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The Book of Barra: being Accounts of the Island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides written by Various Authors at Various Times
A collection of accounts of the Island of Barra, in the Outer Hebrides. the articles have been written by various authors at various times.
256 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1998
About the author
John Lorne Campbell
35 books2 followersJohn Lorne Campbell was a Scottish historian, farmer, environmentalist and folklore scholar.
In the 1930s Campbell was living on the Hebridean island of Barra where, with the author Compton Mackenzie, he founded the Sea League to fight for the rights of local fishermen and organised a strike of motorists in protest at having to pay tax on an island with no made-up roads. In 1935 he married the American musician Margaret Fay Shaw, whom he met on the island of South Uist. In 1938 the couple bought the island of Canna, south of Skye, and went to live there in Canna House. He farmed the island for 40 years and made it a sanctuary for wildlife. At the same time he continued to record a disappearing Gaelic heritage and to write and publish extensively about Gaelic and Highland culture and life. In 1981 Campbell gave Canna to the National Trust for Scotland, but he continued to live on the island.
In the 1930s Campbell was living on the Hebridean island of Barra where, with the author Compton Mackenzie, he founded the Sea League to fight for the rights of local fishermen and organised a strike of motorists in protest at having to pay tax on an island with no made-up roads. In 1935 he married the American musician Margaret Fay Shaw, whom he met on the island of South Uist. In 1938 the couple bought the island of Canna, south of Skye, and went to live there in Canna House. He farmed the island for 40 years and made it a sanctuary for wildlife. At the same time he continued to record a disappearing Gaelic heritage and to write and publish extensively about Gaelic and Highland culture and life. In 1981 Campbell gave Canna to the National Trust for Scotland, but he continued to live on the island.
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June 19, 2018
The Isle of Barra is a place I know well, along with the adjacent island of Vatersay which is nowadays joined to Barra by a causeway. I was also lucky enough to once visit the now uninhabited island of Mingulay, which features prominently in this selection. All that helped me to enjoy this collection of past accounts of the islands, originally published in 1934.
As with all collections of this kind, the reader will enjoy some pieces more than others. Some of the earliest entries are more notable for their antiquity than their quality, and I thought the account by the geologist John MacCulloch (1816) was long-winded and boring. Martin Martin’s 1695 entry was the best of the early pieces, and the descriptions from both the Old and New Statistical Accounts are good too. The MacNeill letters of 1805-1823 give the reader an excellent insight into the characters of the last two MacNeill chiefs to own the islands. Most poignant were the descriptions of the notorious evictions of 1851, when numbers of local people were forcibly deported to Canada. The book also provides the alarming information that the island’s owner of that era, Col. John Gordon of Cluny, offered to sell Barra to the British Government for use as a penal colony!
The editor, John Lorne Campbell, was reasonably well-known in Scotland as a folklorist and archivist. He died only in 1996, at the age of 90. I knew he was an admirer of traditional culture over modern society, and given that the book was published in the era of Hitler, Mussolini and the Great Depression I can sort of understand where he was coming from at the time. I hadn’t realised though quite how emotional he was. His notes suggest he spent much of his reading time in a state of outrage. A Hanoverian spy during the 1745 rebellion is described as “one of the blackest of the traitors who have disgraced Scotland’s history” and a particular Hanoverian officer is painted as “Vindictive, ungenerous, cruel, self-seeking, bigoted, without a shred of chivalry or honour…” The aforementioned geologist MacCulloch is described as (amongst other things), “an insufferable intellectualist utilitarian doctrinaire.” I’d have to say I found some of Campbell’s prose a bit over the top, but in fairness it did liven up some of the duller sections.
Overall, 3.5 rounded up to 4.
As with all collections of this kind, the reader will enjoy some pieces more than others. Some of the earliest entries are more notable for their antiquity than their quality, and I thought the account by the geologist John MacCulloch (1816) was long-winded and boring. Martin Martin’s 1695 entry was the best of the early pieces, and the descriptions from both the Old and New Statistical Accounts are good too. The MacNeill letters of 1805-1823 give the reader an excellent insight into the characters of the last two MacNeill chiefs to own the islands. Most poignant were the descriptions of the notorious evictions of 1851, when numbers of local people were forcibly deported to Canada. The book also provides the alarming information that the island’s owner of that era, Col. John Gordon of Cluny, offered to sell Barra to the British Government for use as a penal colony!
The editor, John Lorne Campbell, was reasonably well-known in Scotland as a folklorist and archivist. He died only in 1996, at the age of 90. I knew he was an admirer of traditional culture over modern society, and given that the book was published in the era of Hitler, Mussolini and the Great Depression I can sort of understand where he was coming from at the time. I hadn’t realised though quite how emotional he was. His notes suggest he spent much of his reading time in a state of outrage. A Hanoverian spy during the 1745 rebellion is described as “one of the blackest of the traitors who have disgraced Scotland’s history” and a particular Hanoverian officer is painted as “Vindictive, ungenerous, cruel, self-seeking, bigoted, without a shred of chivalry or honour…” The aforementioned geologist MacCulloch is described as (amongst other things), “an insufferable intellectualist utilitarian doctrinaire.” I’d have to say I found some of Campbell’s prose a bit over the top, but in fairness it did liven up some of the duller sections.
Overall, 3.5 rounded up to 4.
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