Scottish Islands Explorer 41: Jan / Feb 2017

SCOTTISH 

ISLANDS 

THE UK’S ONLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO EXPLORING THE ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND 

EXPLORER 

Lismore 

History 

Atlantic 

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Gallery of Rust 

Page 36 

Scottish Seabirds New Marine Protected Area 

Page 8 

Page 20 

SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017 Volume 18 / Issue 1 

Editor 

John Humphries 

editor@scottishislandsexplorer.com 

01379 890270 

Publisher 

Tom Humphries 

publisher@scottishislandsexplorer.com 

Production Design 

Deborah Bryce 

production@scottishislandsexplorer.com 

Proof Reader 

Melanie Palmer 

Circulation and Enquiries 

Steve Tiernan 

www.magazineworkshop.co.uk 

01422 410615 

Regular Contributors 

Tom Aston 

Roger Butler 

Marc Calhoun 

Richard Clubley 

James Hendrie 

Mavis Gulliver 

Jack Palfrey 

James Petre 

Stephen Roberts 

Andrew Wiseman 

Administration 

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Published bi-monthly 

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Next issue on sale: 18 February 2017 

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Front Cover 

Image of an Atlantic Grey Seal 

by Roger Butler 

CONTENTS 

4 Editor John Humphries and Guest Columnist Terry Marsh 

5 Vision for 2020 with A Town Walk, the Quiz and Collectors’ Copies 

6 Insights One Books on Mapping, Imaging and Reflecting on Islands 

7 Insights Two about Shipping Movements on the Sound of Harris 

8 Scottish Seabird Islands - Part One 

Richard Clubley focuses on the wilderness 

13 House on the Point - Ullapool 

Jack Palfrey experienced pleasures in all directions 

15 Islands Beyond 

Tom Aston looks south towards Laurie Island 

16 ‘A Good Enough Day’ 

Alayne Barton on Rousay, 45 years after George Mackay Brown 

20 New Marine Protected Area in Wester Ross 

Lizzie Williams celebrates initiatives, but is cautious on implementation 

24 Readers’ Opportunities One 

Whisky, Warmth, Winter and Signage 

25 Readers’ Opportunities Two 

Ben Buxton has been drawn to Mingulay … are you? 

26 Centrepiece 

Stewart Dawber is keen to develop his sense of wilderness 

28 The Atlantic Grey Seal 

Roger Butler is inquisitive about them 

32 A History of Lismore 

Gordon Eaglesham learnt more 

36 A Gallery of Rust 

Seth Cook takes delight in the decayed 

40 Apostle of Land Reform 

Andrew Wiseman assesses John Murdoch of Islay 

43 A Short Hop to Papa 

James Hendrie takes the trip 

46 Island Nurses 

Tom Aston learnt from Catherine Morrison about Hebridean Heroines 

48 Responses 

Declan O’Byrne has re-created journeys to the islands 

49 Crossword Sponsored by the Islands Book Trust 

Tom Johnson confronts crossword-puzzlers with his 26th challenge 

50 Island Incidents 

Mike Heslop wonders whether clockwise or anti-clockwise around Seil 

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER 3

Editor’s Welcome / Guest Columnist 

Editor 


reacts to the word ‘No’ 

Although I relentlessly promote Scottish island-holidaying 

and frequently go to them myself, albeit on business, 

there are times when my behaviour is covered by the old 

remark, ‘Don’t do as I do, do as I say.’ Back in the Summer, three 

generations of my family rented a cruiser for four nights on the 

Norfolk Broads. It was very different - in calmness of waters, 

levels of landscape and numbers of craft. 

Many positive aspects of journeying and the courtesies of 

fellow-sailors were revealed to us as cruising novices - but one 

feature filled me with disquiet, the plethora of warnings on 

notice boards. Some sections of the banks are festooned with 

signs indicating such prohibitions as - ‘No Entry’, ‘No Turning’, 

‘No Mooring’, ‘No Wash’, ‘No Fishing’. 

I suddenly realised that ‘notice’ and the very name of the 

county itself both begin with that restrictive ‘No’! I was not, 

however, filled with the rage of Harris, in Jerome K Jerome’s 

Three Men in a Boat, who wanted to kill those responsible for 

the ‘No Trespassing’ signs, slaughter their families, burn down 

their houses and sing comic songs on the ruins. Eventually he 

relented and promised not … to sing the songs. 

There has to be a balance between admittance with 

welcomes and preservation with warnings. The Scottish islands 

have coasts and hills where freedoms of access are enshrined 

in law, but where authorities need to continue vigilance 

especially as certain places become increasingly popular. The 

excesses of one generation can lead to diminished pleasures 

for the next. 

There is no formula for maintaining the appeal of an area - for 

changes in taste make, as they say, ‘ancient good uncouth’. 

However, places need to avoid anything comparable to that, 

undoubtedly untrue, story concerning a Scottish newspaper 

competition which announced: ‘First prize - a Week in Wick; 

Second Prize - Two Weeks in Wick’! 


For the Editor’s daily item on Scottish islands, go to 

john-humphries.blogspot.com 

Guest Columnist 

Terry Marsh on 

contracting an 

island condition 

Late one warm Spring evening in 1967, I first 

ventured onto the Isle of Skye. Tired, following a 

long journey north, I drove onto the stony beach at 

Camas na Sgianadin and slept in the car. Such was my 

introduction to the Scottish islands. 

The next morning, chill dawn air probing the 

defences of the car, I watched the sky turn pink as the 

sun eased into the eastern sky behind me, while 

expectation, uncertainty and the aura of adventure 

combined to fuel a quiet excitement. I was about to 

encounter the briefest exposure to what Seton Gordon 

called ‘The Charm of Skye’. 

is induces a state of euphoria, longing and affection 

that has come to be termed ‘Skye fever’ and it is an 

affliction that not everyone will experience, but one for 

which there is no cure. I have visited Skye every year since 

… and I still have the feverish condition. 

But what I also have is the knowledge that it is not 

only Skye to blame. There are hundreds of islands 

around Scotland’s coast, and the more I discovered 

them, the greater I felt an obligation to seek out more, 

to try to understand what Jim Crumley describes as 

‘islandness’ … akin to a state of wanting, always, to be 

on and among islands. 

So it was with not one shred of doubt that in 1999 I 

signed a contract to write e Magic of the Scottish 

Islands, a coffee-table book that would lead my wife and 

I, newly wed, to our honeymoon on Orkney. ereaer 

we endured 15 months of island-hopping, visiting all the 

island groups, getting on to as many as we could, some 

more easily than others. St Kilda was a wild Force 8 ride; 

Ulva by Mull a five-minute dash. 

In the years that followed, I probed Scotland’s island 

defences, and was rebuffed a time or two, but never to 

such an extent that I lost my desire to explore. e 

splendour of Scottish islands is there for all to see, but it 

is not to eyes alone that beauty is revealed. e charm of 

the islands is persuasive, and in that charm lies a magic 

that will remain long aer we are gone. 

Terry Marsh 

4 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017

VISION FOR 2020 

‘Challenge Ordinary’ is the directive in advertisements by the private bank, Investec, on the 

Waterloo & City Line, a section of the London Underground that is completely independent 

of the rest of the network. There’s my New Year resolution - endeavouring to lift more of the 

tasks that I do from the mundane to the special and hope that the end-products quietly 

achieve the extraordinary. 

A Town Walk 

Walking tends to be a rural 

pastime, undertaken by visitors 

rather than residents. Urban walks 

can form part of the daily commute, 

although an increasing number of 

enthusiasts like to take to the 

pavements in order to take in 

architectural features and social 

history. Where better to start than 

the largest town in the Western 

Isles, Stornoway? 

Stornoway from Lews Castle by James Hendrie 

There’s a presence of 8000 people 

in the vicinity and 5500 of them are 

Gaelic speakers. So there is the 

appeal of hearing the rhythms and 

cadences of the language without 

understanding the meaning of the 

words. Lews Castle and its woods 

and golf course, overlooking the bay, 

is a place to start for it is the highest 

point and the topography of the area 

soon becomes evident. 

Then move down to the harbour 

and the town-centre, including the 

main hall for events, An Lanntair, 

before continuing to the other side of 

the bay where trees are scarce and an 

industrial aspect becomes evident. 

Continue around to the broadcasting 

and publishing ‘zone’ before passing 

the Nicolson Institute with its 1000 

secondary school pupils. 

Behind the school are the older 

residential districts that are served by 

six Presbyterian denominations, a 

range of Nonconformist chapels, an 

Episcopalian and a Roman Catholic 

church. Eventually you will be at the 

fairly new Co-operative supermarket, 

ready to walk back down Bayhead to 

Cromwell Street, on to the Bus 

Station and Ferry Terminal, perhaps, 

to be transported away. 

Copies for Collectors 

The demand for back numbers 

continues. I have been offered a 

set of the editions of Scottish 

Islands Explorer from September / 

October 2004 until November / 

December 2016. If you are 

interested in them or have a long 

run of consecutive numbers of the 

publication, please contact 


01379 890270 

Quiz: Desert Islands 

David Hoult writes: In the popular imagination, the phrase 

‘desert island’ conjures up a picture of a tropical paradise 

with idyllic white beaches lapped by an azure sea. The 

reality is quite different, because in this context, ‘desert’ 

means ‘deserted’. So this category of island is one which 

was once inhabited, but whose population has left. Identify 

the following ‘desert’ islands around the shores of Scotland. 

1. The most southerly of the Bishop’s Isles 

2. A national nature reserve east of Bressay 

3. A supposedly haunted island south of Gigha 

4. An island in the Pentland Firth, north-west of 

John O’ Groats 

5. An island off Torridon, notorious as the former 

site of biological weapon tests. 

6. An island 44 miles north-east of the Butt of Lewis 

7. Separated from Jura by the Gulf of Corryvreckan. 

8. The largest island in the Firth of Forth 

9. An island off Harris, well-known as the site of a 

reality television series 

10. An island in the Firth of Clyde, colloquially 

known as Paddy’s Milestone. 

Answers on Page 50 


Page 

INSIGHTS 

Index Header 

Mapping, Imagining and Reflecting on Islands 

Scotland Mapping the Islands 

by Christopher Fleet, Margaret 

Wilkes and Charles W J Withers 

£30 Birlinn 978-1-78027-351-8 

Islands, to visit, have their devotees; maps, 

to pore over, have their aficionados. e 

coastlines, alone, of the Scottish islands 

have an immense length and the interiors 

have long aroused interest. e authors 

consider the science of cartography while 

presenting examples of historical, colourful, 

digital, diagrammatical and pictorial maps 

and charts from Rockall to the oil-fields 

of Shetland and all points south. 

The Undiscovered Islands 

by Malachy Tallack 

£12.99 Birlinn 978-1-84697-350-5 

‘Faced with the sky we imagine Gods; faced 

with the ocean we imagine islands.’ e 

author takes us on a journey to a range of 

settlements which were created by individuals 

or groups to impress others, to devise 

make-believe homes, to deceive in order to 

gain advantage or simply to be tricked by 

erroneous calculations. e phantoms, 

fakes and legends are here in a finelyprepared 

book. 

The Love of Country 

A Hebridean Journey 

by Madeleine Bunting 

£18.99 Granta 978-1-84708-517-7 

Over the course of six years, the author 

travelled extensively in the Hebrides 

and connected intensively with the 

landscape, history, people and attractions. 

is book is not the re-telling of 

well-known stories, but an exploration 

of a part of the country where traditions 

have grown, identification established 

and the creative flair of numerous 

writers and artists has been ignited. 

