The Frayed Atlantic Edge, page 37
Kilns of Brin Novan (Orkney), 78
Kinsale (County Cork), xi
Kintyre, 198, 200, 205
kittiwakes, 55
Knap of Howar (Papay), 63, 65–6
Knowles, Matilda, 282
Krauss, Rosalind, 328, 331
landowners: attitudes to the land in Orkney, 80–1; clearances in Argyll, 187, 188, 195–6; clearances in Sutherland, 127, 136; clearances on Rousay, 78, 80–1; clearances on Western Isles, 8, 95, 96, 100–1, 102; Edwardian in Western Isles, 94; enforced settlement on Havera, 45–6; exploitation on Skye, 176, 177; laird families in Orkney, 73–4, 88; profiteering in Western Isles, 100; ‘rationalised’ farming on Western Isles, 95; of Thoraí, 215–17, 218, 219, 221; and wealth from slavery, 88
Lanyon, Andrew, 322–3, 324
Lanyon, Peter, 316–17, 322, 325, 327–32, 339, 342
lapwings, 60, 70
Laurenson, Gifford, 44
Laurie, Simon, 103
Laws, Alistair, 203
Laxford, Loch, 134
leather trade, 157
Lee, Dan, 80–1
Leopold, Aldo, 115
Lerwick (Shetland), xi
lesser twayblades, 254
Leverhulme, Lord, 101
Lewis, 91, 100, 109–10, 157, 209; active practice of history on, 104–10, 113–15; bought by Lord Leverhulme, 101; Butt of, 97, 98; chapel ruins, 98, 99; decline of fishing industry, 101–2; geology/landscape, 107; An Lanntair arts centre, 109; resistance to wind farms, 113–14; single pub on west side of, 210; sixteenth-century clans, 135–6; and St Ronan, 98–9; as victim of modernity’s crusade, 102, 104; see also Ness (Lewis)
Lewis and Harris Federation of Historical Societies (Caiderachas Eachdraidh an Eilein Fhada), 108
Lews Castle (Stornoway), 110
lighthouses, 19, 36–7, 86, 174, 198–205, 267, 284, 335
Limerick, 268
limestone, 33, 43, 209, 255–6
limpets, 67, 209
Lingay (Lingeigh), isle of, 117
Linnean Society, 280
Liptrot, Amy, The Outrun, 67
literature: and Cornish coast, 316–23, 324–5, 326; of Enlli, 302–4, 306–10; Gaelic seafaring epics, 171, 172, 173–4; Irish, 250–1; living cultures of Atlantic edge, 344, 345–7; Nigerian, 250–1; O’Flaherty family of Aran, 262–4; Orkney, 67; otters in Norse and Celtic stories, 175; Robinson’s writing on Galway, 258; Scottish renaissance, 33–4; Severin’s The Brendan Voyage (1978), 212; of the Western Isles, 109; writing on Ireland’s Atlantic, 258, 260, 262–4; see also poetry
Little, Ruth, 67
Little Bernera (Beànaraigh Beag) (Lewis), 96, 118
Little Skellig, 284
Liverpool, 152, 177, 216, 229, 294
liverworts, xi, 160
Llinos (author’s partner), 22–3, 242–4, 246
Lloyd, David, 218, 226; Irish Times (2008), 345
Lloyd George, David, 341–2
Lloyd’s of London, 204
Llyn Peninsula, 291, 293, 295, 299–300
lobsters, 71–2, 117, 209, 222
Lockley, Ronald, 291, 311
Longley, Michael, 254
Lordship of the Isles, 172, 173
Lucan (Roman poet), 209
Lucca (Tuscan town), 207
Luchubran (Lewis), 98
Luing, island of, 199, 200
Lundy, isle of, 315
lynx, 10
Lyonesse, mythical land of, 333–5
Mac Dhomhnuill mhic Ùisdein, John, 135–6
Macaulay, Lord, 147
MacCaig, Norman, 12, 121, 124, 137–40, 170, 254, 310, 317
MacDiarmid, Hugh, 33–4, 138
MacDonald, Colin, 154–6
MacDonald, Flora, 166
MacDonald, Margaret and Janet, 196
MacDonald, Norman, 133
MacDonald clan, 171
Macfarlane, Robert, 114
Machair Life project, 112
Macintosh, Farquhar, 103
Macintyre, Duncan Ban, 128
Mackay Brown, George, 51–2, 57, 66, 86
Mackay clan, 128–9
