Editing Outer Hebrides (section)

== History ==
{{main|History of the Outer Hebrides}}
In Scotland, the Celtic [[Iron Age]] way of life, often troubled but never extinguished by Rome, re-asserted itself when the legions abandoned any permanent occupation in 211 AD.<ref>Hanson (2003) p. 198</ref> Hanson (2003) writes: "For many years it has been almost axiomatic in studies of the period that the Roman conquest must have had some major medium or long-term impact on Scotland. On present evidence that cannot be substantiated either in terms of environment, economy, or, indeed, society. The impact appears to have been very limited. The general picture remains one of broad continuity, not of disruption&nbsp;... The Roman presence in Scotland was little more than a series of brief interludes within a longer continuum of indigenous development."<ref>Hanson (2003) p. 216</ref> The Romans' direct impact on the Highlands and Islands was scant and there is no evidence that they ever actually landed in the Outer Hebrides.<ref>Hunter (2000) pp.&nbsp;38–39</ref>

The later [[Iron Age]] inhabitants of the northern and western Hebrides were probably [[Pict]]ish, although the historical record is sparse. Hunter (2000) states that in relation to King [[Bridei I of the Picts]] in the sixth century AD: "As for Shetland, Orkney, Skye and the Western Isles, their inhabitants, most of whom appear to have been Pictish in culture and speech at this time, are likely to have regarded Bridei as a fairly distant presence."<ref>Hunter (2000) pp. 44, 49</ref> The island of Pabbay is the site of the Pabbay Stone, the only extant [[Pictish stones|Pictish symbol stone]] in the Outer Hebrides. This 6th century [[stele]] shows a flower, V-rod and lunar crescent to which has been added a later and somewhat crude cross.<ref>Miers (2008) p. 367</ref>

=== Norse control ===
[[File:Kingdom of Mann and the Isles-en.svg|thumb|Location of the [[Kingdom of the Isles]] at the end of the eleventh century]]

[[Viking]] raids began on Scottish shores towards the end of the 8th century AD and the Hebrides came under Norse control and settlement during the ensuing decades, especially following the success of [[Harald I of Norway|Harald Fairhair]] at the [[Battle of Hafrsfjord]] in 872.<ref>Hunter (2000) p. 74</ref><ref>Rotary Club (1995) p. 12</ref> In the Western Isles [[Ketill Flatnose]] was the dominant figure of the mid 9th century, by which time he had amassed a substantial island realm and made a variety of alliances with other [[Norsemen|Norse]] leaders. These princelings nominally owed allegiance to the Norwegian crown, although in practice the latter's control was fairly limited.<ref>Hunter (2000) p. 78</ref> Norse control of the Hebrides was formalised in 1098 when [[Edgar, King of Scotland]] formally signed the islands over to [[Magnus III of Norway]].<ref name=H102>Hunter (2000) p. 102</ref> The Scottish acceptance of Magnus III as King of the Isles came after the Norwegian king had conquered [[Orkney]], the Hebrides and the [[Isle of Man]] in a swift campaign earlier the same year, directed against the local Norwegian leaders of the various islands‘ petty kingdoms. By capturing the islands Magnus imposed a more direct royal control, although at a price. His [[skald]] Bjorn Cripplehand recorded that in Lewis "fire played high in the heaven" as "flame spouted from the houses" and that in the Uists "the king dyed his sword red in blood".<ref name=H102/> Thompson (1968) provides a more literal translation: "Fire played in the fig-trees of Liodhus; it mounted up to heaven. Far and wide the people were driven to flight. The fire gushed out of the houses".<ref name="Thompson 1968 39">Thompson (1968) p 39</ref>

The Hebrides were now part of Kingdom of the Isles, whose rulers were themselves vassals of the Kings of Norway. The Kingdom had two parts: the ''{{lang|non|Suðr-eyjar}}'' or South Isles encompassing the [[Hebrides]] and the [[Isle of Man]]; and the ''{{lang|non|Norðr-eyjar}}'' or North Isles of Orkney and [[Shetland]]. This situation lasted until the partitioning of the Western Isles in 1156, at which time the Outer Hebrides remained under Norwegian control while the Inner Hebrides broke out under [[Somerled]], the Norse-Celtic kinsman of the Manx royal house.<ref>[https://thevikingworld.pbworks.com/The-Kingdom-of-Mann-and-the-Isles "The Kingdom of Mann and the Isles"] thevikingworld.com Retrieved 6 July 2010.</ref>

Following the ill-fated 1263 expedition of [[Haakon IV of Norway]], the Outer Hebrides along with the Isle of Man, were yielded to the Kingdom of Scotland a result of the 1266 [[Treaty of Perth]].<ref>Hunter (2000) pp.&nbsp;109–111</ref> Although their contribution to the islands can still be found in personal and placenames, the archaeological record of the Norse period is very limited. The best known find from this time is the [[Lewis chessmen]], which date from the mid 12th century.<ref>Thompson (1968) p. 37</ref>