Poacher’s Pilgrimage 

An Island Journey 

by Alastair McIntosh 

£20 Birlinn 978-1-78027-361-7 

ere are three levels to stimulate here. 

One concerns a twelve-day pilgrimage 

through Lewis and Harris with the 

emphasis on the sacred aspects of 

landscape. Another concerns the working 

of the author’s mind on meanings of 

existence, healing and rigour. e third is 

about the place of Christian thought in 

the third millennium. ese topics are 

presented in lively and readable ways. 

The Skye Trail 

by Helen and Paul Webster 

£9.95 Cicerone 

978-1-85284-872-9 

When it comes to making a personal 

journey of one’s own, then the more 

arduous and challenging the more a good 

guide is required. e authors have 

devised a trail that runs (while you walk 

or climb) from Rubba Hunish in the 

north-east of the island to Broadford on 

the inhabited shores of the Cuillins. It is 

divided into seven stages, gives practical 

advice and comprehensive information. 

Take it to have at hand. 

Baby Boomers Memories 

of Post-War Shetland 

by Erik Young 

£12.99 e Shetland Times Ltd 

978-1-910997-09 

Erik Young, born at Hillhead, Lerwick, in 

June 1946, has experienced life in Shetland 

and Edinburgh. His recall of childhood and 

growing-up, sights and sounds, boats and 

businesses, holidays and schools are brought 

together in a fine journey down memory 

lane through prose, verse and illustrations. 

He has driven buses and so can assess people 

and places effectively. Let him take you on 

this trip to the past. 


INSIGHTS 

Page Index Header 

Shipping Movements on the Sound of Harris 

MV Loch Bhrusda on the Sound of Harris route from 1996-2003. 

There is something about the Sound of Harris that is rather 

special. For the past 20 years CalMac’s sailings have brought 

it into the mainstream of car-ferry services in the Outer 

Hebrides. Before then, carrying supplies and foot-passengers, 

the Endeavour of Berneray plied from Newtonferry, 

North Uist, to Berneray and onto Leverburgh, South Harris, 

navigated by Neil and Domhnall Angie Macaskill. 

These boatmen were well aware of the ebbs and flows of 

this stretch of water where the confined sea of The Minch 

meets the immense dimensions of the Atlantic Ocean. In 

1858, Henry C Otter, Captain of HMS Porcupine, had written 

about the different movements of the ‘neap’ (with a small 

range between low and high water) and ‘spring’ (with a 

large range) tides. 

Propulsion 

The CalMac routes for vehicle-ferrying between North Uist 

and South Harris were on ‘triangular’ runs taking in 

Lochmaddy, Uig, on Skye, and Tarbert. Then in 1996 the 

MV Loch Bhrusda came into service, displayed manoeuvrability 

with its propulsion system and drew attention with 

its noisiness as it negotiated the shallows and rocky 

features of the journey directly through the Sound. 

The opening of the Causeway to Berneray in 1999 and the 

building of the ferry terminal on the island gave the service 

new impetus. In 2003, the MV Loch Portain, doubled the 

capacity from the 18 vehicles and a new era began. Three 

years later, there was a revolution in social history when 

sailings started on a seven-day-a-week basis. The Sabbath 

Observance culture was under threat. 

Circuitous 

Observance of the obstacles en route means that the ship 

sails at nine nautical miles an hour, taking a circuitous 

course. This has the effect of giving passengers the opportunity 

to see approaching and receding islands from different 

angles. Passengers also have to be aware that in addition to 

reading the regular schedules, they need to consult the 

smaller print for well-forecast variations in tide and time. 

So crossing the Sound of Harris demands a particular 

alertness by the captain and crew, with up to 20 changes 

of course per sailing, and a different sense of awareness 

by prospective travellers. It is well worth noting the 

departure times, for there is much to appreciate about the 

conditions and background of an historic passage that is 

the key ferry-link on the journey through the Western Isles. 


Scottish Seabird Islands - Part One 

Scottish Seabird Islands - 

Part One 

Richard Clubley focuses on the wilderness 

Many I speak to have never been to Scotland, fewer 

have been to an island, fewer still have stood on 

Ailsa Craig, Bass Rock, St Kilda or any of the other, 

wonderful, teeming, raucous, smelly seabird-islands round 

the Scottish coast. Almost no one, save a few lighthouse 

men and mad adventurers have seen, let alone visited, Sule 

Stack or Sule Skerry. 

A ship’s captain once replied to my enquiry, “No, you 

won’t see either of those, they’re rocks, they’re dangerous, 

we steer well away them!” It is this danger to shipping, 

inaccessibility from land, lack of facilities and (oen) sheer, 

slippery sides that make sea bird islands just perfect - for 

seabirds. ey are wildernesses in the true sense of the word, 

a noun referring to an uncultivated and uninhabited area. 

Birds can court, nest, rest and raise their young in peace. 

ey are not hunted or squeezed out of their habitat by 

town planners or anyone else apart, perhaps, from some 

Outer Hebrideans who take 2000 gannet chicks, gugas, 

under licence ever year from Sula Sgeir for those who relish 

the delicacy. 

In Decline 

e islands are nurseries and sanctuaries for our seabirds. 

ere is little threat on the islands yet many species, in 

many places, are in decline. Ocean warming, ocean acidification, 

over-fishing and plastic pollution, leading to 

depleted or inaccessible or shied prey species are most 

likely to blame. 

ere are many voices calling for our act to be cleaned up. 

e banning of plastic microbeads, the establishment of 

marine special protection areas and fisheries regulation are 

proposed. May I add my own, small voice to the campaign 

for conservation of seabird islands? 

One bright, calm day in May 2015, I stepped off a rolling 

boat and clambered up some steep steps, cut into the side 

of the cliff face on Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth. I was 

very lucky to have been invited and luckier still the trip had 

not fallen foul of the weather, as all previous ones that 

season had. 



‘ere is little threat on the islands yet many 

species, in many places, are in decline.’ 


Old Prison 

Our guide, Maggie Sheddan, from the Scottish Seabird 

Centre in North Berwick escorted us through the rusting, 

iron gate into the old prison fortifications at the lower level. 

“Welcome to the Bass Rock,” she said, sounding like that 

grizzly, unsmiling warden at the start of every prison film - 

“Welcome to Shawshank”, “Welcome to Alcatraz.” 

At the start of the gannet slopes, Maggie issued plastic riot 

shields and instructed as to their use in fending off stabs from 

gannets nesting next to the path (on the path). I looked up, 

there was not a gannet-free inch of rock between me and the 

summit. at turned out to be not quite true. Having run the 

gannet gauntlet for a couple of hundred yards, we reached a 

clear patch, just big enough for 20 individuals to put down 

their rucksacks, eat lunch and take photos. 

Border Disputes 

This was the easiest bird photography I have done. Fishing 

in a barrel would be difficult by comparison. Gannets 

preening, billing, sky-pointing, taking off, landing, sleeping 

- whatever you want - fill your lens. The colony is dense. It 

follows the rules at all gannet colonies, each bird gets a nest 

patch that keeps it just out of stab range of its neighbours, 

but only just, for border disputes are common. 

Take-off and landing are difficult. Take off requires a run 

up, ideally down-slope and into the wind, but this may 

require running over the heads of neighbours, at the cost 

of more stabs. Landing is often just a controlled crash into 

the throng - more stabs. Seabirds in decline? Not gannets, 

not on Bass Rock. In recent years their numbers have risen 

from a few thousand to 150,000. 

When Sir David Attenborough visited a few years ago, he 

was filmed sitting by an isolated bird with a wellestablished 

nest close to the human area. The old bird and 

its mate are still there, but now surrounded by hundreds of 

others. Chris Packham said, and Sir David agreed: “This 

has to be one of the wonders of the natural world.” 

Monogamous and Loyal 

So, why the gloom if they’re all doing so well? e plain 

fact is that gannets are an exception. ey are powerful flyers, 

swimmers and divers. ey can exploit a range of fish prey 

species and can travel some distance from the colony to get 

food. ey are long-lived, monogamous and loyal to their 

nest sites. Eggs and chicks are not so vulnerable to predators, 

such as gulls and rats, since one adult remains on guard while 

the mate goes fishing. Gulls and rats are not equipped with 

riot shields. 



Manx shearwaters shear over the water in 

flight, inches above the waves. Best viewed 

from a ship they are dark on the back and 

light underneath (Spitfires were sometimes 

camouflaged this way during e Battle of 

Britain). ey bank, first one way then the 

other, and the observer will see these 

alternating colours. Shearwaters are 

fascinating to watch in a wavy sea as they skim 

the surface, up and down the troughs and 

over the peaks. 

I have included them in this article as the 

UK holds the bulk of the world breeding 

population. Manx shearwaters nest in 

colonies, in burrows, on grassy slopes above 

the sea. ey are brilliant swimmers and 

flyers, but very ungainly on land as their legs 

are set too far back for easy walking. is 

makes them vulnerable to predators at the 

colonies such as gulls. 

Wiped Out Colonies 

Their defence is to stay at sea during 

daylight and only land, to relieve their 

mates on duty in the burrows, in the 

darkest part of the night. They will fly past 

the nest, call to go off-watch, then crashland 

and shuffle below ground before any 

harm can come to them. Unlike the gannet, 

the Manx shearwater’s defence is its 

burrow. This is fine protection from gulls, 

but no use whatsoever against rats which 

have wiped out colonies in the past. 

In 1991, a team from Glasgow University, 

led by Bernard Zonfrillo, deployed large 

quantities of rat poison on the island of 

Ailsa Craig. The rats were eradicated and 

the shearwaters returned. During the 

winter of 2015/16, a similar project was 

conducted on the Shiants, aimed at 

getting rid of the colony of about 3,500 

black rats for the benefit of puffins, 

shearwaters and sundry other birds, 

invertebrates and plants. 

So far the results look promising, but we 

must wait at least a year for confirmation. 

It only takes one pregnant female to have 

been missed. Once confidence is restored, 

attempts will be made to entice shearwaters 

to re-colonise the islands. They do not like 

to land where none of their kin are living so 

recordings of their calls will be played to 

break the ice. No one wants to be first at a 

party after all. 

[In the next issue: great skuas in Shetland, 

kittiwakes in Fair Isle and fulmars on St Kilda.] 

Further Information 

The author would like to 

thank Maggie Sheddan 

and the Scottish Seabird 

Centre for the Bass Rock 

trip. The Centre - 01620 

890202 - undertakes 

excellent education and 

conservation work and is 

well worth a visit. Thanks 

also to Jess Barrett and 

Laura Bambini at RSPB 

for photographs and 

guidance (any and all 

errors in the articles are 

entirely mine, however). 

Page 8 - Bass Rock - Mo Thomson. 

Left: Gannet Morus bassan sitting on 

Bass Rock by Andy Hay RSPB images. 

Below: Manx shearwater taking 

flight - Chris Gomersall RSPB Images. 


harrowwhiskyfestival.com 

Friday 13 / Saturday 14 January 2017 

Whiskies from Islands and Peninsulas with ferry connections. 

Carry 12 SCOTTISH a current ISLANDS EXPLORER or past edition of Scottish Islands Explorer for a discount. 

See page 24 for further details.

House on the Point - Ullapool 

House on the Point - Ullapool 

Jack Palfrey experienced pleasures in all directions 

This is bed-and-breakfast 

accommodation with several 

distinctive differences. It’s in a house with 

bedrooms with views in three directions. 

e North Room looks along Loch 

Broom to the Summer Isles and can 

command great sunsets. e West faces 

across the loch to the iconic white house 

at Altnaharrie - a residence that seems cut 

off from the rest of the world. 