Mackenzie, John, 181
mackerel, 20, 167
MacKinnon, Mairi Ceit, 109
MacLachlan, Jane, 199–200
Maclean, Alasdair, Night Falls on Ardnamurchan (1984), 188
MacLean, Calum, 127
MacLean, Sorley, 165, 176, 187, 339
Maclean clan, 187, 195
MacLeod, Angus, 140
Macleod, Finlay, 113, 114
Macleod clan, 99, 100, 119, 131, 135–6
MacPhee, Angus, 109
MacSween, Annie (Annie Macdonald), 105–7, 339
Malin Head (County Donegal), 205
Mana, Oileán, 255
Manannán Mac Lir (Irish sea god), 213, 255, 273
maps: breach between land and sea, 240–1, 254–5; and ‘Britishness’, 342; cliff faces ignored on, 261; of coasts of Connacht, 240–1; contour lines, 239; countercultural in Connemara, 254–5, 256–8, 261; ‘deep mapping’ projects in Ireland, 242, 254–5, 256–8, 261; and dinnseanchas (‘place-lore’), 256–8, 261; engraving of, 238; focus drifts landwards, 238–9, 240; of Ireland, 211, 215, 217, 237–42, 253, 256–8, 261; of Ness, 107; of Quandale, 80; of Scotland, 215; Shetland, 19; water as barrier, not conduit, 238–9, 240
marble, 33
Maree, Loch, 156, 157–9
Marland, Pippa, 257, 258, 260, 306
marram grass, 93, 227
Marshall, John, 192
Marwick, Ernest, 79
Maxwell Davies, Sir Peter, 10, 83–6, 87, 330
Maynooth University, 251
Mayo, County (province of Connacht), xi, 236–7, 242, 254; activism in Erris, 247, 248, 251, 252–3; Cregan family of Erris, 246; Erris (Iar Ros, ‘the Western Promontory’), 242–8, 251, 252–3, 341; protest against corporate action, 247, 251, 252–3; ‘Rossport Five’, 252; tales of loss and rescue in Erris, 244–5
mayweed, 93–4
McCarron, Sister Majella, 250, 251
McDonald, Mary Lou, 251–2
meadowsweet, 112–13
Mediterranean culture, 207, 283
Medusae (Dorothy Cross film), 281–2
Meenan, Anton, 225
Melbourne (Australia), 8
merlins, 201
Mesolithic period, 167–71, 175
Mhòr nan Òran, Màiri, 165, 177, 344
Miller, Gary, 76
the Minch, 97, 101, 104, 131, 135–6, 145, 150, 174, 175, 176, 178, 198
Mingulay (Miughalaigh), isle of, 116, 243
modernism, 325, 327–31; sea as a medium of, 84–6, 87, 321, 328–30, 331
modernity: centralising forces, 190–1, 192–3, 215–19, 297, 339; control of risk, 205; crusade against Gaelic language, 102–4, 341; Dunnett and Adam campaign, 191–7; and emptying of islands, 189, 190, 204–5; English culture’s turn to the rural, 299–302, 326–7; and Irish mariners, 207; lighthouse building, 198–205; and mapping projects, 238–42, 253, 257; myth of remoteness in west of Ireland, 211–12; and mythologising of coasts, 11; need for eradication of label, 340–1; and R. S. Thomas, 303–4; traditions of ‘progress’, 217–18, 226, 257–8, 340–6; and Trevelyan, 146–8
Moore, Marianne, 274
Moorhouse, Geoffrey, 286
Moriarty, John, 259–60, 261
Moridunum Demetarum (‘the Sea Fort of the Demetae people’), 294
Morrison, John (brieve of Lewis), 135–6
Morrissey, Sinead, ‘Restoration’ cycle, 236–7
mosses, 18, 93, 160
mounds or barrows, 78–80, 254, 256
mountains: ‘Caledonian’ range, 33, 75; climbing in winter, 125–6, 145, 179–81; of Connemara, 255; and deceptive seas conditions, 145; and the Gàidhealtachd, 145; and history, 146–9; of Kerry coast, 277; in north-west Scotland, 2–3, 125–6, 134, 137, 145–6, 153, 155, 156, 157, 159–61; of Rum, 92, 180, 190; as sites of leisure, 7, 9, 125–6, 146–8; on Skye, 92, 176, 178, 179–82, 187; vocabulary/nomenclature on Skye, 181; in Wales, 311
