman wants to buy the manse, kirk and adjacent croft, demolish the buildings and redevelop the site into a holiday complex.  Iain comes up with a plan to stop him.  The Sleat Peninsula, the Cuillins, Skye Bridge and Portree all feature in the story.  6/10

Islands covered - Skye

 Skye Bridge from Kyleakin

 Portree Harbour

 The Cuillins from Kilmory on Rum

Book 27 - Calum's Road

Calum's Road by Roger Hutchinson - first published in 2000

This is the story of a remarkably determined man called Calum MacLeod, who got tired of waiting for the government to build a road 1.75 miles long from Brochel in northern Raasay to his village of Arnish, and decided to built it himself in his spare time.  It took him over a decade and he did almost all the work himself with a wheelbarrow, pickaxe, shovel, crowbar, sledgehammer and a secondhand book on road making and maintenance, which was published in 1900.  He had some help from the Royal Engineers with the surveying and some rock blasting.  Calum ran a croft, worked as postman and a boatman for the lighthousekeepers on Rona.  Later he was also an assistant keeper at Rona Lighthouse, so he didn't have that much spare time, which makes his achievement all the more incredible.

The story of Calum's Road has to be seen in the light of the last 2 centuries of history on Raasay.  In the mid 19th century the people of Raasay were cleared from the more fertile areas in the south of the island to make way for a sheep farm and sporting estate.  Many people emigrated and the remainder were banished to eke out a living in the wilder and less fertile north end of the island and on the tidal islands of Fladda and Eilean Tigh or on the rocky island of Rona, which lies to the north of Raasay.  George Rainy, who owned Raasay from 1846-63 had a 6 foot high dry stone wall constructed across the island at its narrowest point to separate his game animals from the remaining islanders, who were not permitted to live on the south side of it or to graze their animals there.

In 1921 desperate crofters from Rona settled illegally on the south east side of Raasay and reclaimed land from which their ancestors had been evicted 70 years earlier.  They became known as the Raasay Raiders.  After a court case and a short prison sentence, the matter was finally resolved in 1923 when the island was sold to the Scottish Rural Workers Approved Society.  They leased the island to the Board of Agriculture who created new crofts.

In 1931 the inhabitants of the settlements in North Raasay petitioned their local council for 3 miles of road to be built from Brochel Castle to Fladda via Arnish.  Beyond Brochel Castle the only access was a narrow footpath. Their petition was rejected. 

From 1949 to 1952 Calum and his brother Charles built a track from Torran to the tidal island of Fladda.  In the 1920s the inhabitants of Fladda had asked the local council to build a footbridge from Raasay to Fladda, so that the children on the island could travel to and from school at all states of the tide.  The council refused to build the bridge but they did build and staff a small school on Fladda in 1936.  In 1962 Calum asked the council to build a causeway to Fladda but the council said the cost was too high.  In 1961 the population of Fladda was 12 but by 1965 the last three families on the island had all given up waiting for a road and footbridge to be built and for running water and electricity to be laid on and they all left the island.

Gradually the population in the north of the island dropped, as families moved away, mainly because of the lack road access and by 1967 Calum and his wife were the only residents left in North Raasay.  Calum hoped that this decline would be reversed if a road was built.

Calum's Road was finished by 1974 but it was only accessible to tractors and 4 wheel drive vehicles.  After much discussion and procrastination the road was finally tarmacked by the local council in 1982.  Calum died suddenly in 1988.

This book is more than just the story of the construction of a road.  It is about what one individual can achieve if they are determined enough.  It is a shame that there are no photographs in the book.

7/10

Islands covered - Raasay, Fladda, Eilean Tighe, Rona

 Calum's Memorial at Brochel

 The start of Calum's Road at Brochel

Calum's Road

Book 26 - Forbidden Island

Forbidden Island by Malcolm Rose - first published in 2009

Mike and his 5 friends are sailing around the islands off the west coast of Scotland on a yacht when they come across an island that isn't marked on any of their maps.  Ignoring the signs, which warn them that the island is dangerous and that they should keep away, they land and set off to explore.  They discover the remains of several dead animals and a ruined cottage, which contains some strange equipment.  Then a helicopter appears and blows up their boat to prevent them from leaving the island and they realise that their mobile phones don't work.  Soon some of them start to feel ill.  Don't expect a happy ending because there isn't one.  The moral of this story is that Danger, Keep Out signs shouldn't be ignored.