I was in the South Room and 

thoroughly enjoyed the movements 

on the loch, whether tidal flows, 

passing clouds reflected, boats 

coasting, ships cruising or ferries 

plying. The house is the ultimate one 

of Ullapool Point, indeed a turning 

point, where the quayside road ends. 

One word can be used in its full and 

expressive sense - ‘idyllic’. 

e reality, however, is also attractive 

for within a hundred yards there is a 

fine inn, the ferry terminal, shops, 

restaurants, cafes, banks and tourist 

information. It is all so much part of a 

place that is a hub. To the west is 

Stornoway, served by CalMac’s most 

recent member of its fleet, MV Loch 

Seaforth. e Western Isles are now 

accessed quicker and some turbulence 

is off-set by modern ship technologies. 

e hinterland extends to the north, 

getting less and less populated as 

Assynt and Coigach merge into North 

West Sutherland and on to that 

ultimate point, Cape Wrath. e A835 

crosses open country to the east by 

Loch Glascarnoch, to Strathpeffer, 

Dingwall and Inverness. To the south 

is Wester Ross with Loch Ewe, 

Gairloch and Applecross among many 

places calling out to be visited. 

Not only do the rooms have views, 

they are spacious with stylish decors. 

Travellers’ needs are provided with 

features that make storage easy. 

Breakfasts, served in the rooms, are 

appetising, filling and healthy. I 

particularly liked the way in which the 

table served dining requirements and 

an office function. Wifi is there to 

bring the internet world to the side of 

Loch Broom. 

So here is a place for pleasure as well 

as for business. What matters above all 

is that Angus Bruce and his wife, Jill, 

are there to welcome you, provide 

directions for touring and / or walking 

and, if required, to give coaching and 

advice about photography - for his 

work is acclaimed and has appeared on 

the pages of this magazine. 

Opportunities abound at the Point and 

around Ullapool. 


Small-group expeditions to Arctic Norway, 

the Solovetski Islands of Arctic Russia, 

Greenland and Kamchatka. 

• Arctic and Antarctic voyages by ship 

• Dog sledding, cross country skiing, boating, kayaking, 

hiking and wildlife trips 

• Tailor-made Iceland and the Faroes - flights from Scotland 

• Greenland - East and West coast: 

Wildlife and natural history 

• Wildlife of Russian Far East - by ship 

• Wild Scotland: Oban - Aberdeen 13 - 23 June 2017 

• Aberdeen, Fair Isle, Jan Mayen and Spitsbergen 

22 - 31 May 2017 

• Across the Artic Circle: Aberdeen to Longyearbyen 

23 June - 6 July 2017 

Please call for a full colour brochure 

ARCTURUS 

The polar arm of Far Frontiers Travel Ltd 

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Devon EX20 2PZ 

Tel/Fax (44) 01837840640 

arcturusexpeditions.co.uk 


ISLANDS BEYOND 

Island of and Iceberg off South Orkney. Fotosearch 

Tom Aston looks south towards Laurie Island 

The image of South Orkney, with an iceberg blocking 

some of it, is a reminder of how discovery, mapping, 

settling and disputing took place in a vast, inhospitable 

region within the past two hundred years. It was in 1821 that 

an English- and an American seal-hunter, Captain George 

Powell, and Nathaniel Palmer, discovered what was to 

become Laurie Island, the second largest in the South 

Orkney group. 

Powell’s observations were used by Richard Holmes Laurie 

to map the island and he was not backward in coming 

forward when naming it. James Weddell subsequently 

created another map, using an alternative name, Melville. 

In 1903, the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, led by 

the formidable William Spiers Bruce (1867 - 1921), 

produced a third map with ‘Laurie’, as we would say today, 

as the username. 

Bruce was a Scotsman who aspired to be an acclaimed 

naturalist, polar scientist and oceanographer. In fact, he 

founded the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory in 

Edinburgh. He was keen to set up a transcontinental 

Antarctic march via the South Pole, but was unable to arouse 

sufficient interest or funds. One of his problems was that he 

lacked diplomatic skills and had a habit of creating enemies. 

All-Scottish 

His voyage to the south was in the Scotia a fully-equipped 

research vessel that had been converted from a Norwegian 

whaler, Hekla, which set off from Troon on 2 November 

1902 with an all-Scottish crew and scientific-team. Money 

for the venture came from then long-established textile 

company, Coats, that traces its roots back to Paisley weavers 

in the late 18th Century. 

It was on Laurie that he set up the first permanent weather 

station with the stone-built Omond House. is 

subsequently incorporated the first post office to be built on 

the continent. However, his initiatives were taken too far 

when he offered the meteorological facilities to Argentina 

who accepted, rebuilt it as the Orcades Base and then claimed 

sovereignty of the complete island. 

e dispute would still be on-going today, but the 

Antarctic Treaty has ensured, here with appropriate 

language, that all sovereignty claims are frozen. e achievements 

of William Bruce were quite remarkable, but aer a 

period of ill-health he died comparatively young and 

unrecognised for his work in the development of polar 

regions and knowledge about them. 

Their Original Presence 

In 2014, there were 28 people stationed at Orcades Base, 

probably aware that they were continuing the longest 

continental tradition of compiling information about 

weather. e Argentinian authorities are certain to know 

that their original presence there was thanks to Bruce and 

through his actions were given recognition as a nation with 

Antarctic claims. 

It is interesting to speculate how international histories and 

events can hinge on the endeavours and whims of individuals. 

When this Scotsman was actively setting up advanced 

scientific investigations in the Antarctic, Argentina was on 

its way to becoming the 5th largest economy in the world. A 

prospering nation saw opportunities; as did an explorer with 

entrepreneurial instincts. 


‘A Good Enough Day’ 


Alayne Barton on Rousay, 45 years after George Mackay Brown 

One fine summer’s morning in 1971, the Orkney writer, George Mackay Brown, took 

a boat to Rousay in the company of a few friends. ey spent the day touring the 

island, stopping oen to admire the scenery. On his return he noted, with ‘an Orkney 

understatement’, that they had ’had a good enough day.’ 

45 years later, on a day equally blue and cloudless, but far colder, since it was April, not 

July, my husband, youngest son and I made the same journey across the treacherous 

Eynhallow Sound. First though, we had to reverse the car onto the ferry; a prospect made 

more alarming by the large number of vehicles already in the queue. 

e ferrymen briskly worked their magic however and within minutes the boat, its deck 

a jumbled-jigsaw of cars, bikes, 4 x 4s and livestock trailers, was under way to Rousay which 

lies less than two miles to the north of Mainland Orkney. e name comes from the Old 

Norse Hrólfs-øy, meaning ‘Rolf ’s Island’ but has changed incrementally over the centuries, 

becoming Rousay by 1549. 

Surprisingly Self-sufficient 

At 19 square miles it is the fih largest island in Orkney’s impressive archipelago. 

Nowadays the island has a population of roughly 200 and is surprisingly self-sufficient, 

boasting a primary school, doctor’s surgery, shop, pub/restaurant and even a fitness-centre. 

e ferry service is frequent and cheap, allowing locals to work on the Mainland and 

teenagers to attend school in Kirkwall or Stromness daily. 

We drove off having elected not to travel widdershins, turning le onto the B9064 which 

encircles the island, and headed for the first in the series of magnificent archaeological sites 

which gives Rousay the nickname ‘the Egypt of the North’. Even in an island with more 

than its fair share of wonderfully eccentric names, Taversoe Tuick stands out. 

One of only two two-tier chambered cairns in Orkney, the 4,500-year-old tomb was 

discovered accidentally in 1898 by Lt General Sir Frederick Traill-Burroughs. It appears 

an unremarkable grassy mound from outside. However it is possible to enter the upper 

chamber through a grille door and from there descend by ladder into the lower - claustrophobia 

permitting. 

Notions Dispelled 

Just along the road is another tomb, the Blackhammer Cairn, dating from 3000 BC. 

A stalled-cairn with seven compartments, the tomb is accessed through a trap door in the 

hillside, prompting thoughts of peerie folk and magical fiddles. Once inside however, all 

such fanciful notions were dispelled by the prosaicness of the modern concrete roof. 

At the Knowe of Yarso, a stalled-tomb dating back to 3500 BC, the remains of 29 adults 

were discovered in 1934 with, strangely, those of 36 red deer. From the car park at Westside 

we admired the stunning view across to the mysterious island of Eynhallow, summer home 

to the treacherous Finfolk. It was the subject of speculation, in 1990, when two visitors 

‘vanished’ on a Orkney Heritage Society trip. 


‘Archaeologists believe that the living 

would visit their dead in the tomb.’

Page 16 Top: View from Midhowe 

Broch. 

Below: The two-tiered tomb at 

Tavershoe Tuick. 

Above: St Mary’s Church. 

Opposite Top: View of the ‘Great 

Ship of Death’ - Midhowe 

chambered cairn. 

Below: Ian Hamilton Finlay’s 

Stone. 

Photographs supplied by the 

author, Alayne Barton. 

is is the start of the Westside Heritage 

Trail, described as the ‘most important 

archaeological mile in Scotland’; a figurative 

journey from the Stone Age to the 19th 

Century. Following the path downhill we a 

came first to Midhowe Broch, which is 

superbly preserved, featuring room partitions, 

a fireplace with sockets and even a water tank. 

An Imposing Sight 

Built on a small promontory above the sea 

more than 2000 years ago, the main tower 

stands 13’ high and is surrounded by the 

remains of smaller buildings which were 

probably used as workshops. It must have 

been an imposing sight indeed to early 

seafarers. A few hundred yards away is what 

resembles a huge agricultural shed, seeming 

horribly out of place. 

Inside however is a surprise; an enormous 

chambered tomb, 100’ long, 30’ wide and 

divided into twelve stalls. Above the tomb is 

a metal walkway, so you can look down and 

marvel at its sheer scale and ingenuity. When 

this tomb was opened in the 1930s, nine 

crouching bodies were found on shelves and 

15 on the floor. Archaeologists believe that 

the living would visit their dead in the tomb. 

Leaving ‘e Great Ship of Death’ behind 

we walked past the ruined medieval farm of 

Brough and headed towards the next stop on 

the path, the ruined St Mary’s church, which 

dates to the 17th Century. A stroll around 

the churchyard reveals the melancholy graves 

of James Sinclair and John Reid, who 

drowned when the mailboat foundered in 

Eynhallow Sound in the autumn of 1893. 

Close to the church are the remains of a 

square tower, the only surviving part of a 

grand medieval hall. 

Multi-period 

A stone’s throw away is the medieval 

farmstead of Skaill, which was in use until the 

mid-19th Century. It’s well-preserved with a 

fine example of a traditional Orkney corndrying 

kiln. Below the present buildings a 

Viking farmstead lies hidden. Further on 

there are excavations at the Knowe of 

Swandro, a huge multi-period site dating from 

the Early Iron Age to the Viking era, now in 

danger from the encroaching sea. 



e archaeological team hopes it will shed light on how 

people survived here over the centuries, adapting to environmental 

and climate changes. Westness Farm marks the end 

of the trail, and we climbed back up to the car, dazed and 

delighted by our millennial mile. 

To the west, Querndale has a series of Bronze Age burnt 

mounds, which, according to experts, were used for heating 

stones in order to produce hot water. Local lore however, tells 

tales of the ‘trowies’ who bide within. e area was the worst 

affected by the Orkney clearances, carried out in 1845-59 by 

landowner, George Traill. e haunting remains of cros and 

farmsteads are visible across the lonely landscape. 

