Small Isles
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The history of the Small Isles - Rùm, Eigg, Muck and Canna - which lie south of Skye, is typical of the Hebrides: early Christianization, followed by a period of Norwegian rule that ended in 1266 when the islands fell into Scottish hands. Their support for the Jacobite cause resulted in hard times after the failed rebellion of 1745, but the biggest problems came with the introduction of the potato in the mid-eighteenth century. The success of the crop and its nutritional value - when grown in conjunction with traditional cereals - eliminated famine at a stroke, prompting a population explosion. In 1750, there were just a thousand islanders, but by 1800 their numbers had almost doubled.
At first, the problem of overcrowding was camouflaged by the kelp boom, in which the islanders were employed and the islands' owners made a fortune, gathering and burning local seaweed to sell for use in the manufacture of gunpowder, soap and glass. But the economic bubble burst with the end of the Napoleonic Wars and, to maintain their profit margins, the owners resorted to drastic action. Alexander Maclean sold Rùm as grazing land for sheep and gave its people a year's notice to quit, and also cleared Muck to graze cattle, as did the MacNeills on Canna. On Eigg, though, the new, more compassionate owner gave some of his tenants extended leases.
Since the Clearances, each of the islands has been bought and sold several times, though only Muck is now privately owned by the benevolent laird, Lawrence MacEwen. Eigg hit the headlines in 1997, when the islanders finally managed to buy the island themselves and put an end to more than 150 years of property speculation. The other islands were bequeathed to national agencies: Rùm, by far the largest and most-visited of the group, with a cluster of formidable volcanic peaks and the architecturally remarkable Kinloch Castle, passed to the Nature Conservancy Council (now Scottish Natural Heritage) in 1957; and Canna, in many ways the prettiest of the four with its high basalt cliffs, has been in the hands of the National Trust for Scotland since 1981.
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