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Desolate and barren, perched on the edge of the wild Atlantic. To the casual observer the Western Isles must often seem remote from the centre of European civilisation. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Her people are among the last vestiges of the Gaels, who, during the dark ages, spread learning, religion and scholarship across Europe. Originating in Ireland, they were instrumental in laying the foundations of Scotland as a country and later formed a powerful sea-kingdom which stretched from the Butt of Lewis to the Calf of Man.
Such is the ancient historical legacy, which not only sets Gaelic music in context, but is also integral to many of the stories and legends which the songs tell. Thus, for one to appreciate the subtleties of the music, a knowledge of the history of the Gael is essential and the aim of this chapter is to briefly outline that history.
With the retreat of the last ice sheets some 12,000 years ago, Northern Scotland became habitable once more. The first sure signs of human activity in the Western Isles date from about 5000-7000BC and its variety of archaeology indicates the presence of several different cultures between that time and the arrival of Norse and Gaels between 500 and 800AD.
Of these early people we know little (but see other page on ethnic origins), they left only ruins and standing stones. Having no written record, nothing is known of their hopes and fears or of their languages. It is strange to think of their culture being pushed towards extinction by the arrival of the Gael and Norseman, just as the English language threatens Gaelic today. It is not known what influence these early people had on the development of later Hebridean culture and language.
The Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD, marks where prehistory and archaeology end and documented history begins. In other words, events are first related in writing by contemporary commentators of the time. As time went on, records became more complete and other peoples started to record events using the Roman alphabet. By 1000AD we have several sources, including the Irish Anneals, Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and Norse Sagas.
When the Romans invaded Britain they found most of the island inhabited by a people, called Britons, speaking the forerunner of the Welsh language. Confined to Ireland were the Gaels (who are refereed to, in Latin, as Scotii, the origin of the word Scot) and in Scotland a people whom they called Picts.
The Picts represent one of the enduring mysteries of Scottish history. They lie on the border of history and prehistory. The earliest writers record impressions of them, but these lack detail and the people themselves lie tantalisingly just out of reach. They inhabited mainly the eastern part of Scotland from the Tay north. Some academics argue that they spoke an archaic non Indo-European language, others that they spoke a Celtic language. The truth is that there is simply not enough evidence to say either way. Such written evidence as exists, consists of some family trees and a few obscure inscriptions.
What is known is that they had a strong, distinctive and creative culture. They left behind beautiful "symbol stones" carved with repeated pictograms which could be a ritual form of communication. Picts also seem to have been present in Ireland, as demonstrated by St Columba who took an Irish Pict, as a translator, with him to Scotland.
The archaeology of the Western Isles shows that there were certainly people living there during this period, but the distribution of symbol stones (of which there are only a handful in the West Highlands) indicates that the Pictish heartland was in the east. It is entirely possible that the peoples of the far west were of a different race or races to the classical Picts. By 900AD the Picts (along with any other races living in the north) became consigned to history forever and little more is heard of them.
Of course, the people who interest us are the Gaels. During Roman times they were confined to Ireland. Gaelic, the language of the Gael, is one of the Indo-European group of tongues, which includes the Germanic and Romance (Latin derived) languages and originated in central Asia. The language is related to the Welsh tongues, which include Welsh, Breton and Cornish (which is extinct), but the exact historical nature of this relationship is obscure. These two groups, Gaelic and Welsh, make up a family of languages known as Celtic. The Celtic group is not closely related to any other Indo- European group. Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Manx (which is extinct) may be referred to as dialects of the same language, although most writers treat them separately and today they are generally not mutually intelligible.
The word Celtic, which is often used to describe both the people and speech described above, comes from references by Roman writers to a people living on mainland Europe who where known by this name. However, it now seems likely that these "Celtic" people were not in fact related to Gaels or Welsh of today and since Celtic is much misused word it is much better to refer to the people as they refer to themselves as "Gaels."
Modern Gaelic has been influenced by four main sources. Firstly, in its early period by Latin, which arrived in Scotland at the same time. Most Latin words in Gaelic concern scholarly activities, for example writing, reading and the church. Later, Norse had a strong influence, especially in words relating to the sea. In modern times, English words have become common, especially in the context of technical jargon. Finally the archaic languages which the Gaels came into contact with, for example Pictish, must have had some influence, although this can be difficult to discover today.
Conventional wisdom has it that the so-called Celts originated in central Europe and from this origin expanded to become an important cultural force throughout the continent. Roman conquest stamped out their culture on mainland Europe, leaving only small packets in the British Isles (Brittany was settled by the Welsh later). This view is based on cultural artefacts, Roman records and comparative art. However, when one looks closely at all the evidence for the idea, it is fairly circumstantial. Recently, another view has been expressed: that the so-called "Celtic" peoples arose mainly in situ from older resident traditions within the British Isles. Although the author of this idea has been heavily criticised for daring to challenge the accepted view, there are certainly points to commend this version of events. The matter may eventually be resolved when modern DNA fingerprinting techniques are used to trace the racial origin of modern Europeans.