High above the Bay of Saviskaill is a large, rectangular slab 

of white rock, engraved with the words ‘Gods of the Earth / 

Gods of the Sea’. is is the work of Rousay ex-resident, Ian 

Hamilton Finlay, writer, artist and gardener. We savoured for 

a moment the glorious views over to Westray, then followed 

the road which clings precipitously to the hillside, skirting 

the edge of Kierfea Hill. 

At the Heritage Centre, we learnt that 5000 years ago the 

climate and supplies were Mediterranean and so plentiful that 

people had to work just half the week. e MV Eynhallow 

rattled onto the slipway and we embarked. Soon the green 

hills of Rousay shrank in the distance, but not in our 

memories and, like George Mackay Brown in 1971, we had 

had ‘a good enough day.’ 

He Comes to Life 

Turning le to Faraclett, we found the petrified giant, 

Yetnasteen. Legend has it that each Hogmanay, on the stroke 

of midnight, he comes to life, walks down to the Loch of 

Scockness, and takes a long refreshing drink, before resuming 

his eternal watch. We looked at the Victorian, B-listed 

Trumland House, famous for its magnificent gardens.

New Marine Protected Area in Wester Ross 

New Marine Protected Area 

in Wester Ross 

Lizzie Williams celebrates initiatives, but is cautious about implementation 

The kayak offers a perfect vantage point to view the 

water. As I glide off from the shore, all seems shades 

of brown: kelp, wrack and mud. Yet it is still above the 

perpetually yet unhurriedly moving water, and there’s a 

pearlescent periwinkle in the arms of a kelp forest, a bundle 

of sea hares in a hermaphroditic embrace, an iridescent comb 

jelly going nowhere. 

Our destination on this midsummer evening is the one 

Summer Isle I have never visited: Càrn nan Sgeir, about 4.5 

miles from the shore below our home in Achiltibuie and 

about a third of a square mile in area, rising to only 92’ above 

sea level. It looks so vulnerable out there, exposed to the wild 

south west, that I sometimes wonder why it hasn’t been 

washed away. 

As we paddle out from Acheninver we pass Horse Island - a 

regular otter spot. Today, instead of that splashy delight, 

there’s a coarse screech above me and I look up to a single 

Arctic tern - its nubile white body with sleek black cap and 

looping, nonchalant wing-beat. en come pairs, and as we 

near Càrn nan Sgeir the sky is a-frantic-chatter with them, 

hovering, swooping, plucking prey from just beneath the 

water’s surface. 

Quietly Circumnavigate 

I have been wondering for years if terns are breeding in the 

Summer Isles - and here they are, dozens of pairs on the 

shingle isthmus between the Island’s two rocky bulbs. Like 

the Manx shearwater and Storm petrel which breed on 

neighbouring islands, Arctic terns have an ‘amber’ 

(‘unfavourable’) conservation status and are easily disturbed, 

so we decide not to land and instead quietly circumnavigate 

the tiny island. 

Pink Torridonian sandstone cliffs are topped with clouds of 

bird’s-foot-trefoil. en there is a cautious encounter with a 

common seal and a pair of porpoise passing shyly by - 

heavenly! And there’s good news, the seabed beneath us is 

safe at last from the worst ravages of modern fishing. 

e ‘Wester Ross Marine Protected Area’ (WRMPA) - 

encompassing the waters around the Summer Isles stretching 

south to Loch Ewe - was declared in July 2014, but only in 

March 2016 did the Scottish Government agree that 

‘Protection’ should mean significant restrictions on destructive 

bottom-towed fishing gear. 

Destroying Habitat 

‘Bottom-towed fishing gear’ here includes trawling for 

beautiful big pink prawns (‘langoustine’) and dredging for 

scallops. A dredger is a heavy rake towed along the sea bed 

pulling up scallops, ploughing up habitat in its wake. It 

produces cheap scallops, but at what wider environmental 

cost? It is, arguably, a preposterous way to take food from the 

sea and it provides no local jobs. 

Establishing Marine Protected Areas in Scotland has been 

a long process. A decade of campaigning by environmental 

groups led to the 2010 Marine (Scotland) Act, requiring 

Scottish Ministers to, among other things, designate a 

network of Nature Conservation MPAs providing protection 

for important marine habitats, wildlife and geology, while 

permitting ‘sustainable economic activity’. 

e basic premise of an MPA is that, if a patch of sea is given 

a rest from destructive fishing, it will start to recover and this 

rebounding life will spill over into the surrounding seas. As 

well as being crucial for nature’s sake, it is of course socioeconomically 

important - for instance, enabling sustainable 

jobs in wildlife tourism and low-impact fishing such as static 

gear (prawn creels), hand diving, and angling. 


‘As well as being crucial for nature’s sake, it 

is of course socio-economically important ...’


The Glacial Past 

e WRMPA was designed specifically for the conservation 

and recovery of certain ‘Protected Features’ - species providing 

valuable habitats. Maerl (a slow-growing coralline red algae 

whose delicate skeleton locks up carbon and provides a nursery 

bed for many species including scallops); burrowed mud 

(habitat for economically valuable langoustine); kelp forests; 

flame shell beds and Northern feather star aggregations; 

together with ‘geodiversity’ features from the glacial past. 

Once a line has been drawn and agreed on a map, you might 

expect the seas within a Marine Protected Area to be ‘Protected’ 

but - fascinatingly and infuriatingly - the original ‘Management 

Approach’ for the WRMPA prohibited dredgers and trawlers 

only from tiny patches surrounding these ‘Protected Features’. 

It is ‘Business as Usual’ permitted all around, an approach which 

seemed absurd. How could such restrictions be enforced or 

policed? ere are no fences on the sea. 

Furthermore, with such miniscule specifications, how could 

the wider seas recover? And crucially, how could we be sure 

that there are no more of these ‘Protected Features’ elsewhere 

in the area? ere has never been a comprehensive survey of 

the seabed. e plans were based on information cobbled 

together from various surveys conducted since the 1980s. To 

assume the rest of the area is safe to trawl and dredge is to 

defy the ‘Precautionary Principle’ - one of the key elements 

for policy decisions concerning environmental protection 

and management. 

Signed by Hundreds 

Fortunately for the sea, there are people with the dedication 

and know-how to challenge the traditionally powerful 

lobbies. Environmental NGOs continued to work together 

(the Scottish Environment LINK’s Marine taskforce), and 

launched a national campaign to ensure proper Protection - 

‘#DontTakeeP’. A local group was formed called ‘Sea 

Change’ and submitted a petition ‘For the Protection of the 

Sea Bed’, signed by hundreds of local people in the communities 

around the proposed MPA. 

is was a powerful message to take to MSPs and the then 

the chair of the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and 

Environment Committee, Rob Gibson, agreed with the logic 

of our argument. Eventually, aer a second round of consultation 

and devoted lobbying, the then environment secretary 

Richard Lochhead declared that the whole area should be free 

from dredgers, with trawlers restricted to certain less-sensitive 

areas. Creel fishing for prawns and hand-diving for scallops 

(employing more fishermen in this area) continue as before. 

Jubilation! Here was a triumph of sound science, common 

sense and long-term vision. However, now the MPA needs 

to be managed. Given that the State instigated the process, 

one might imagine that the State has a practical, affordable 

plan to ensure MPAs work. But in this era of financial 

constraint, there is no budget for such luxuries as a baseline 

survey, or management of the remaining fishing effort. 



The Sea’s Recovery 

Coinciding with financial constraint is an 

era of ‘Community Empowerment’ and so 

it’s now down to ‘The Community’ to make 

this work. Again, luckily, there are 

dedicated, determined people such as the 

‘Sea Change’ group now working on a plan 

to monitor the seabed (in collaboration 

with experts from Glasgow University) and 

promote economic regeneration. This will 

involve many local people, including the 

static gear fishermen who will benefit most 

directly from the sea’s recovery. 

Meanwhile, the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s 

Living Seas programme is getting people 

beside, on and into the water, exploring 

shore-life, boarding the Hebridean Whale 

and Dolphin Trust’s research boat and even 

squeezing into neoprene for the newlylaunched 

North West Highlands Snorkel 

Trail. This is all helping the people on the 

fringe of the MPA to get to know more of 

our awesome nature, to respect it, and 

maybe even to love it. We take care of what 

we love. 

As I sit in my kayak swamped by this 

paradisiacal scenery, there’s a rumble in my 

sternum. At least I know it’s not the 

resonance of a dredger’s engine ... but it is 

the dispiriting knowledge that a multinational 

fish farm company has applied to site 

a huge new salmon farm in this wild place. 

The MPA status may not have any influence 

if the Environmental Impact Assessment 

shows that the farm will not directly impact 

on the five specified ‘Protected Features’. 

Unique Environment 

It’s difficult for such a farm would provide jobs 

in this economically struggling area. Yet this 

industry has multiple environmental impacts - 

from local pollution to the global issues of 

fishmeal sourcing. e Scottish Government 

has pledged to double aquaculture by 2030. Is 

this more industry-pleasing policy at the 

expense of our unique environment and the 

truly sustainable jobs it could provide? 

e Summer Isles are not alone in this 

conundrum; others in Skye and Arran are 

facing similar challenges. Fortunately, these 

island-based groups do not have a complete 

island-mentality for we recognise that by 

working together our voice can be heard 

above the waves. 

Page 21 Top: Underwater 

perspective (Lizzie Williams). 

Below: Dolphin calf (Noel 

Hawkins). 

Left: Paddling home 

(Lizzie Williams). 

Below: Comb jelly (Noel Hawkins). 


Page 

READERS’ 

Index Header 

OPPORTUNITIES 

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The advertisement on Page 12 shows 

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being held there - with the Friday Night 

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of £99) and the tasting sessions on 

Friday night and Saturday for £17.50 

(reduced from £19.50). The Editor will 

be there to meet and greet. 

Whisky was, and remains, a form of 

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never easy. Pickle Pie Gifts 

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READERS’ OPPORTUNITIES 

Page Index Header 

Ben Buxton has been drawn to 

Mingulay many times and now 

his 22-year-old book has been 

published in a new edition. 

Hunting basking sharks ... the 

only case of forced-labour 

known in Scotland ... fisticuffs 

between lighthouse keepers ... a 

Norse settlement ... these are just 

some remarkable recent discoveries. 

They are in the history of Mingulay 

and its two neighbours, Berneray and 

Pabbay, south of Barra at the southern 

end of the Outer Hebrides. The 

findings are detailed in the new edition 

of Mingulay an Island and its People 

by Ben Buxton. 

Mingulay was originally published by 

Birlinn in 1995. It was the first book on 

the island and was winner of the 

Michaelis-Jena Ratcliffe Prize for 

Folklife in 1997. Over the past 20 

years, archaeological fieldwork and 

research in newly-available documentary 

sources have transformed our 

knowledge of the histories of 

Mingulay and its neighbours. 

All three islands were inhabited from 

prehistoric times until the early years 

of the last century, when isolation in 

stormy seas drove the islanders to 

seek better lives by settling, illegally at 

first, on the less remote island of 

Vatersay. Documentary sources have 

revealed that the islanders were the 

victims of the only known case of 

forced-labour in Scotland. 

In the 1830s MacNeil of Barra, the 

clan chief, evicted the people and 

replaced them with more profitable 

sheep. This was common enough 

during the notorious Clearances, but 

MacNeil went a stage further and set 

some of the people to work in a 

factory he had built on Barra. The 

factory processed kelp - seaweed - 

but the venture bankrupted him, and 

the people returned to their islands. 

