Scottish Islands Explorer 41: Jan / Feb 2017

READERS’ OPPORTUNITIES
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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.
Further Information
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;
editor@scottishislandsexplorer.com
what draws / has drawn you to
Mingulay. Closing date 31 January 2017.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER 25