The story, which is written for the teenage market, is based on the real Scottish island of Gruinard, which is located in Gruinard Bay halfway between Gairloch and Ullapool.  In 1942 the British government carried out chemical weapons experiments there with anthrax on sheep.  The island was then quarantined until 1986 when it was chemically treated to kill the spores and the island was declared safe in 1990. 

6/10  Islands covered - Gruinard

 Gruinard Island from the mainland.  

I haven't visited the island myself and don't intend to! At the closest point Gruinard is less than a mile from the mainland.

Book 25 - Sea Room

Sea Room: an island life - Adam Nicolson - first published in 2001

This is a book about the 3 Shiant Islands - Garbh Eilean (Rough Island), Eilean an Tighe (House Island) and Eilean Mhuire (Mary Island), which are located to the east of North Harris and 4 miles to the south west of the Pairc area of Lewis.  Adam Nicolson was given the Shiants by his father Nigel when he was 21 years old.  Nigel Nicholson had bought the Shiants in 1937 for £1,400.  Sea Room is neither a history not a memoir but a well blended combination of both of these.  It is a book to read slowly, savour and reflect upon.  Each of the chapters are mainly about different aspects of the islands, e.g. Adam's boat Freyja, archaeology, spirituality, seabirds, sheep and geology.  There are no chapter headings and although the book is illustrated with plenty of black and white photographs there are no captions for them, which I found a bit frustrating at times.  However there are plenty of maps with keys and an index. 

The author sums up the attraction of islands to many people over the ages very well:

"Islands are made larger, paradoxically, by the scale of the sea that surrounds them.  The element which might reduce them, which might be thought to besiege them, has the opposite effect.  The sea elevates these few acres into something they would never be if hidden in the mass of the mainland.  The sea makes islands significant."

"Islands, because of their isolation, are revelatory, places where the boundaries are wafer thin."

8/10

Islands covered - The Shiant Islands 

 

The only house on Eilean an Tighe

 The west coast of Garbh Eilean from Eilean an Tighe

 The east coast of Garbh Eilean from Eilean an Tighe 

 Garbh Eilean

 Cottage on Eilean an Tighe

 Looking south down the spine of Eilean an Tighe from the highest point on the island

Book 24 - The Vatersay Raiders

The Vatersay Raiders by Ben Buxton - first published in 2008

This is the true story of a group of men from the islands of Barra and Mingulay in the Outer Hebrides who, due to overpopulation, were so desperate for land on which to grow crops like potatoes, barley and oats and raise livestock to feed their families that they occupied land on the islands of Vatersay and Sandray.  These islands are located to the south of Barra and the north of Mingulay but they are much closer to Barra.  They became known as the Vatersay Raiders.

In 1835 crofters were evicted from Sandray, which was then used as grazing by Vatersay Farm.  In 1850-51 all the crofters were evicted from Vatersay by Colonel John Gordon of Cluny, who had bought South Uist, Benbecula and the Barra Isles in 1840.  Vatersay was then farmed as a single unit.  Colonel Gordon died in 1878 and the islands were inherited by his widow Lady Gordon Cathcart, whose only visit to them was in 1878.

In 1883 cottars (people with houses but no crofts) and crofters on Barra unsuccessfully appealed to Lady Gordon Cathcart for crofts on Vatersay.  In 1903 the Congested Districts Board purchased land at Uidh on Vatersay, so that cottars could grow potatoes there.

 From 1900-1905 the raiders visited Vatersay and marked out crofts but did not occupy the land.  In 1906 they occupied the island and started to build huts in which to live.  In 1908 Lady Gordon Cathcart took 10 of them to court in Glasgow and they were imprisoned there for 2 months.  However later in the same year she agreed to the creation of crofts on Vatersay and in 1909 the government bought Vatersay and Sandray.  Initially there were more applicants than crofts but by 1912 most of those who wanted crofts had been allocated them.

The book is a bit dry in places but is a worthwhile read and also includes the earlier history of the island, including the sinking of the emigrant ship the Annie Jane bound for Quebec off the west coast of Barra in 1853 with the loss of over 400 lives.   6/10

Island covered - Vatersay, Barra, Mingulay, Sandray

 Beaches on Vatersay

Book 23 - Whisky Galore

Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie - first published in 1947

This novel is based on the true story of a ship called the SS Politician, which ran aground off the north east coast of the island of Eriskay in February 1941 on its way between Liverpool and New York.  The crew were all rescued but the ship broke in two.  The ship was carrying a mixed cargo of Japanese currency, plumbing fittings, motorcycle parts and 264,000 bottles of whisky to help pay for the Second World War.  Before government officials and official salvagers arrived many islanders helped themselves to many of the bottles of whisky, which they hid around the islands in the most unlikely places.  When HM Customs and Excise officials and the police arrived they searched the crofts.  36 islanders were sent to court and 19 were convicted of illegal possession and imprisoned in Inverness.