Archaeological surveys have shown 

that during the Iron Age, around 2,000 

years ago, Mingulay had several 

domestic dwellings, but no defensive 

building, unlike the other two islands 

which each had a defensive dun. 

Mingulay had a Norse settlement, 

Suinsibost, one of only two known 

Norse settlement names in the 

Barra Isles, also known as the 

Bishop’s Isles. 

The surveys also show that peat was 

dug on an almost industrial scale in 

the 19th Century - as indicated by the 

300-odd stone platforms for stacks of 

cut peat. It was at around this era 

when the population reached its alltime 

high of 160 permanent residents. 

In 2000, the National Trust for 

Scotland bought the islands in 

recognition of their outstanding 

cultural and natural heritage as well as 

coastal cliff scenery. A brief account of 

this period brings the story up-to-date. 

The new edition also has an extended 

plate section, including some 

photographs from 1909. 


Mingulay an Island and its People is 

published by Birlinn at 

£12.99 and three readers will receive 

free copies of the book. In 

50 or fewer words tell the Editor at; 


what draws / has drawn you to 

Mingulay. Closing date 31 January 2017. 


Wilderness 

Stewart Dawber - keen to develop his sense of wilderness 

Isle of Canna from Skye at sunset. 

The first time the Isle of Skye caught my 

eye was from a Kyle of Lochalsh hotel 

window after a long journey from my Devon 

home. After researching where to find the wild 

and elusive Lutra lutra, the Eurasian otter, I 

had come to photograph it for my university 

wildlife photography degree course. 

It was obviously the place for a professional 

wildlife photographer and so my 

wife and I moved up. We are now in our 

seventh year of magical seasons surrounded 

by my subject-matter. Photography here is, 

essentially, about creating new angles with 

neither impact nor disturbance. 

We are fortunate to have many red deer on 

the high land, whooper swans, golden and 

sea eagles in the sky, otters on the shore, 

dolphins and trout in the water - in fact, nature 

all around. These are the all-year foundations 

of my business Skye High Wildlife. 

I now run bespoke trips for up to four 

people, give personal tuition in photography 

and use my field-skills to help clients 

achieve the picture they may have sought 

for years. This year I have teamed up with 

the only ‘keepered-estate on Skye -Fearann 

Eilean Iarmain - giving access to the hills 

with an all-terrain vehicle. 

We explore and seek out wildlife in 

unobtrusive and natural ways, then return 

to a private bothy in the glen to enjoy a 

dram of whisky while experiencing the heat 

of a wood-burner. If you want to learn more, 

then please access skyehighwildlife.com 

phone 01471 855643 / 07809 580253 or 

email stewdawber@hotmail.com 

White-tailed eagle. 


Golden eagle in flight during winter. 

Common dolphins . 

Red deer stag. 

Otter. 


The Atlantic Grey Seal 

The Atlantic 

Grey Seal 

The Atlantic grey seal is the largest carnivore in 

the British Isles and one of the world’s rarer 

seal species with total numbers fewer than 400,000. 

They only inhabit the north Atlantic, the Baltic Sea 

and the Barents Sea, but almost 40% of the world 

population - which translates into 95% of the 

European total - lives and breeds around the islands 

and coastlines of Scotland. 

eir scientific name, Halichoerus grypus, is derived 

from Greek and means ‘sea-pig with a hooked nose’. 

Anyone close to a beautifully mottled male might 

disagree with the reference to pigs, but will probably 

have spotted the proboscis-like snout. e old 

Shetland name is ‘haaf fish’, since these were the seals 

seen at the deep ‘haaf ’ fishing grounds though in the 

Northern Isles, seals are oen referred to as ‘selkies’. 

Other names include ‘ron mor’ in Gaelic and the 

more prosaic ‘horsehead’ in Canada. An old 

Scottish legend says they are the daughters, cast 

forever under a spell, of the king of Lochlinn from 

distant Scandinavia. Their attractive eyes supposedly 

originated from royal blood and they were 

known for the sad songs they sang on the far 

beaches of the Hebrides. 

Thought to Speak Gaelic 

e haunting melodies were so beautiful, it is said 

they could prompt humans to leave their land-locked 

life by diving to join the bobbing offshore colonies. 

Tales on Mull described how seals were from remnants 

of the Pharaoh’s army, overwhelmed when the Red 

Sea, parted for the Israelites, fell back upon their 

pursuers. ey became seals and, though highly 

unlikely were thought to speak Gaelic. 

Grey seals were known to love music and it was said 

they would listen to the sound of the bagpipes as it 

Roger Butler is inquisitive about them 

dried over the islands. One Hebridean story 

indicates the seals would always sing once the salmon 

had drunk three mouthfuls of spring water, deemed to 

be a sure sign that summer was on the way. And the 

seasons play a key role in the life of the grey seal. 

Most of their time is spent at sea, but they come 

ashore to breed in the autumn as well as for the annual 

moult in late winter. In July and early August the seals 

are fat and well fed and the mature bulls start to make 

their way towards long-established breeding grounds 

to create territories which are defended against any 

later entrants. 

Define a Territory 

e bulls generally arrive before the cows, which 

come to give birth - usually in less than 30 seconds! 

Cows can bear their first pup at five years of age and 

can continue to give birth up to the age of 35. Bulls 

are mature by the age of six, though it is oen another 

four years before they are bold enough to define a 

territory and they seem to have a shorter life span than 

cows. 

Grey seals use two different types of breeding islands 

in the Hebrides. In the Inner Isles sites are characterised 

by seaweed-covered erosion platforms, exposed 

as the tide falls, and small beaches which can be as 

much as a quarter of a mile from the open sea. 

Channels allow the cows to move to and from the 

water while the bulls remain on nearby rocks. 

In the Outer Hebrides, subject to the incessant 

pounding of the Atlantic, only east-facing beaches are 

used for breeding. Alternatively, grassland on top of a 

low island will be used, with access via gullies or 

shelves of rock. On remote North Rona, where gales 

could easily sweep away a new born pup, births take 

place on grassy patches as much as 250’ above sea level. 



‘Grey seals were known to love music 

and it was said they would listen to 

the sound of the bagpipes as it dried 

over the islands.’ 



Aerial Photography 

In the more sheltered waters around Orkney many pups are 

found on the shores, though sheer numbers mean that some 

spend their first few weeks on the highest grass. More than 

40,000 pups are born in Scotland every year and their 

numbers at the main breeding sites - called rookeries - are 

now surveyed using aerial photography. 

Two colonies in Shetland each produce more than 1,000 

pups per year and, in summer, Sumburgh Head is always a 

good place to see large numbers at the base of the cliffs. 

Opportunists also gather around the fish processing factories 

at Lerwick. e seals are also found along the east coast as far 

south as the Firth of Forth and the Isle of May. 

Hebridean colonies which yield more than 1,000 pups each 

year include those on Oronsay, north Islay, Iona, the 

Treshnish Isles and South Uist. e sandy beaches of the lowlying 

Monach Isles, once inhabited by 100 people then 

abandoned in the 1940s, host the largest colony in Europe 

and in autumn grey seal numbers can total 35,000. 

Suitable Camouflage 

is means fights between bulls can be vicious but, when 

the fuss has died down, around 9,000 new pups are born here 

each year. ese have a white coat at birth and it is thought 

this is an evolutionary throw-back to the time when births 

took place on ice and suitable camouflage would have been 

essential. 

Growth is rapid and the pups, fed by fatty milk, can gain 

up to 3lbs per day while developing strong biting teeth within 

two weeks. e cows suckle their pups for up to three weeks 

before leaving them in order to mate with the bulls - 

pregnancy then lasts for a full eleven and a half months. 

is leaves the pups vulnerable to skuas, gulls and other 

predators and because their fur is not yet waterproof the 

young seals are unable to swim until it is shed. ey then 

depart in search of food, but the bulls will stay put for up two 

months before returning to the sea to feed during the last few 

weeks of the year. e usual diet consists of fish, crabs, squid 

and even sea birds. 

Roman Nose 

Grey seals vary in colour from dark brown to grey or 

black, with blotches, and females tend to be paler than 

males, which can weigh up to 650lbs and grow to well over 

six feet long. They have bulky shoulders, heavily creased 

necks and a distinctive Roman nose. Females are somewhat 

smaller and weigh up to 340lbs. 

They dive for short periods in shallow waters, usually for 

no more than ten minutes occasionally to 30. Fishing trips 

to deeper water can last for five days and may cover 


distances of over 200 miles. Man has long 

hunted the grey seal for meat, blubber and 

skin and, until paraffin became a source of 

light and fuel, the oil was used in isolated 

island communities. The Grey Seal 

Protection Act of 1914 was the first 

legislation to fully safeguard a mammal in 

the UK. 

Entanglement with fishing equipment 

remains one of their biggest threats, while 

the impact of offshore windfarms may be 

another cause for concern. The debate 

about their impact on fish farms continues, 

although stronger net design has reduced 

problems. It seems St Columba had a soft 

spot for them and his monks on Iona 

claimed ownership of those which calved 

on nearby islands and skerries. 

It is possible to observe seals from cliffs 

and headlands, boats and kayaks and, of 

course, through binoculars. Care is required 

to avoid agitation or the risk of separation 

between mother and pup, particularly 

during the breeding season. Seals are more 

welcoming when in the water, but any 

approach by boat should be made slowly to 

assess their response. Usually they, too, can 

be quite inquisitive! 

The Common Seal 

Pages 28-29: Grey seal pup - one of 

40,000 born in Scotland each year. 

Opposite: A buoy in the Firth of 

Forth, west of the Isle of Inchcolm, 

makes an unusual hauling out point 

for four grey seals. 

Above: Grey seals basking on a 

sandbank. The large wedge-shaped 

head is always a key identification 

feature. By Hugh Venables - 

Creative Commons Licence © 

Left: Common seal pup - note the 

more rounded head and the snout 

which is often described as 

resembling a labrador. 

The smaller common seal is also seen in Scotland. These are 

sometimes called harbour seals and prefer more sheltered stretches 

of coastline. High densities are located on the east coasts of Islay 

and Jura, the Ross of Mull, Coll, Tiree and parts of Skye. Further 

north, large clusters occur around both Orkney and Shetland. Current 

estimates put common seal numbers in Scotland at around 23,500, 

which is almost 90% of the total population in the British Isles. The 

common seal has a more rounded head and remains largely silent 

when ashore - in contrast to the haunting ‘song’ of the grey seal. 


‘Clear signs of domestication 

occurred in the Iron Age.’

A History of Lismore 


Gordon Eaglesham learnt more 

There are few Scottish islands which boast a 

heritage as rich as that of Lismore. It is truly 

steeped in history, with remnants of a 13th Century 

cathedral church, an Iron Age broch, Bronze Age 

cairns and a Stevenson lighthouse, to name a few. 

But when did Lismore’s story begin? 

Geologically speaking, that would be 470 million 

years ago, when ancient limestone was thrust up into 

the middle of what is now known as the Great Glen 

Fault. ese rocks were formed when life on Earth 

was primeval. Its unique geology shaped the 

landscape, still utilised by its residents. 

Unlike much of Argyll, the Inner Hebrides and the 

Western Highlands, the soil on Lismore is very 

fertile owing to its limestone-based composition. 

is nutrient-rich ground is a precious resource for 

farming. Its Gaelic name, Lios Mòr, translates as ‘e 

Great Garden’ for good reason. e soil’s inherent 

value had far-reaching implications on conflicting 

ownership claims. 

