10 Raasay facts

ROYAL HERITAGE

Raasay was the birthplace, in 1813, of Angus McKay, the first piper to Queen Victoria, who later disappeared in Dumfries.

BURN HOUSE DOWN

The original Raasay House was burnt to the ground in 1746 by government troops after Culloden.

POETRY CORNER

Poet Sorley MacLean was born and raised on Raasay. Hallaig is a moving nod to the settlement depopulated in the Clearances.

NATURAL WONDER

Raasay boasts it own species of vole, the aptly named Raasay vole, or Clethrionomys glareolus erica to be scientific.

WATER WAYS

When the tide’s out it’s possible to walk to the island of Fladda, once a crofting community until the mid 20th Century.

LITERARY HISTORY

Dr Samuel Johnson and James Boswell were guests at Raasay House. They wrote, ‘We found civility, elegance, and plenty’.

DISASTER STRIKES AGAIN

Raasay House went up in flames again in 2009, only opening back up to the public in 2013.

FORGING AHEAD

In 1911, William Baird & Co. Ironmasters bought the Raasay estate to operate an iron ore mine.

TAKE THE HIGH ROAD

Scottish band Capercaillie penned a tune entitled Calum’s Road, inspired by Raasay’s famous road builder.

EATING OUT

Inver, on the west coast, was a Royal picnic spot when the Royal Yacht Britannia used to moor off the coast of Raasay.