=== Scots rule ===
[[File:Kisimul Castle.jpg|thumb|left|[[Kisimul Castle]], the ancient seat of [[Clan MacNeil]], [[Castlebay]], [[Barra]]]]

As the Norse era drew to a close the [[Old Norse|Norse-speaking]] princes were gradually replaced by Gaelic-speaking [[Scottish clan|clan]] chiefs including the [[Clan MacLeod|MacLeods]] of Lewis and Harris, the [[Clan Donald|MacDonalds]] of the [[Uist]]s and [[Clan MacNeil|MacNeil of Barra]].<ref name="Thompson 1968 39"/><ref>Rotary Club (1995) pp. 27, 30</ref>{{#tag:ref|The transitional relationships between Norse and Gaelic-speaking rulers are complex. The ''{{lang|gd|[[Norse–Gaels|Gall-Ghàidhels]]}}'' who dominated much of the Irish Sea region and western Scotland at this time were of joint Gaelic and Scandinavian origin. When Somerled wrested the southern Inner Hebrides from [[Godred II Olafsson|Godred the Black]] in 1156, this was the beginnings of a break with nominal Norse rule in the Hebrides. Godred remained the ruler of Mann and the Outer Hebrides, but two years later Somerled's invasion of the former caused him to flee to Norway. Norse control was further weakened in the ensuring century, but the Hebrides were not formally ceded by Norway until 1266.<ref>Gregory (1881) pp.&nbsp;13–15, 20-21</ref><ref>Downham (2007) pp.&nbsp;174–75.</ref> The transitions from one language to another are also complex. For example, many Scandinavian sources from this period of time typically refer to individuals as having a Scandinavian first name and a Gaelic by-name.<ref>Gammeltoft, Peder "Scandinavian Naming-Systems in the Hebrides: A Way of Understanding how the Scandinavians were in Contact with Gaels and Picts?" in Ballin Smith ''et al'' (2007) p. 480</ref>|group="Note"}} This transition did little to relieve the islands of internecine strife although by the early 14th century the MacDonald [[Lord of the Isles|Lords of the Isles]], based on [[Islay]], were in theory these chiefs' feudal superiors and managed to exert some control.<ref>Hunter (2000) pp. 127, 166</ref>

The growing threat that Clan Donald posed to the Scottish crown led to the forcible dissolution of the Lordship of the Isles by [[James IV of Scotland|James IV]] in 1493, but although the king had the power to subdue the organised military might of the Hebrides, he and his immediate successors lacked the will or ability to provide an alternative form of governance.<ref>Hunter (2000) p. 143</ref> The [[House of Stuart]]'s attempts to control the Outer Hebrides were then at first desultory and little more than punitive expeditions. In 1506 the [[Marquess of Huntly|Earl of Huntly]] besieged and captured Stornoway Castle using cannon. In 1540 [[James V of Scotland|James V]] himself conducted a royal tour, forcing the clan chiefs to accompany him. There followed a period of peace, but all too soon the clans were at loggerheads again.<ref>Thompson (1968) pp.&nbsp;40–41</ref>

In 1598 King [[James VI of Scotland|James VI]] authorised some "[[Fife Adventurers|Gentleman Adventurers" from Fife]] to civilise the "most barbarous Isle of Lewis". Initially successful, the colonists were driven out by local forces commanded by Murdoch and Neil MacLeod, who based their forces on {{lang|gd|[[Bearasaigh]]}} in {{lang|gd|Loch Ròg}}. The colonists tried again in 1605 with the same result but a third attempt in 1607 was more successful, and in due course Stornoway became a [[Burgh of barony|Burgh of Barony]].<ref>Rotary Club (1995) pp.&nbsp;12–13</ref><ref>Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 312</ref> By this time Lewis was held by the Mackenzies of Kintail, (later the [[Earl of Seaforth|Earls of Seaforth]]), who pursued a more enlightened approach, investing in fishing in particular. The historian W. C. MacKenzie was moved to write:<ref>Thompson (1968) p. 41. It is not clear from the text which of MacKenzie's five books quoted in the bibliography spanning the years 1903–52 the quote is taken from.</ref>

{{ blockquote
| At the end of the 17th century, the picture we have of Lewis that of a people pursuing their avocation in peace, but not in plenty. The Seaforths&nbsp;..., besides establishing orderly Government in the island.. had done a great deal to rescue the people from the slough of ignorance and incivility in which they found themselves immersed. But in the sphere of economics their policy apparently was of little service to the community.
}}

The Seaforth's royalist inclinations led to Lewis becoming garrisoned during the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]] by [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell's]] troops, who destroyed the old castle in Stornoway and in 1645 Lewismen fought on the royalist side at the [[Battle of Auldearn]].<ref name=R42>Thompson (1968) pp.&nbsp;41–42</ref> A new era of Hebridean involvement in the affairs of the wider world was about to commence.