First Farming 

The first settlers are understood to be of 

Neolithic origin, with the earliest archaeological 

evidence being a polished stone axe-head from 

3500BC – discovered at Balnagowan in 1974. 

Evidence of the first farming activity from this 

period was found in peat core samples taken at 

Balnagowan and Fiart lochs. 

ese showed a sharp decrease in tree pollen and a 

substantial increase in grasses and cereal crops. 

During this time, much deforestation took place, 

transforming the landscape into what we see today. 

e fact this happened is by no means unusual, but 

the speed in which it evolved was extraordinary. 

e most notable traces of subsequent Bronze Age 

habitation come in the form of 14 burial cairns. All 

but one are to be found in the south-west of the 

island, with the exception of Cnoc Aingeal (Fire 

Hill), which lies around three miles from the 

northern end and is thought to be one of the largest 

in Argyll. 

Unearthed 

Other Bronze Age relics include two intact cists - 

burial chambers constructed of stone slabs - high up 

on Barr Môr and Aon Garbh and a bronze-socketed 

axe from the former. Little else from this age has 

survived, or yet been unearthed, which is surprising 

given the length of the period. 

Clear signs of domestication occurred in the Iron 

Age. en striking features appeared such as the 

broch at Tirfuir, denoting a Pictish presence on 

Lismore. It also happens to be one of the best 

preserved examples of a Pictish broch in the country. 

e most impressive Bronze Age find by far is a 

bronze armlet discovered serendipitously during a 

house renovation. Having been dated to around the 

1st Century AD, its rarity earned it permanent 

residence at the National Museum of Scotland, in 

Edinburgh. A replica can be viewed in the island’s 

Heritage Centre. 



Monastic Centre 

The ruins of Lismore’s six duns - fortified stone 

farmhouses - are further evidence of Iron Age Settlement. 

Lismore would soon enter arguably its most significant and 

transformative epoch between 350 and 850 as the early 

Christian era permeated along the west coast through the 

teachings of saints, including Moluag who established a 

monastic centre on the island. 

ose 500 years would also see Lismore’s inclusion into 

Dalriada, their language and culture shiing from the Proto- 

Celtic to Gaelic and a first involvement in international trade 

as well as sporadic conflicts among competing kingdoms. 

is led to the unification of the Scots and the Picts with the 

subsequent tumult arising from Viking raids. 

According to contemporary accounts, they immediately le 

their mark in the most devastating manner, by barricading 

monks in the chapel and setting it alight. Norse artefacts 

uncovered include a pin and boat rivets at Tirfuir – 

indicating they probably took over the broch. A piece of gold 

jewellery was discovered at Kilcheran. 

Two Imposing Castles 

Landmarks of medieval origin include the ruins of Coeffin 

Castle and Achinduin Castle, both built in the 13th Century. 

is coincided with Lismore becoming the Seat of the 

Bishopric of Argyll. But why the need for two imposing 

castles in close proximity to each other? One theory suggests 

they were needed to protect the only lime source on the 

western seaboard. 

is period also saw construction of the cathedral on 

Lismore, thought to be completed around 1350, but little 

documentation exists to verify this. e present-day parish 

church sits within the walls of the cathedral choir, yet traces 

of the original building are scarce. e modest legacy of the 

cathedral can be seen on at least 15 late-medieval, unique 

carved gravestones. 

e timeline around 1750 was in an age of upheaval. e 

decades following Culloden saw an incessant feud between 

the small tenants and the Campbell landowners, who now 

viewed the land as a commercial commodity. ey wanted a 

fast financial return made impossible when growing cereal 

crops in Lismore’s wet climate. A more polarised society was 

evident. 

Lime-burning 

Around this time, farming was not the only industry to see a 

marked intensification. Until 1800, lime-burning had been a 

cottage industry, but its value soon caught the attention of the 

estate owners who would go on to rent out numerous kilns at 

five sites on the island, with Sailean Quarry being the largest. 

is in turn caused a considerable increase in the population 

of the island from 500-600 to over 1750. An emerging flax 

trade was also a contributory factor. e first significant lime 

kilns were constructed to support the local economy and a 



Roman Catholic Highland Seminary based at 

Kilcheran between 1801 and 1829. 

Other temporary sources of income for the 

islanders from the late 18th to the early 19th 

Century came from the herring trade and the 

illicit production of whisky. e latter is 

thought to have saved many residents from 

absolute poverty. Despite this productivity, the 

ensuing land clearances would decimate the 

island’s population. 

Arable to Livestock 

This was when the farming sector was 

already struggling to recover from recession 

following the Napoleonic Wars. Those who 

remained endured much ill-health and 

hardship as the farming model shifted from 

arable to livestock, and this would have a 

profound effect on the island’s economy 

and landscape. 

Even with this adaptability, the complexities 

of land ownership and occupation 

contributed to further agricultural declines, 

compounded by a collapse of markets for 

native food in the 1920s and ‘30s plus a lack 

of investment and infrastructure. However, 

farmers on Lismore were to then enter a 

period of greater stability during the Second 

World War. 

Suddenly home-grown produce was a 

precious resource that required more investment. 

Later in the final quarter of the century, 

the population would once again rise - to 

around 180. e arrival of mains electricity in 

1970 played a pivotal role in this and caused 

a chain-reaction of improvements across the 

island to improve living conditions. 

EU membership boosted income through 

subsidies, and gradually, more interest was 

generated in turning cros into family 

homes. Lismore now finds itself entering a 

time of regeneration, embracing the latest 

technologies, yet staying true to its fertile 

agricultural roots. 

Page 32 Top: Abandoned village. 

Below: Island geology. 

Left: Castle Coeffin. 

Below: Loch Fiart. 

Bottom: Sailean limestone quarry. 

Photographs taken by the author, 

Gordon Eaglesham. 


A Gallery of Rust 


Seth Cook takes delight in the decayed 

Visitors to the islands gaze at stone ruins, but rarely give metal remains a glance. 

However, for some of us, what might otherwise seem to be only a road to Mud End 

has great promise. It may lead to a heap of agricultural machinery, something between a 

scrapyard and a museum, a gallery of rust. Even if not, there may be something in the bracken 

forest at the edge of a field, something visible only when the colour of the foliage is not also 

the colour of rust. 

Scattered across the islands are oat-grinders, turnip-slicers, corn-drills, grass-seeders, thistlereapers, 

rollers, disc-harrows, hay-rakes, retired tractors, trailers, balers and all the remnants 

of once enthusiastically-embraced progress in agriculture. en there are the unknowns, 

either so rusty or fragmentary or unfamiliar that they are enough to puzzle even experts. ‘I 

like photographing old machinery’ - may seem an eyebrow-raising response to the puzzled 

croer who wonders why you are peering into his field. Yet it is true. 

Anyone talking about potato-spinners is obviously harmless. It may be my favourite with 

its distinctive spidery rear - for identifying the front from the back of some machines is not 

so easy. Small, square, squat, clearly born in the horse days, the old film-clips show them to 

be rather delicate seeming in the way they nudge potatoes from earthed-up rows. Arms spin, 

spuds and clay are lied aside and all trail behind to pick out the crop. Generations of school 

kids followed a spinner in autumn. 

The Rise and Fall 

e great spin started in the mid-19th Century and developed when well enough designed 

not to turn potatoes into mash without the intermediate step of cooking. It was a good run 

that took in the shi from horse to tractor and only ended when the spinners were 

themselves pushed aside by machines that dig and collect. eir presence in numbers tells 

us how welcome they once were. ough picking up is backbreaking, it is better than 

forking. Forget the rise and fall of clans; remember the rise and fall of the spud-spinner. 

‘Dedicated spotters ask questions about 

what may be very rusty, in parts, and, like 

some fossils, far from complete.’ 



Dedicated spotters ask questions about what may be very 

rusty, in parts, and, like some fossils, far from complete. It 

may be puzzling even when complete, although you may have 

a good chance of spotting a hay rake. On a trip to Inch 

Kenneth, while others looked at the grave of the lyricist of 

Over the Sea to Skye, a chapel containing memorials of chiefs 

or the modern house once owned by the Mitford family, 

I was more interested in a hay-rake pushed against a wall. 

Similar to portable bike-racks, with wheels at the sides and 

what look like smaller half-wheels in between, they gathered 

hay, spread it for drying then le it in small lines or pre-baled 

shapes. Hay-rakes look rickety, unlike the frequently far more 

puzzling balers that can have a military quality, like lost 

battleships in a sea of bracken. Oen only the shooting end 

sticks out. Ask people to identify what they are looking at 

and they may ask about military hardware, when, actually, 

only bales were fired. 

Hard to Read 

Sometimes plates have fallen off. Sometimes the name is hard 

to read. Sometimes there are only serial numbers. e pleasure 

is in finding names, which can feel like passing a test. If you are 

lucky there will be clear view of a name, such as Sheriff and Co 

on a grass-seeder; Wallace and Sons on a thistle-reaper. One of 

my favourites is an oat-grinder sprouting flowers that resides 



next to a redundant satellite-dish. People 

comment on it. One day they may comment 

on the ugly dish. Still clearly visible is E H 

Bentall e Mill. 

Why here? This is a question about why 

the machine was originally brought to the 

farm, another is why its kind declined in 

use and so could be expected to sink into 

the ground somewhere. Hay-rakes lost to 

devices that pick up as well as bale, spinners 

lost to that which digs and gathers. 

Another question focuses on the exact 

spot. General themes of history become 

specific. Not farmers, but specific farmers. 

Not disc harrows, but this disc harrow. 

Sometimes machines outlast sheds. Roofs 

blow away, outbuildings fill up and new 

machinery needs to be kept dry. So old 

machines are dragged outside, one by one, 

and left like lonely exiteers from the Ark. 

There is no point dragging them further 

away for where would the ‘further’ be? 

Possibly that rocky spot on part of the 

farm that was sterile for cultivation? There 

they are. Sometimes, more poignantly, 

they were left overnight on a spot by a 

farmer who died. They mark an 

interrupted job. 

An Abandoned Clachan 

Sometimes they find their way into cottage 

ruins. ere may be no roof, but if you stow 

the machine inside, the farm looks tidier. 

I once looked into a house in an abandoned 

clachan that has a spectacular view of Ben 

More. I saw the upturned undercarriage of a 

vehicle inside, taking up much of the space. 

e doors were small, so the move would have 

involved heavy liing machinery. Maybe the 

question, “You did take that old thing away 

didn’t you, to smarten things up?” was 

returned with an otherwise expressionless nod. 

Fortunately tidiness is not an overriding 

concern, so we have the pleasure of seeing the 

once horse-drawn at the roadside le behind 

by history, though in a picturesque spot. 

By the area where boats from Inch Kenneth 

landed on Mull, there is my favourite hay 

rake, which I suspect was once landed on the 

island and parked by the road in order to be 

picked up later. It is still waiting. 

One day someone will find a machine with 

no make, no serial number, no obvious 

function, no adjacent field, no farm - only a 

barely visible ‘...and sons’ on an arm 

sticking out. And we will gather around 

it like some old stone circle. 

The photographs were taken by the 

author, Seth Cook.

Apostle of Land Reform 


Andrew Wiseman assesses John Murdoch of Islay 

Like many an exile from the island of his 

upbringing, John Murdoch only periodically 

returned to Islay. Of those many men and women 

who appear in the annals of the Highlands and 

Islands, Murdoch deserves to be counted as one of 

the most revered and respected. 