Whatever the truth of their origin, Ireland was the bedrock of Gaelic culture and Gaels quickly converted to Christianity and adopted the Roman alphabet. Scholarship and learning flourished in Ireland, in marked contrast to the rest of Europe, which was still immersed in the dark ages. A good example of their work is the beautiful Book of Kells mostly written on Iona. The Gaels formed a distinctive church (usually referred to as the Celtic Church) strongly based on the Coptic Church of Egypt. Religious orders sent teachers, scribes and monks throughout Europe. It is in the writings of these monks that we find the first examples of Gaelic literature before 900AD, this form of the language, from which all modern dialects originate, is known as Old Irish.
With the end of the Roman Occupation around 400AD, the resident peoples of Northern Europe sought to expand their territories and influence. Germanic peoples such as the Jutes, Angles and Saxons invaded Britain and established a kingdom in the south east of Scotland, pushing the older Welsh speaking peoples towards the west into Strathclyde.
In Ireland, political changes forced the settlement of Argyll by Gaels from neighbouring Ulster, and so Gaelic arrived in Scotland. Emigration from Ireland to Scotland was given further impetus by the arrival in 563AD of the Irish prince Columba, who set up a monastic centre on Iona. This was a period of strong Irish expansion, they also set up settlements in Wales and possibly other parts of Britain, but only the Argyll experiment was successful in the long run. The Irish settlement eventually became an Irish kingdom, called Dal Riada, centred at Dun Add in Argyll.
The Vikings attacked Iona in 795AD and brought with them Norse culture and language. From the vantage-point of the 21st Century, it is difficult to comprehend the profound and disturbing effect they must have had on the people of the time. Their racial origin and speech was, like English, of Germanic origin. Eventually the war raids turned into permanent settlement in the North and West. Their influence was particularly strong in the Northern and Western Isles (particularly the Outer Isles). The Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland had a long connection with the Western Isles and even before the arrival of the Vikings, archaeology shows that they shared many common bonds in prehistory. The Norse connection made this link stronger. Today, they seem to have little in common, being separated by time and language, but beneath the surface and one can, even now, sense some of the bond which once existed between them.
It is difficult today to assess the full impact of the Norse on Gaelic culture because it also affected Ireland and Man. In time, the Vikings and Gaels of the Western seaboard discovered that they actually had some traits in common. They were both warrior races much given to war, honour and enjoying the better things in life. Eventually a hybrid race appeared in the Western Isles known as the Gall-Gaidheal. It is from these people that the Hebrideans of today are descended.
The Gall-Gaidheal, half Viking - half Irish, was even wilder than either of his ancestors (which took some doing). The name Gall-Gaidheal (the foreigner Gael) was given to them by their southern Gaelic neighbours, who regarded them (with some dread) as a breed apart because of their Viking ancestry. The abode of these people- the Western Isles, was given the name Innse Gall - The islands of the foreigners by the Southerners who plainly did not regard these interlopers as true Gaels.
The people themselves were as proud of their Norse ancestry as their Gaelic and many of the great clans heralded it, including the MacDonalds, Nicolsons, MacAuleys and MacLeods. It is something of a mystery, then, why Norse language and custom later disappeared from the Western Isles so completely, to be replaced once again by a purely Gaelic outlook. Norse certainly left some marks: On place names (which are mostly Norse in the Outer Hebrides), on the Gaelic language as previously discussed, in innumerable stories and songs, but most of all in a mastery of the sea which would prove vital to Lords of the Isles.
As was mentioned earlier, the Gaels, both Irish and Scottish, were referred to in Latin as Scotii. This sometimes leads to confusion, for example it is often stated that Gaelic was once spoken throughout, what is now, Scotland, whereas the truth is that there is conclusive evidence that this is not the case. By the time the Gaels were well established in their Argyll kingdom, the Germanic Angles and Saxons were also well established in south eastern Scotland and their language continued to be spoken there. Similarly in Strathclyde the Welsh language continued to be spoken and was probably eventually displaced by Germanic from the east (Anglo-Saxon of course eventually turned into English). In southern Scotland the only place where there is strong evidence for Gaelic actually establishing roots is in the Ayrshire and Carrick region. Of course some Gaelic names do appear in unexpected places but one must remember that colonies of monks, many from Iona, set up monasteries all over the north of Britain, carrying names with them, and also some names of Welsh origin may appear Gaelic at first sight.