Muckle Flugga, 18–22
Muckle Roe, 37, 38
Muir, Tom, 79
Mull, 92, 187–8, 195, 196–7
Mull of Kintyre lighthouse, 198, 200
Munster: Blasket Islands, 271, 276–9, 340; ‘deep mapping’ projects in, 242; Kerry coast, 271–2, 276–80; Skellig Michael, 283–7; south-west of, 283–7
Murphy family (Emma/Tony/Carmel), 244–5
Murray, Donald S., ‘The Cragsman’s Prayer’ (2008), 14
Murray, W.H., 175–6
music: Finlay and Wallen’s music/poetry, 86–7; of Maxwell Davies, 83, 84–6, 87, 330
Nant Gwythern language school, 295
Napoleon Bonaparte, 62
Napoleonic Wars, 26, 28
National Footpath Preservation Society, 299
National Library of Scotland, 149
National Trust, 299
National University of Ireland, Galway, 265, 268
nationalism, 138, 332
nature writing, 38, 113–14
Neolithic culture, 65, 79, 276–7, 334; field systems, 43, 116
Nesbitt, Thomas, 272
Ness (Lewis), 97, 99–100, 102, 227, 345; cultural exchanges with Pwllheli, 294–5; decline of fishing industry, 101–2; First World War losses, 101; Gaelic patronymics, 107; industry on, 101; Leabhar nan Comharraidhean, 107; local history society (Comunn Eachdraidh Nis), 104–8, 114, 115, 212
Newborough, third Lord, 296, 297
Newfoundland, 265
Nicolson, Alasdair, 181
Nigeria, xi, 249–51
Noltland Castle (Westray), 60
Norn (lost language), 10, 52, 54
Norse world: boat design, 26, 27, 28, 134, 171–2; early-medieval ‘thalassocracies’, 91; Gokstad ship, 26; historic names of Shetland, 19; and Irish Celtic civilisation, 94, 118; Jarlshof on Shetland, 50; language, 19; Orkneyinga Saga, 50–3, 66; and ‘papa’ sites, 118, 119–20; and Pierowall, 60–1; Rognvald Kali Kolsson, 50–3, 60–1; sea roads of, 23, 50–1, 119–20, 172–3; ship design, 26, 27, 134, 171–2; Udal Law, 67; Underhoull on Shetland, 23
North Sea, 11, 18, 325
North Uist, 100
Northern Lighthouse Board, 200, 201, 204
Norway, 265
Noup Head (Westray), 70, 72
Ò Bruadair, Dáibhí, 129
oak trees, 168
oats, 47, 219–20
Oceanic Histories (book series), 343
O’ Criomhthain, Tomás, The Islandman (1929), 278–9
O’Donnell, Pat and Martin, 245
O’Flaherty, Liam, 262–4
O’Flaherty, Tom, 262–4
Ogoniland (region of Nigeria), 249–50, 251, 252
oil fields, 247, 249–50
Okigbo, Christopher, 250
Ó Laoire, Lillis, 223
Old Man of Hoy, 82
Olympic games, 274
Ontario, 8
Ordnance Survey, 239, 240, 252–3, 257
Orkney Islands, xi; Aikerness shipwrecks, 68–9; and Sweyn Asleifson, 66; bounty from shipwrecks, 68–9, 75; customs men (’gadgers’), 68–9; farming on, 66, 72, 76–7; geology/landscape, 59, 60–3, 72, 75, 77–80, 82, 166–7; and herring industry, 72–3; history, 52–3, 60–6, 67–9, 70–5, 77–80; human traces/ruins, 60, 61–2, 63–4, 68, 72, 73, 77–81; intertidal zone, 66–8; island mysteries, 62, 63–6; kelp industry, 61, 68, 73–4, 88; King Auk’s perch on Papay, 62–3; Knowe of Dale on Rousay, 79–80; lairds’ attitudes to the land, 80–1; lobster creels, 71–2; Mackay Brown’s poetry, 51–2, 57, 66, 86; and Peter Maxwell Davies, 83–6, 87; merchant lairds, 73; Old Man of Hoy, 82; poetry, 51–2, 57, 66, 86–7; runic inscriptions at Maes Howe, 86; sea crossings, 75–6; seal hunting on, 68, 69–70; St Magnus music festival, 84; story of Archie Angel, 75; tidal conditions, 19, 59–60, 75–7, 82–3; tides of Hoy, 82–3; two holy islands, 77, 79; Udal Law, 67; uranium on, 86; wildlife and flora, 60, 61–3, 65–6, 69–72, 81, 82; see also Papa Westray (Papay); Rousay, island of; Westray, island of