Born in the farmhouse of Lynemore in the 

Nairnshire parish of Ardclach, on 15 January 1818, 

he was the second child and eldest son of the 

family of nine children to John Murdoch and Mary 

MacPherson. Three years later, the family moved 

to Atholl, Perthshire, and then on to Islay in 1827, 

where they settled. Having spent his formative 

years there, John Murdoch considered the island 

to be his home. 

Recollecting the journey between Perthshire and 

Islay, Murdoch notes: ‘And well do I remember the 

voyage on a small sloop to Port Askaig on the Sound 

of Islay. e steamer Maid of Islay was off the station; 

and, there being no wind, we were at the mercy of 

tides for I do not know how long. It was summer 

when we reached the ‘Queen of the Hebrides’ … No 

doubt the island was elevated to the status of ‘Queen’ 

on account of its superior fertility - not on account 

of its beauty.’ 

Beyond the Island 

In order to get on, as with so many other places, ‘it 

was accepted as a matter of course,’ as Murdoch 

himself was later to admit, ‘that any lad of intelligence 

and proper ambition should look beyond the 

island for his sphere.’ In 1838, at the age of 20, 

Murdoch moved to the mainland and, somewhat 

reluctantly, became a Civil Servant in the Excise 

Department of the Inland Revenue, a career where 

he served for 35 years. 

Posted to Armagh in 1839 and subsequently to 

Lancashire, Murdoch witnessed at first hand the 

plight of those Catholics in Ireland who, with their 

demand for Home Rule against the British, were 

forced into poverty and famine. In Lancashire he 

came under the pervasive influence of Chartism with 

its range of political, social and economic demands 

for parliamentary reform. 

Such injustice and suppression clearly pricked 

Murdoch’s conscience and so he took his campaign 

for social justice into newsprint and through the 

writing of pamphlets. Murdoch had a personal 

knowledge of tyranny for, in 1845, his father was 

tragically killed in a shooting accident. To make 

matters worse, a factor then took advantage of the 

situation in order to evict his grieving mother and 

her children from Claggan Farm. 

Like-minded 

Far from being embittered by these turn of events, 

it would seem that Murdoch became even more 

radicalised than before. A short time aerwards he 

returned to ‘a Ride’ in Islay, and was soon involved 

with a group of like-minded fellow-radicals in 

discussing such issues as science, history, poetry, 

theology and politics. 

Before long, however, he was destined for service 

in Kintyre, Dublin, Shetland and Inverness. While 

engaged in Dublin as an Excise Officer in 1856, he 

was active in an agitation for improvements in the 

pay and conditions of his fellow-officers. Such 

experiences were bound to inform his political 

philosophy. Murdoch observed the range of landlord 

oppressions and social, economic and agricultural 

crises along with the Clearances there. 

In Dublin, too, he contributed articles to such 

newspapers as e Nation on a wide variety of 

agricultural topics. ere he met and married Eliza 

Jane Tickell, 14 years his junior, with whom he had 

six offspring. He was a practical land improver as well 

as a political agitator and knew well the effect of 

putting pen to paper as a powerful propaganda tool. 



The Crofters’ Cause 

Retiring from his career in 1872, Murdoch 

moved to Inverness where the following year 

he founded e Highlander. It was a 

monthly publication and continued until 

eventually floundering owing to financial 

difficulties in 1881. As a progressive 

newspaper, it promoted the croers’ cause 

during the Land Agitation. 

Under Murdoch’s radical editorship he 

gave the Gaelic Language Revival 

Movement a distinctly political and 

inevitably nationalist flavour. In short, he 

provided an incisive voice for the oppressed 

Gaels and in his first editorial announced: 

‘We this day place in the hands of 

Highlanders a journal that they may call 

their own. is we do with the distinct view 

of stimulating them to develop their own 

industrial resources and of encouraging 

them to assert their nationality, and 

maintaining that position in the country to 

which their numbers, their traditions and 

their character entitle them.’ 

Murdoch’s achievements were many. 

For instance, he was an early and active 

member of The Gaelic Society of 

Inverness, to which he contributed a few 

articles to its transactions, and which 

continues to this day. At one dinner, he was 

described by William Jolly as ‘a true 

Highlandman, with high, outspoken, 

honest purpose, working well to rouse his 

people to real self-help and independence.’ 

Wrote Elegantly 

In essence, John Murdoch was an agitator. 

He combined the plight of the crofters 

with the struggles of the Irish and of the 

urban working class. He wrote eloquently 

about trade unionism in The Highlander, 

linking these issues as well as raising the 

visibility of crofters and their conditions to 

the wider world. 

Over and above this, Murdoch’s connections 

with the trades union movement 

were growing, and, as seen during his tour 

of America over the winter of 1879–80, 

his positions on Home Rule and Land 

Reform were part of wider, radicalised 

thinking. It was Murdoch who chaired 

the first meeting of the Scottish Labour 

Party in May 1888, at which Keir Hardie 

was present. 

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER 41


By this stage of his life, Murdoch 

was residing in the Lowlands, but 

continued to engage in political 

activities at both local and national 

levels. But what motivated him? His 

primary concern was never for his 

own welfare as his campaigning made 

him a persona non grata to those in 

authority. That made sure his 

advancement in the service never 

went beyond that of supervisor. 

Guiding Principles 

Religious conviction was the reason 

why he set out on his course. ‘I had no 

right to hoard money,’ he wrote of one 

of his guiding principles in life, ‘no 

right to think of myself as anything 

better than an instrument of God to do 

whatever good came my way.’ 

Murdoch died, aged 85, in Saltcoats, 

Ayrshire, on 29 January 1903 and was 

interred in Ardrossan Cemetery. He le 

a detailed, if unfinished, autobiography, 

penned between 1889 and 1898, and 

which has yet be published in full. A 

close friend commented, ‘He has le, 

we believe, a series of reminiscences of 

his varied and interesting story … to 

present, as far as is now possible, an 

adequate record of his lifelong, selfdenying 

and public-spirited career.’ 

Never one to conform, Murdoch’s 

political evolution was most 

unusual. 20 years prior to his death, 

he moved left, and not to the right 

as would, perhaps, have been 

expected. Murdoch was many things 

to many people: an active temperance 

reformer, a land reformer, a 

journalist and editor, a champion of 

the Gaelic language, a collector of 

Highland folklore, a founding 

member of the Scottish Labour 

Party and, perhaps most telling of 

all, he was a humanitarian. 

Here was a man who possessed the 

vision to allow people’s potential to 

flourish if the right conditions could 

be set in place and the right type of 

practical philosophy applied. 

Murdoch was far ahead of his time as 

are so many other visionaries before 

and since. 


Page 41: Photographic Portrait of John Murdoch c. 1890s 

and Claggan Farm, Islay. 

Above: The Highlander. 

James Hunter (ed.) For the People’s Cause: From 

the Writings of John Murdoch Edinburgh 1986. 


A Short Hop to Papa 

A Short 

Hop to Papa 

James Hendrie takes the trip 

Ifinally managed, last summer, to tick off one of my ‘bucket list’, namely to be a passenger 

on the ‘world’s shortest scheduled flight’ - from Westray to Papa Westray. It is famous 

for this accolade and a mere two minutes is the scheduled time allotted to make the short 

1.7-mile hop between the two Orkney islands. 

This was the second occasion, having been thwarted two years earlier by a dense 

Orcadian sea mist which enveloped Kirkwall airport and most of the island when my 

wife, Gillian, and I were due to travel. If the mist had lifted the flight would have left 

immediately, but sadly it did not. 

There was no such problem this time and with no baggage, the check-in process 

was swift and much more relaxed than customary. Being a plane-spotter in my 

formative years, I had already spied the Britten-Norman Islander aircraft that was 

likely to be our plane. When ‘Delta Victor’ taxied towards the terminal, I was 

proved right. 




loganair.co.uk 

Page 43: ‘Delta Victor’ being 

prepared for our flight at Kirkwall 

airport. 

Below l-r: A bird’s eye view of our 

landing at Westray; map in the 

terminal on Papa Westray, which 

shows quite strikingly the close 

proximity of the two islands; the 

Islander aircraft carries eight 

passengers and a pilot. 

Photographs by the author, 

James Hendrie. 

Right on Time 

e pilot, sporting a distinctive yellow high-viz 

vest entered the terminal buildings and went to the 

restaurant to grab a coffee! While this may have 

appeared an unusual thing to do, clearly, as we were 

to find out, flying in Orkney was different. Right 

on time he returned to the door with ‘Inter Island 

Air Service’ sign and called us all forward. 

Once through the door it was a short walk across 

the airport apron to our Islander G-BLDV. My 

desire to capture as many pictures of the plane and 

our walk to it, meant we were the last of the eight 

passengers to board … with the two seats immediately 

behind the pilot. We had a bird’s eye view of 

the take-off and aerial aspects of the islands. 

e flight to Westray itself is less than 15 

minutes and so even if it were possible to offer 

in-flight services on board our tight-for-space 

Islander, there would not have been the time. 

Our briefing from the pilot was short and to the 

point, before he checked we were all strapped in. 

Stalwart Service 

e Islander is a high fixed-wing twin-propeller 

plane flown by a single pilot and has proved 

most suitable for stalwart service to many island 

and remote communities throughout the world. 

It is highly robust, with a short take-off and 

landing capacity that makes it versatile on 

limited, occasionally rough-terrain, airstrips. 

Our plane, built in 1984, had been flying for over 

30 years. All too soon, we landed at Westray and 

there was activity as some passengers disembarked 

and some joined. Our pilot le for a short time, 

but was soon back onboard as we prepared to 

continue on the flight to Papa Westray. 

Just before we departed I checked with him 

so it would be in order to film on my phone 

our short flight, assuring him that I had turned 

it to ‘flight safe’ mode. Aer he agreed, 

I realised the plane was that old that it would 

not have had any of the newer technologies 

liable to interference. 



Flying Time 

From the engines starting on Westray to their being 

shut down on Papa Westray, the time of my video was 4 

minutes and 14 seconds. The actual flying time was 

around two minutes as we barely lifted into the air and 

flew at a low level towards Papa before banking to the 

left to align with the runway and land. 

We taxied towards the small single story concrete 

terminal building. Gillian and I were getting off as we 

had planned our flights around spending some time 

there to explore. Two fire-fighters performed the roles 

of safety-staff as well as baggage-handlers and a female 

post-office worker doubled her day job by being airport 

hostess. 

We were to discover these same people there when we 

returned in the afternoon. For us the flight was a tourist 

trip encouraged, since 2011, by Loganair, the service 

provider. For the islanders, most of our fellow passengers, 

this flight is a vital link for people, food, mail and 

goods as well as an ambulance service in emergencies. 

At the Controls 

One pilot, the now-retired Stuart Linklater, made this 

journey more than 12,000 times. He was at the controls 

on the record-breaking flight of 53 seconds. While during 

his 24 years of service Stuart flew to the other destinations 

in the northern islands, it appears he became 

synonymous with the ‘worlds shortest scheduled flight’. 

He managed to chalk up 1.3 million air miles for the 

company. The cost of the tickets for this flight, like some 

others, is subsidised and there has been discussion 

recently about the linking of these and other islands by 

bridges, tunnels, or causeways. Feasibility studies and 

investigations have taken place, but decisions will be in 

the distant future. 

We found the whole experience unique, learned that, not 

surprisingly, a lot depends on wind direction to determine 

how fast the flight will be, and that certificates are available 

to record the fact that you have made this trip. Despite, for 

some reason, Gillian and I forgetting to collect ours, 

memories of the complete excursion are still very vivid. 


