A never-ending history The Vatersay Raiders
Ben Thomas explores the historical land issues of the Outer Hebrides
Ben Buxton Birlinn (April, 2023) pp.256 Paperback, £12.99 ISBN: 9781839830327
In July 1906, a group of men landed on the island of Vatersay, in the Outer Hebrides.They were there to stake a claim to its land and had made the short crossing from Castlebay in Barra together with their cattle. Over the coming months they established themselves on the island, building huts and rebuilding a steading that had fallen into disrepair.This was done with express disregard to the wishes of the island’s owner – Lady Gordon Cathcart – and its tenant farmer. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and the men felt that this was the only way their claims to the land could be made good.This was not the first land raid onVatersay, however, as raids had been ongoing since 1900. Nor was it the first raid in the highlands and islands, with notable actions happening in Lewis – particularly at Pairc – in the 1880s. But it was nevertheless an action that caught the popular imagination.Thus, when ten of the men involved were later taken to court by Lady Gordon Cathcart, they were greeted with a great degree of sympathy and popular support.
Buxton’s TheVatersay Raiders tells the story of these raids, their causes, consequences and aftermath.Three chapters set the raids in local historical context.The first and second detail the island’s history from its first evidence of human occupation around 3600 BC, to the mid-19th century when it witnessed a whirlwind of evictions and clearances.Vatersay was a particularly acute version of the typical pattern of clearances across the highlands and islands, with families often evicted twice: first from Barra and the nearby island of Sandray to Vatersay itself, and then from Vatersay to Barra or Canada. By 1861, the population of Vatersay was reduced to just 32 people, almost none of whom had been born or previously lived on the island. But Buxton shows that families evicted from Vatersay to Barra maintained a strong connection with the island, signified in the way they continued to bury their dead there. Certainly, for many of
the raiders the previous occupation of Vatersay was within living memory, and the land raids therefore engendered an emotional and personal resonance as well as forming an act of social and political protest.
The book’s substantive chapters cover the raids themselves, including the trial of the men involved and the eventual purchase of the island by the British government. However, far from solving the problem the purchase raised additional problems, as crofts were allocated by ballot and many of the original raiders were either left without crofts or forced to move from the homesteads they had created following the main raid. Complicating matters was the need to incorporate residents of the nearby small islands of Mingulay, Pabbay and Berneray, which lacked adequate harbour facilities.
TheVatersay Raiders is an engaging and insightful glimpse into the plight, fortitude and determination of people who were living at the social and geographical margins.The grinding poverty and monotony of life experienced by crofters and cottars in the region at this time is detailed by Buxton and explains why even small increases in the land available to a family could provide a marked increase in their standard of living. Buxton also helps to highlight the intra-community tensions and politics shaping life in island townships, as well as the important role that religion played in enabling an effective challenge to economic and political power.
TheVatersay Raiders is well researched and well written, but it is also an archetypical micro history; in focusing so much on the local it often loses sight of the wider context. Certainly, readers not well acquainted with the history of the highlands and islands at this time, and with either the land agitation movement or the various government policies that sought to address its demands, may find themselves lacking necessary background context for theVatersay raids. Key events or landmark bills are mentioned only briefly, and little information is given to explain why the Outer Hebrides experienced exceptional land congestion and land hunger. Material covering this regional and political background in more detail could have been placed in the opening chapters, along with shortening the mostly tangential pre-history and archaeology sections. As a reprint of the original publication in 2008, this new ‘Origin’ edition remains identical, containing no new research and no preface to discuss any changes in historical understanding of the raids since first publication.This is a shame, because there has been a raft of scholarly publications since 2008 which has helped to further contextualise the raids and demonstrate their significance within the wider story of the land question in Scotland.
However, for readers who missed The Vatersay Raiders the first time round, this re-publication is a chance to enjoy an engrossing story and to learn more about the reality behind issues that have often been simplified or sanitised in the passing of time. As a micro history, it is a story which has, sadly, not lost its relevance to life in the highlands and islands, where issues of land ownership and population decline continue to shape the region.
Ben Thomas is an independent historian, whose research focuses on the modern history of the highlands and islands and the region’s links to empire.