Raasay

Raasay forms part of the parish of Portree, Skye. This book traces the island’s history, from the medieval period into the twentieth century and shows that Raasay, far from being a carbon copy of Skye in microcosm, has a history of its own, forged by its own unique attributes.

Although there are traces of occupation since the last Ice Age, the first surviving written records date from the sixteenth century, when the MacGilleChaluim, or MacLeods of Raasay, were believed to have received the island from the MacLeods of Lewis.

During the seventeenth century, the island enjoyed strong leadership and had a positive sense of identity. The MacLeods’ part in the 1745 rebellion is well known, as is Bonnie Prince Charlie’s visit and its aftermath. It did not take either the island or the MacLeods long to recover from this, as Johnson and Boswell’s visit in 1773 amply demonstrated.

After the ’45, however, the MacLeods threw themselves into a financially unsustainable frenzy of high living. First, their tacksmen left and by the 1830s Raasay, like many other Highland estates, suffered clearance. Estate management before the MacLeods left in 1843 resulted in the suffering and poverty of later decades.

The new owner, George Rainy, showed an understanding of the estate and its people, which subsequent owners did not. By the 1870s, Raasay was a sporting estate and the living conditions of the crofter population deteriorated markedly.

Baird & Co, Ironmasters, bought the estate in 1911 but the employment and improvement hoped for never materialised. However, the purchase of the estate in 1922 by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland allowed some of the local population to continue living there. When Bairds finally sold off their interest in the 1960s, to John Green, it seemed again that there might have been a revival of fortunes, but it was not until Raasay got its own dedicated ferry service in the the mid 1970s that the decline was finally halted.

This book is the first detailed history of one of the most varied and beautiful of all the Hebridean islands. It challenges many long-held assumptions about the early history of Raasay and is a major contribution to the current literature on the Scottish islands. 

Norma MacLeod was brought up at Storr Lochs, on Skye and went to Portree High School and Glasgow University. Her father was born on Raasay, where her parents now live. She lives near Portree where she runs her own business undertaking genealogical research for people whose ancestors came from the islands of Skye and Raasay.