In the book the ship is called the SS Cabinet Minister and it runs aground between the fictional islands of Great and Little Todday, which incidentally have recently run out of whisky due to wartime shortages.  Officials search for the whisky on the islands but none of the islanders are caught.  The story is fleshed out by the romance and forthcoming weddings of Sergeant Odd and Peggy Macroon and school teacher George Campbell and Catriona Macroon.  The islanders are depicted as lovable rogues, who only pay lip service to the laws of the land and who, if not all alcoholics, all drink large quantities of whisky.  The book was made into a film of the same name by Ealing Studios in 1949 and partly filmed on Barra.  

The author Compton Mackenzie lived on Barra for several years, as well as being tenant of Herm and Jethou in the Channel Islands for a time and owning the Shiant Islands for a few years.  He died in 1972 and is buried at Eoligarry on Barra.  

6/10 - the book lacks the humour of the film

Islands covered - Eriskay

 West coast of Eriskay

 Eoligarry, Barra

Book 22 - Isles at the Edge of the Sea

Isles at the Edge of the Sea by Jonny Muir - first published in 2011

The author visited 19 islands off the west coast of Scotland in one journey starting with Arran and ending with St Kilda.  On the way he took part in mountain running races on Arran, Jura, Harris and from Kintail to Beauly.  He camped most nights, the weather was often cold, wet and windy and the midges were all too often present in large numbers. There is a separate chapter for each island and in places it comes across as an endurance test, rather than a pleasure but the account is generally an enjoyable mixture of his experiences and the people he met mixed with a little history.

I have visited all the islands except St Kilda, a place which the author found profoundly moving.  On leaving St Kilda he says "I felt a connection - a brief yet deep physical link - sever but I knew the emotional bond, the stronger connection, would be lifelong." and  "I feared life anywhere might be mundane after St Kilda."

Talking about his visit to Harris on Rum Jonny Muir describes extremely well those rare and all too brief moments of timeless perfection that we occasionally and always unexpectedly stumble upon:

"Moments of sublime flawlessness are rare; such instances depend on the harmonious collision of mood, place and time.  Today, now, somehow, the pieces fitted together: the command of the mountains, the roll of the sea, the shimmering brilliance of the sky, the adrenaline of exertion, the haunting emptiness of the land, the spectacle of Sir George's mausoleum, the calmness and liberation of thought.  Nothing was out of place. "

The book was worth reading just for this paragraph.   8/10

Islands covered - Arran, Holy Island, Bute, Colonsay, Oronsay, Islay, Jura, Mull, Coll, Tiree, Eigg, Rum, Canna, Skye, Barra, Berneray,  Lewis, Harris, St Kilda

 Bullough Mausoleum at Harris on the west coast of Rum

Book 21 - To the Edge of the Sea

To the Edge of the Sea by Christina Hall - first published in 1999

Christina Hall was born into a crofting family on the Outer Hebridean island of South Uist in 1938.  This is an autobiographical account of her childhood.  At the age of 41/2 she was sent to live with 2 unmarried aunts, one of whom was the headmistress of a school on the island of Benbecula.  She only returned home for school holidays.  2 years later she moved with them to the island of Barra and she lived there until she was 10 when she returned to her family on South Uist.  The account of her family life, schooldays, crofting and a traditional 3 day hebridean wedding is similar in many ways to the one related by Finlay J Macdonald on the nearby island of Harris a  decade earlier in his autobiography Crowdie and Cream.  It is a very accessible and informative account of everyday life in the Outer Hebrides in the middle of the 20th century.

The second part of Christina Hall's autobiography is Twice around the Bay, which was first published in 2001.  The 2 parts have been published together as one book called Tales from an Island.    7/10

Islands covered - South Uist, Barra, Benbecula and Flodda

 Kisimul Castle, Castlebay, Barra

 Barra Airport Runway - yes the planes take off and land on the beach!

Traigh Mor, Eoligarry

 Near Howmore, west coast of South Uist

 South Uist

 Benbecula - causeway to South Uist - the completion of this causeway in 1942 is mentioned in this book.

 Eoligarry, Barra