=== British era ===
[[File:Old School house Mingulay.jpg|thumb|left|Abandoned school house, [[Mingulay]]]]

With the implementation of the [[Treaty of Union]] in 1707 the Hebrides became part of the new [[Kingdom of Great Britain]], but the clans' loyalties to a distant monarch were not strong. A considerable number of islandmen "came out" in support of the Jacobite [[Earl of Mar]] in the [[Jacobite rising of 1715|"15"]] although the response to the [[Jacobite rising of 1745|1745 rising]] was muted.<ref name=R42/> Nonetheless the aftermath of the decisive [[Battle of Culloden]], which effectively ended Jacobite hopes of a Stuart restoration, was widely felt. The British government's strategy was to estrange the clan chiefs from their kinsmen and turn their descendants into English-speaking landlords whose main concern was the revenues their estates brought rather than the welfare of those who lived on them. This may have brought peace to the islands, but in the following century it came at a terrible price.

The [[Highland Clearances]] of the 19th century destroyed communities throughout the [[Highlands and Islands]] as the human populations were evicted and replaced with sheep farms.<ref>Hunter (2000) p. 212</ref> For example, Colonel [[John Gordon (soldier)|Gordon]] of [[Cluny Castle|Cluny]], owner of Barra, South Uist and Benbecula, evicted thousands of islanders using trickery and cruelty, and even offered to sell Barra to the government as a penal colony.<ref>Rotary Club (1995) p. 31</ref> Islands such as {{lang|gd|italic=unset|[[Fuaigh Mòr]]}} were completely cleared of their populations and even today the subject is recalled with bitterness and resentment in some areas.<ref>Haswell-Smith (2004) pp.&nbsp;306–07</ref> The position was exacerbated by the failure of the islands' [[kelp]] industry, which thrived from the 18th century until the end of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] in 1815<ref>Hunter (2000) pp. 247, 262</ref> and large scale emigration became endemic. For example, hundreds left North Uist for [[Cape Breton]], [[Nova Scotia]].<ref>Lawson, Bill (10 September 1999) [http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/gazbl/gazbl35.htm "From The Outer Hebrides to Cape Breton - Part II"]. globalgenealogy.com. Retrieved 14 October 2007.</ref> The pre-clearance population of the island had been almost 5,000, although by 1841 it had fallen to 3,870 and was only 2,349 by 1931.<ref>Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 236</ref><ref name="USNU"/>

The [[Highland potato famine]] (Gaiseadh a’ bhuntàta, in Scottish Gaelic), caused by a blight, started in 1846 and had a serious impact, because many islanders were crofters; potatoes were a staple of their diet.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://darachcroft.com/news/harris-tweed-and-the-highland-potato-famine |title=Harris Tweed and the Highland Potato Famine}}</ref> Violent riots became common.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/books/book-review-insurrection-james-hunter-1403805 |title=Book review, Insurrection, Scotland's Famine Winter, by James Hunter |date=30 October 2019}}</ref> Charities, encouraged by George Pole<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-field/20200303/281569472715194 |title=Scotland's Potato Famine, 3 March 2020}}</ref> and others in the Commissariat (a military agency) encouraged charities to come to the rescue. The Free Church was particularly helpful, "delivering oatmeal to famine-affected families all across the West Highlands and Islands", according to one report. Another report states that the Church "was prompt in organising an efficient system of private charity across the Hebrides and on the Western seaboard. It cooperated with the Edinburgh and Glasgow Relief Committees".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://journals.openedition.org/mimmoc/1763 |title=The Irish Famine in a Scottish Perspective 1845-1851 |year=2015 |doi=10.4000/mimmoc.1763 |last=Vaughan |first=Géraldine |journal=Mémoire(S), Identité(S), Marginalité(S) dans le Monde Occidental Contemporain |issue=12 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotland/chap10.htm |title=The Highland Tragedy}}</ref>

