Harris (Na Hearadh)
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Lewis and Harris are, in fact, one island, the division between the two embedded in a historical split in the MacLeod clan, lost in the mists of time. The border between the two was a county boundary until 1975, with Harris lying in Inverness-shire, and Lewis belonging to Ross and Cromarty. Nowadays, the dividing line is rarely marked even on maps; for the record, it comprises Loch Resort in the west, Loch Seaforth in the east, and the six miles in between. Harris itself is more clearly divided by a minuscule isthmus, separating the wild, inhospitable mountains of North Harris from the gentler landscape and sandy shores of South Harris.
Along with Lewis, Harris was purchased in 1918 by Lord Leverhulme, and after 1923, when he pulled out of Lewis, all his efforts were concentrated here. In contrast to Lewis, though, Leverhulme and his ambitious projects were broadly welcomed by the people of Harris. His most grandiose plans were drawn up for Leverburgh, but he also purchased an old Norwegian whaling station in Bun Abhain Eadara in 1922, built a spinning mill at Geocrab and began the construction of four roads. Financial difficulties, a slump in the tweed industry and the lack of market for whale products meant that none of the schemes was a wholehearted success, and when he died in 1925 the plug was pulled on all of them by his executors. Since then, unemployment has been a constant problem in Harris. Crofting continues on a small scale, supplemented by the tweed industry, though the main focus of this has shifted to Lewis. Shellfish fishing continues on Scalpay, while the rest of the population gets by on whatever employment is available: roadworks, crafts and, of course, tourism. There's a regular bus connection between Stornoway and Tarbert, and an occasional service which circumnavigates South Harris.
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