Hebridean Island

More than four centuries of human settlement came to an end when the last of the native population left in 1971. The author, Angus Duncan, born in South Harris in 1888, was brought up in Scarp, where his grandfather was an influential schoolmaster. He graduated MA, BD after the First World War, and entered the ministry, serving in Sorbie, Islay, Ladybank and Duns. His lifelong interest in Scarp and in all matters Celtic led him, in the 1940s and 1950s, to write of his boyhood on the island. Part of this was published in a Gaelic/English magazine in the early 1950s. After retiring, he spent some years working at the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University. He died in 1971. One of his sons has now edited the completed manuscript and added, as an appendix, notes on a number of the chapters, some being contributed by distinguished experts on their own fields.Hebridean Island describes an island community and a way of life now all but forgotten, including the harvests of the land and the sea; children's games and pastimes; long traditional folktales told around the peat-fire; social customs and occasions; and some of the notable characters of the day. It fills a long-felt gap, for the story of Scarp - unlike its westerly neighbour St Kilda - has not been told in this way before.Hebridean Island was published to great acclaim by Tuckwell Press in 1995. This is its first paperback edition.