Island Nurses 

Island Nurses 

Tom Aston learnt from Catherine Morrison about certain Hebridean Heroines 

The focus of this publication from e Islands 

Book Trust is on the four decades from the 

1940s onwards, although aspects of a hundred years 

of social history are embodied within it. e 

Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland was established 

in 1889 and the nurses it trained played a vital role 

in the Highlands & Islands Medical Service from 

1913. e era of the District Nurse had started. 

Catherine Morrison assesses the fundamental roles 

played by these nurses in providing sound medical 

care, improvising on many occasions, serving 

communities and winning both respect and 

affection. e background of the islands has 

something of the pioneering element of comparable 

conditions in Australia and Canada. 

Open-air Conditions 

e Outer Hebrides had been inhabited for 

thousands of years and its people were natural 

survivors. Conscription for war, improved 

transport facilities and awareness of the world 

beyond through popular newspapers and radio 

were factors in a population decline. Smoke from 

domestic and tobacco sources had a serious effect 

on health, however ‘natural’ some of the open-air 

conditions appeared. 

e introduction of the NHS in 1948 heralded the 

building of new health centres and multi-disciplined 

practices, but they were slow in coming to the 

Hebrides. e day-to-day work of the District 

Nurses involved walking across moors at night, the 

carrying of heavy bags, arduous journeys in small 

boats and contending with the wind and the rain. 

Fulfilment 

ere were linguistic barriers with, in the early 

days, monoglot Gaelic speakers; unconventional 

practices; oen somewhat primitive housing for 

nurses; no standard form of transport or conveying 

the seriously ill or injured. Nurses were supposed to 

retire when married. ey had to establish close 

working arrangements with GPs. Nothing was 

straightforward and yet there was a considerable 

sense of fulfilment. 

e author trained as a nurse in Glasgow, learnt 

midwifery skills in Renfrewshire, spent time 

working in Stirlingshire, saw new dimensions of the 

profession in Canada, returned to work as a ward 

sister in a neuro-surgical unit, became the district 

nurse on Bernera, Isle of Lewis, a community 

nursing manager before taking up a teaching fellowship 

on the Stirling University Campus. 

Analytical and Anecdotal 

In ‘retirement’ she took a PhD at the University of 

Manchester and her thesis is the backbone of this 

analytical and anecdotal account which is forged 

from her own experience as well as through 

interviews with many of the ‘Hebridean Heroines’ 

themselves. It is a thoroughly readable book that 

brings to life those strands of human ingenuity in 

having to deal with life-and-death issues. 

Here is a ‘frontier’ and the training of those 

Queen’s Nurses included the very elements which 

help Mankind tame its perilous state - sanitary 

reforms, the promotion of personal health; ventilation, 

drainage, water-supply, diets, the feeding of 

infants and the care of the new-born. is book 

shows how personal resilience, improvisation, 

dedication and a sense of humour helped. 

Further Reading 

The Islands Book Trust has a new website and Island 

Nurses [978-1-907443-73-2] will be featured and on 

sale there for £12.99 plus postage. 

A miscellany of photographs from the Islands Book Trust 


RESPONSES 

Responses 

The west coast of Scotland, from 

Shetland in the north to Arran in 

the south, presents sailors with some of 

the world’s best cruising grounds - 

notable for scenery, culture, weather and 

navigation. At sea, islands have looked 

too similar to seafarers for millennia. Not 

far offshore, the scene is 90% sea and sky 

with an outline of land defined by significant 

peaks and shapes that have been 

essential to navigation since earliest times. 

Early charts were based on memory, 

the compass and latitudes derived 

from angular sun-measurements with 

astrolabes, octants and more recently 

sextants. Longtitude was a mystery 

defined by estimated speed and distance. 

Tobermory: An aerial view of Tobermory by Iain Thornber. 

This is where Declan O’Byrne pulled in ‘for supplies’. 

Declan O’Byrne has re-created journeys to the islands 

In more recent times more accurate 

charts, thanks to such as Murdoch 

MacKenzie and his triangulations and 

to John Harrison and his accurate sea 

clock, were developed and saved lives. 

Minutes and Metres 

When I first sailed here in the 1970s, I 

remember scanning the Hebridean 

skyline for features to confirm our landfall 

aer lots of course and tide estimations. 

Recently we landed on St Kilda without 

a care, using satellites on our iPhones 

pinpointing arrival to within minutes and 

metres. ese technologies have increased 

safety, and I suppose, opened up these 

journeys to many more with less risk. 

However, the weather can change 

rapidly and knowledge of tides, currents 

and awareness of shipping is essential, 

albeit assisted by apps and the AIS 

system to provide detailed information 

about potential threats. Accessing 

islands from several anchorages, a 

privileged experience, gives a unique 

view of the geology and fauna. Coming 

ashore always feels like a new discovery 

and different perspective. What has 

changed and what is new? 

Last year we sailed the North Sea, 

feeling like the Vikings. We swept on to 

Stromness, Orkney, where, in the 19th 

Century, the Hudson Bay company 

ships took on supplies before adventures 

in Canada. We went through the 

Pentland Firth, imagining the early 20th 

Century whaling ships coming back 

from Greenland, and around Cape 

Wrath following the Norsemen on their 

9th Century raids down the Minch to 

the Irish Sea. 

Experienced by All 

From peaks of granite in Assynth to 

e Shiants, we then passed Skye to the 

Small Isles, and on to Mull and 

Tobermory for supplies of water, food 

and fuel. ese journeys may be experienced 

by all, if not on a yacht, on the 

CalMac ferries and smaller vessels willing 

to take visitors to interesting islands and 

sights. All can use some the sailing apps 

to understand the weather they may find 

and seas they may encounter. 

Avoid areas open to prolonged gales, 

watch for strong winds against tides 

and select journeys with settled 

conditions. Passage-planning can be 

fun and opens the mind to how the sea 

and weather affect these islands. 

e added benefit of a more 

pleasant journey is, indeed, a bonus. 

Alternatively, use technology by going 

to this article in the digital edition of 

this magazine and enjoy the author’s 

YouTube videos of his journeys. 

Further Reading 

For access to these YouTube videos go to 

the entries for Monday 17 and Monday 

24 October 2016 on 

john-humphries.blogspot.com 


CROSSWORD 

Page Index 

26 

Header 

by Tom Johnson 

When you have solved the crossword, transfer the letters from some of the numbered squares 

into the small grid and so reveal a prosperous Shetland isle. 

ACROSS 

1. Hit with whip at largest village on Arran (7) 

5. Former administrative seat of Sutherland (7) 

9. Orkney terminus of the Pentland ferry from Gill’s Bay (2,9,4) 

10. On the hour (1,5) 

11. Nigerians or Kenyans, eg characters in a scarf, maybe (8) 

13. Otherwise expressed “tender name” (10) 

14. Sign of tiredness (4) 

16. Royal burgh and former county town of Caithness (4) 

18. Forced displacement of Highland tenants during the 

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (10) 

22. Village in south-east Yell near where a Catalina 

aeroplane crashed on January 19th 1942 (8) 

23. Shout out about redhead in Caithness burgh (6) 

25. Dammed waters supplying Mossford power station (4,11) 

26. Love cruise arranged to Sutherland village, “the place of 

the wood” (7) 

27. Gave money to a charity (7) 

DOWN 

1. Island in Loch Linnhe where St Moluag founded a 

monastery c561 AD (7) 

2. Spoke indistinctly (7) 

3. Pointer cut cleaning lady at village at the head of Loch Long (8) 

4. Area used for deep-sea fishing, in Orkney and Shetland (4) 

5. Where Bonnie Prince Charlie’s standard was raised, thus 

indicating that the Jacobite Rebellion had started (10) 

6. Scottish girl from the (a)Isles! (6) 

7. Proportionally (3,4) 

8. Ralph Waldo …, US poet and essayist (7) 

12. Improve matters (10) 

15. Another learner crashed at village south of 16 Across (8) 

16. Shakes like a jelly (7) 

17. Liqueur flavoured with peel of bitter oranges (7) 

19. Village on Loch Harport near to the Talisker Distillery (7) 

20. Placated or assuaged (7) 

21. Firework or old car (6) 

24. Non-alkali (4) 

Solution to Crossword 25 

Send your answer from the small grid to: 

editor@scottishislandsexplorer.com or text to 

07510 127014 or by mailing it to SIE Elm Lodge IP22 1EA 

to enter the competition for a free year’s 

membership of The Islands Book Trust. 

Small grid answer to Crossword 25 was Elgol 

Winner of Crossword 25: Andrew Wragg 


ISLAND INCIDENTS 

Mike Heslop wonders whether clockwise or anti-clockwise around Seil 

Looking out over Ardmaddy Bay the islands of Seil 

and Luing looked like one peninsula. How often 

Hebridean Islands can appear to fuse into one, hiding 

their individual form. But Seil is an island and an attractive 

circular day trip for a group of ten sea Kayakers from 

Bassenfell Christian Centre in Cumbria. Clockwise or 

anti-clockwise, does it matter? 

It is the tides that guide the decision. For our trip it had 

to be clockwise. We left Ardmaddy Bay on mirror flat 

water heading for the gap between Torsa and Seil, a gap 

clear on the map but looking like continuous land. Once 

between the islands we noticed changes in the water 

surface, not the ripples of a breeze, but upwellings of 

green glassy water showing something was changing 

underneath us. 

On Our Way 

As we turned into the Sound the sea began to feel like a 

river. Increasingly strong currents forced involuntary sideways 

movements on our kayaks. Speed continued to increase as the 

Sound narrowed. e flooding tide and south easterly breeze 

helped us on our way to Easdale Island. No crowd, but 

yesterday was different as it was the World Stone Skimming 

Championships. 

We settled for a private competition, but still using 

the rectangular slate block on the edge of the flooded quarry 

that is used for the World Championships. On leaving 

the slate-lined harbour we experienced the opportunistic 

spirit necessary for island life. e owner of a powerful rib 

encouraged us to book a one-way trip, kayaks as well, to any 

island of our choice. 

Good idea, but not for us as the tide was still moving along 

nicely. Across the Sound of Insk we noticed an interesting 

cave with a glazed window and water catchment system. 

What stories here? We headed for Eilian Duin where at high 

water the plan was to cook supper. Local goats watched our 

landing before quietly moving away. Were they really 

survivors from a wrecked Armada ship as locals told us? 

A Dark Line 

Out of the kayak hatches came stoves and food. In twos and 

threes we cooked our evening meal. During washing-up, eyes 

were drawn to developing colours over Mull. So yellows 

and oranges changed to blood reds followed by magenta with 

a final dark orange. e heavens were declaring the glory of 

God as light faded. And the tide? A dark line of wet rock by 

our kayaks showed the tide was ebbing. 

Our clockwise route would again be helped by its flow. is 

direction with the tides had been right, given a good day. Slate 

was certainly a thread through the day, from industrial history 

to quirky stone skimming. Ferries, wheelbarrows and 

powerful ribs had shown aspects of island transport. All this 

in the setting of island landscapes and the tides that wash 

their shores. Sea kayaking doesn’t get much better. 

In the Next Issue … 

Postal Services - 

Hebrides 

Penal Colonies - Islands 

Frank Fraser Darling - 

Lunga 

Photograph supplied by the author, Mike Heslop. 

Ornithological 

Attraction - Puffins 

Clyde Island - Cumbrae 

Distilleries & Breweries 

- Cheers! 

On Sale 18 February 

1. Berneray 2. Noss 3. Cara 4. Stroma 5. Gruinard 6. North Rona 7. Scarba 8. Isle of May 9. Taransay 10. Ailsa Craig 


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