O’Sullivan, Diarmaid, 287
otters, 7, 41, 95, 174–5, 188, 255
Out Skerries, 26
Out Stack (‘Otsta’), 5, 18, 19
Outer Hebrides see Western Isles
Outlander (television show), 183
Outram, Dorinda, 257–8
Outward Bound, 148
Owen, Llinos Elin (author’s partner), 22–3
Pabbay, isle of (Barra isles), 116–18, 120
Pabbay, isle of (Sound of Harris), 119
Pabbay Mor (Pabaigh Mòr), isle of, 119
packraft, 4, 145, 159
Papa Stour, 38–40
Papa Westray (Papay), 61–6, 69, 73–4, 117
Peak District, 7
peatland, 26, 67, 79, 93, 95, 117, 168, 220–1, 252, 255
Peerie Isles, 41
Pembrokeshire, 291, 293–4, 311
Penwith Peninsula (Cornwall), 324
peregrine falcons, 38
Perranporth beach, 316
petrels, 1, 47, 235
Philbin, Mary, 252
photographers of post-war age, 326
Pictish symbol stones, 79
Pierowall (Westray), 60–1
Pike, Oliver, St Kilda, Its People and Birds (1908), 11
pilchards, 323, 324
Pilgrims Trust, 148
Pilkington, Charles, 180, 181
pine martens, 160
pinewood, 157, 158, 159, 160, 168
Pitt, William (the Younger), 239
place names, 19, 45, 107, 134, 263–4, 274, 293–4, 296
plankton, 235, 275, 279
plovers, 180
poetry: ‘advertising’ Shetland, 54, 55; Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach’, 298; The Birlinn of Clanranald, 171, 172, 173–4; Rob Donn, 123–4, 125, 127–8, 129–33, 344; of Ian Hamilton Finlay, 86–7; Finlay and Wallen’s music/poetry, 86–7; function in Gaelic culture, 127–8; Gaelic seafaring epics, 171, 172, 173–4; Gaelic verse, 12, 94, 123–4, 126, 127–8, 129–34, 136, 165, 171–4, 176–8, 344; gannet poems, 21–2; Jen Hadfield, 37–8; Seamus Heaney, 172–3, 218; Innis a’ Bhàird (Loch Maree), 159; Irish, 236–7, 254, 259–60, 273, 286; David Jones’ The Anathemata, 33, 321; long poems of mid-twentieth century, 321; lost social roles of, 127–8, 130; Norman MacCaig, 12, 121, 124, 137–40, 142, 170; Hugh MacDiarmid, 33–5; Sorley MacLean, 165, 176–8, 187; Donald S. Murray, 14; Orkney, 51–2, 57, 66, 86–7; in post-war Cornwall, 317–23, 324–5; Romantic poets, 131, 148; Shetland dialect poets, 25, 42, 54, 55; shieling songs and poems, 94–5; Simm’s otter poems, 175; Skye, 165, 175–8; Vagaland, 25–6, 40, 317; in Wales, 303–4, 306–10; of Western Isles, 93; wolves in, 136
poitín (home-made spirit), 220–1
Poldark (television series), 332
Pont, Timothy, 158
Pope, Alexander, 127
population density, 126–7
porphyry, 39
porpoises, 49, 167, 236, 272, 279, 333; as food, 276–7, 278–9
Porteous, William, 54, 55–6
Porter family of Enlli, 305
Portree (Skye), 181
potatoes, 111, 210, 214, 218, 228–9, 250
Praeger, Robert Loyd, 242–3
Presbyterians, Scottish, 219
primroses, 93
ptarmigan, 160, 180
puffins, 20, 32, 55, 55, 68, 87–8, 188, 227
Pwllheli (Wales), 292, 293, 294–5
Quandale, parish of (Rousay), 78–81
quartz, 33
quartzite, 126, 160
Quinag (A’ Chuinneag) (‘the Milk Churn’, mountain), 2, 3
Raasay, island of, 167
rabbits, 63, 65–6, 71, 228
racism, scientific, 190
Rackwick (‘Orkney riviera’), 83–5
railway boom (1830s), 5
Ramna Stacks, 32
Ramsbury, bishop of, 344
Rathlin lighthouse, 198
rats, 95
razorbills, 214, 271
Receivers of Wreck, 280
red fescue, 93
red ochre, 168
redstarts, 160