An interdenominational charity was in place by early 1847 and took the most significant role in famine relief.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rte.ie/history/the-great-irish-famine/2020/0716/1153640-the-other-famine-scotland-and-the-potato-blight/ |title=The other famine: Scotland and the potato blight 11 December 2020 |date=16 July 2020 |last=Hunter |first=James |website=[[RTÉ.ie]]}}</ref> Some landowners also provided a great deal of assistance, according to one history of the region: "MacLeod of Dunvegan bought in food for his people, some eight thousand of them" ... MacLean of Ardgour provided food, and introduced new crops into the area - peas, cabbages and carrots ... Sir James Matheson on Lewis spent £329,000 (Equivalent to £37,000,000 in 2024<ref>{{Cite web |title=Inflation calculator |url=https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=www.bankofengland.co.uk |language=en}}</ref>)  on improving his lands, hoping to provide a more secure future for his people". The government of Britain provided some assistance, thanks to Sir [[Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet|Charles Trevelyan]], who arranged for food distribution at Portree and Tobermory. The ''British Association for the Relief of Distress in Ireland and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland'' also helped as did donations received from North America.  The blight struck again over the next two years, requiring an extra tax on landowners to help feed the population. The British government began encouraging mass emigration.<ref>{{cite journal| url = https://journals.openedition.org/mimmoc/1763| title = The Irish Famine in a Scottish Perspective 1845-1851| year = 2015| doi = 10.4000/mimmoc.1763| last1 = Vaughan| first1 = Géraldine| journal = Mémoire(S), Identité(S), Marginalité(S) dans le Monde Occidental Contemporain| issue = 12| doi-access = free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotland/chap10.htm| title = The Highland Tragedy}}</ref>

For those who remained new economic opportunities emerged through the export of cattle, commercial fishing and tourism. During the summer season in the 1860s and 1870s five thousand inhabitants of Lewis could be found in [[Wick, Highland|Wick]] on the mainland of Scotland, employed on the fishing boats and at the quaysides.<ref>Hunter (2000) p. 292</ref> Nonetheless emigration and military service became the choice of many<ref>Hunter (2000) p. 343</ref> and the archipelago's populations continued to dwindle throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries. By 2001 the population of North Uist was only 1,271.<ref name=GRO /><ref name="USNU">[http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/northuist/northuist/index.html "North Uist ({{lang|gd|Uibhist a Tuath|nocat=y}})"] Undiscovered Scotland. Retrieved 8 July 2010.</ref>

The work of the [[Napier Commission]] and the [[Congested Districts Board (Scotland)|Congested Districts Board]], and the passing of the [[Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886|Crofting Act of 1886]] helped, but social unrest continued.<ref>Hunter (2000) p. 320</ref> In July 1906 grazing land on [[Vatersay]] was raided by landless men from Barra and its isles. [[Emily Gordon Cathcart|Lady Gordon Cathcart]] took legal action against the "raiders" but the visiting judge took the view that she had neglected her duties as a landowner and that "long indifference to the necessities of the cottars had gone far to drive them to exasperation".<ref>Buxton (1995) p. 125</ref> Millennia of continuous occupation notwithstanding, many of the remoter islands were abandoned — [[Mingulay]] in 1912, [[Hirta]] in 1930, and {{lang|gd|[[Ceann Iar]]}} in 1942 among them. This process involved a transition from these places being perceived as relatively self-sufficient agricultural economies<ref>See for example Hunter (2000) pp. 152–158</ref> to a view becoming held by both island residents and outsiders alike that they lacked the essential services of a modern industrial economy.<ref>See for example Maclean (1977) Chapter 10: "Arcady Despoiled" pp. 125–35</ref>

There were gradual economic improvements, among the most visible of which was the replacement of the traditional thatched [[blackhouse]] with accommodation of a more modern design.{{When|date=January 2023}} The creation of the [[Highlands and Islands Development Board]] and the discovery of substantial deposits of [[North Sea oil]] in 1965, the establishment of a unitary local authority for the islands in 1975 and more recently the [[renewable energy in Scotland|renewables sector]] have all contributed to a degree of economic stability in recent decades. The [[Arnish yard]] has had a chequered history but has been a significant employer in both the oil and renewables industries.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7136490.stm |title=Yard wins biggest wind tower job |work=[[BBC News Online]] |date=10 December 2007 |access-date=6 January 2011 }}</ref> {{lang|gd|Comhairle nan Eilean Siar}}, the local authority, employs 2,000 people, making it the largest employer in the Outer Hebrides.<ref>[http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/services/jobs.asp?servicename=Jobs%20and%20careers&snlid=379 "Jobs and Careers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101218102557/http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/services/jobs.asp?servicename=Jobs%20and%20careers&snlid=379 |date=18 December 2010 }}. {{lang|gd|Comhairle nan Eilean Siar}}. Retrieved 6 January 2011.</ref> See also the "{{lang|gd|Innse Gall}} area plan 2010"<ref>[http://www.hie.co.uk/highlands-and-islands/area-information/outer-hebrides/ "Outer Hebrides/{{lang|gd|Innse Gall|nocat=y}} - area overview"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110203213705/http://www.hie.co.uk/highlands-and-islands/area-information/outer-hebrides/ |date=3 February 2011 }}. {{lang|gd|Innse Gall}} area plan 2010 (pdf) HIE. Retrieved 3 January 2011.</ref> and the {{lang|gd|Comhairle}}'s "Factfile – Economy".<ref name="FF"/>