Blethering Skite

Vatersay has been the most southerly inhabited island in the Western Isles since 1912, when Mingulay was abandoned. Man has lived here for thousands of years, but Vatersay only really began to feature on the map as a result of land reform. By 1906 the island had been owned for many years by Lady Gordon Cathcart, who had visited it just once during the period. Her tenants farmed the whole island as a single holding.

Pressure on land throughout the Western Isles led one man to sail to the island and invoke an ancient right by erecting a thatched dwelling and lighting a fire within a single day. He was followed by others, who together became known as the Vatersay Raiders. Some were rewarded with imprisonment, but in 1909 the Government responded more positively by buying the island and divided it up into 58 crofts. Amongst the new residents was a very young Nan MacKinnon, who would late help preserve a vast wealth of traditional songs and folklore about Vatersay and Mingulay.