red-throated divers, 41
religion, 128, 219, 260–1, 304; mid-nineteenth century debates, 298–9; see also Catholicism; Celtic Christianity
Renaissance, 189, 340
Rendall, Robert, Orkney Shore (1963), 67, 88
Rendall, Tommy, 68, 73
Ritchie, John, 11
Roan Inish, skerry of, 228
Robertson, Robin, ‘The Law of the Island’, 21–2
Robertson, Thomas, 34
Robinson, Mairead, 256–7, 259
Robinson, Tim, 256–7, 274–5, 310, 339, 340, 345; Connemara’s modern mapping, 240–1, 254, 256, 257, 258, 261; on Dún Aonghasa, 262; on imperial logic of mapping, 241–2; logic of attentive being, 265–7; noise of Atlantic coastlines, 85; as philosopher of place-lore, 256, 257, 258, 260, 263–4, 267–8; rejection of shore as boundary, 261; religion and secularism, 260–1
rock pipits, 277
Rodel (Harris coastal chapel), 172
Rognvald Kali Kolsson, Earl, 50–3, 60–1
Roman Britain, 209, 294
romanticism, 346–7; Celtic revival, 94–5; Cornish, 332; Romantic poets, 131, 148; and Shetland, 54; and Skye, 166, 182–3; of west of Scotland, 12
Rona, island of (Ronaidh an t’haf), 99, 167, 174
Ronas Voe (Shetland), 35
Ross, Mary, 282
Roundstone village (Connemara), 259
Rousay, island of, 59, 76–81, 86–7
Ruaidhrí, Patsaí Dan Mag (Thoraí island king), 225
Rullard’s Roost (tidal race), 59–60, 77
Rum, Isle of, 92, 180, 187, 190
Rumann mac Colmáin (poet), 273
Rusk Holm (Orkney skerry), 76–7
Ruvaal lighthouse, 198
rye, 220
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (Skye), 165
Sakhalin Island, 248–9, 252
salmon, 236; farming of, 247
San Pellegrino of Ireland, 207
sand sedges, 93
sanderling, 254
Sandray (Sanndraigh), isle of, 116
sandstone, 33, 77, 82, 135
Sandwood Bay (near Cape Wrath), 310
Saro-Wiwa, Ken, 249–50, 251
Saunders, Gwenno, 316
Saurin, Amanda, 112–13
Saxa Vord (headland), 18
saxifrage, xi
Scalloway (Shetland), 44
Scandinavia, xi, 168, 206; see also Norse world
Scariff Island (County Kerry), 287
Schama, Simon, Landscape and Memory, 6
Schönberg, Arnold, 84
Scilly Isles, 333, 334, 335
Scoraig peninsula (Scotland), 153
Scotland: Act of Union (1707), 88, 128; ancient woodland, 157, 158, 159–60; Ardnamurchan coast, 187, 188; Argyll coastline, 198–204, 208; Balnakiel (near Cape Wrath), 123, 128–9, 172; Cape Wrath to Coigach, 123–4, 125, 132–4; clearances, 8, 127, 136, 188; conversion to strict Calvinism, 128; co-operative societies, 229, 230; deep sea lochs of west, 145; deforestation, 157–9; emptying of north-west, 152–3; first settlers, 167–70; geology/landscape in north-west, 123, 125–6, 130–3, 134, 135, 138–9, 145–9, 153–4; ‘Great Wilderness’, 153–6; ‘Highland problem’ as Enlightenment invention, 344; Highland sporting estates, 152–3, 154–5; historical sources for far north-west, 128, 130–2, 154; human traces/ruins, 123, 127, 136, 154, 155, 157–8; independence referendum (2014), 208; Industrial Revolution in, 157–9; land ownership today, 154; low treeline in mountain areas, 156–7; mountains of north-west, 2–3, 125–6, 134, 137, 145–6, 153, 155, 156, 157, 159–61; post-Culloden reign of terror, 129; steamers to Shetland, 26–7; stereotyping/mythologising of coastal communities, 11–12; urban Gaelic renaissance, 141–2; wildlife and flora of north-west, 125, 134–5, 139, 153, 156–7, 159–61; see also entries for islands and island groups; Sutherland
