| Islay: The Land Of The Lordship. - David Caldwell. |
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Each one of the Hebridean Islands has its own history, its own beauty, its own special magic, but Queen of them all is Islay. Thus David Caldwell in his masterly Islay: The Land Of The Lordship would have us believe and, although I have not yet had the privilege of visiting that island, having read this book I am well convinced.
At 19 miles wide and just over 25 miles long, Islay is the furthest south of the Hebrides. On a fine day the north-east coast of Ireland is clearly visible. Archaeology has proved that humans were first attracted to it at the end of the last Ice Age.
When Scotland was mostly bog and forest, travel by sea made Islay not only accessible but also the centre for many hundreds of years of the Gaelic-speaking Scottic Dal Riatan world. The meaning of its name which sounds so poetic is much more prosaic, either "the divided island" or "big-bottomed". Its people are known as Ilich.
Although the Romans seem to have ignored it, Islay had its fair share of Christian missionary saints as exemplified by church dedications and the ring-cross at Kildalton. A man called Federach lived there of whom Columba accurately predicted
would die before he had tasted the first of the autumn pork. In 795 it was raided and then occupied for several centuries by Norsemen as both farm and nature names attest.
In 1156 it became part of a new Kingdom of the Isles won by Somerled and ruled by his MacDonald descendants in splendour for some 400 years from their island castle on Finlaggan. The author describes each of the successive Lords of the Isles, their quarrels with the Scottish crown and their ultimate downfall.
In 1614 the MacDonalds were succeeded as lairds of Islay by the Campbells of Cawdor and Shawfield, who eventually sold it in 1853 to James Morrison, a classically "rags to riches" Englishman who was Liberal MP for Inverness. His descendants still own much of Islay today.
The author then goes on to describe, where possible by name, the people, their famous armed service in the days of the MacDonalds, the changes in farming over the years, the clearances, the planned townships, the castles and mansion houses of the gentry and the humbler homes of their tenants, the fishing, kelp, lead mining and textile industries, culminating in a fascinating account of Islay's distilleries.
At present there are seven of these in operation, a remarkable concentration, which all rely on local water and peat, and at one time locally-grown barley, though the latter
is now imported. Current production is approaching 12 million litres a year! It probably all started because the Statutes of Iona in 1609 forbade the importation of wine and aquavite to the Isles but recognised the rights of the islanders to make
their own.
This book is an impressive piece of research, highly readable, generously illustrated with maps, family trees (essential where the MacDonalds and Campbells are concerned) and photographs. For visitors and historians and indeed all who love Islay, those who have family there, or whose ancestors once lived there, this book is a must-have.
It covers every aspect of the lives and antecedents of the Ilich whose resourcefulness and adaptability have helped to make Islay the special place it once was, still is, and surely always will be. |
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