The confusion often arises from the word "Scot" itself. Scotland in its original sense literally means the "Land of the Irish" or "land of the Gael". Hence in one sense Gaelic was spoken through Scotland because Scotland literally meant the place where Gaelic was spoken! The whole issue is further confused by the current habit of referring to the language of the Lowlands as "Scots".
Of the early peoples the Gaels were the most aggressive in expanding their territories. They first conquered the Picts under the King Kenneth MacAlpin in 843AD. This expanded their land to the North and East (but spelt the end of Pictish culture and language). After the Picts came the Welsh speaking Strathclyders, whose capital was at Dumbarton rock on the Clyde and in the east, then the Saxons around 950AD. Other than the Norse territories at the extremities, all the peoples of Scotland were united under a Gaelic kingship. So, although Gaelic wasn't the language of all the common people in Scotland, it ruled over them.
By the 9th century, although the Scottish kingship has become more outward looking, it was still a Gaelic institution. However, this was about to change.
King Malcolm II had bequeathed his son Duncan a Scotland the position of whose southern border we would recognise today (although lands in the North and West were still under Norse rule). However, there was a challenger for the throne from another royal line, in the form of MacBeth. Duncan was defeated by MacBeth and his son Malcolm Cranmore (Gaelic Creann Mor) was forced to flee into exile in England. Contrary to Shakespeare's play, MacBeth reigned successfully for 17 years. However, eventually Cranmore returned to Scotland, defeated MacBeth and claimed the throne. He was crowned Malcolm III in 1058AD. The years of exile in England had given Cranmore a decidedly cosmopolitan outlook on life and this was to tell in later years.
The Norman Conquest had meantime caused much upheaval south of the border and one of the principle claimants to the English throne, Edgar, had fled to Scotland and was a guest at Cranmore's Court. Edgar had brought two sisters with him and Cranmore, being a widower and seeing some political advantage, married one of them: Margaret. Margaret (now St Margaret) was one of the great figures of Scottish history. She set about redefining the Scottish court, church and society in general - but for Gaelic she was a disaster. Later, Norman nobles were invited to Scotland and eventually her lasting legacy was a court which became a Norman / Saxon institution and the Gael lost his place at the head of the kingship.
The eventual result of this was the splitting of Scotland into its two major divisions. On one hand the Highlands with its Gaelic language, culture and dress and on the other, the lowlands with a Saxon / Norman language and culture. As the years rolled by there was little love lost between them and on occasion, as so often when two different cultures live cheek by jowl, a bitter hatred. Although this was not always the case in the upper ranks of society and both would band together against a common foe. In some ways, a united Scotland is as much a political myth as a United Britain.
In 1100AD the Norse were still in possession of the Western Isles and had mingled their blood with the Gaels to produce the Gall-Gaidheal mentioned earlier. At around this time, in Argyll, there arose to prominence a man who, with his descendants, would exert a profound influence over the area for the next 350 years. His name was Somerled (Gaelic Somhairle). Somerled was one of the Gall-Gaidheal from an august and ancient family.
We hear of him first around 1140. With the Scottish kings increasingly looking south for inspiration, he ceased the initiative on the western seaboard, defeated and drove out the Norse, creating his own kingdom in Argyll. Because the territory he had captured was Norse and not Scottish, he was not a vassal of the Scottish king but a king in his own right. Seeing the erosion of the Gaelic kingship, he marched against the Scottish king (he also had some claim to the throne), but was killed at Renfrew. This encounter set the scene for the next 300 years, with the King and later Lord of the Isles a Thorn in the side of the Scottish kings (although they would, as at bannock burn, fight with the Scottish kings against a mutual threat). After the final defeat of the Norse, at battle of Largs in 1266, the Western Isles were seceded to Scotland and the situation became even more tense (some notable and well established Hebridean families actually left and settled in Iceland).
Somerled's descendants became the greatest of all the Highland clans - the MacDonalds. Slowly they enlarged their sea-kingdom and eventually their boundaries were consolidated and from 1336 they styled themselves Dominum Insularum - The Lords of the Isles. Their administrative centre was at Finlaggan on Islay. Their great power had much to do with their powerful war galleys called Birlinns, which were directly descended from the Viking Longships and much famed to this day in story and song. The later chiefs such as the MacNeils and MacLeods also maintained power through these impressive ships. On the Isle of Man a similar kingship also developed and this interacted with the Lordship over its history. However, after the Lordship finally fell, the Manx tradition of independence continued (and does continue) to this day.
The Lordship is considered a golden age in Scottish Gaelic history. Ancient links with the mother country of Gaeldom, Ireland, were restored. Gaelic art, music and poetry all flourished under the MacDonald's enlightened patronage.
It couldn't last. The Lordship's co-existence with the Scottish kings was always uncomfortable and the practically independent kingship within Scotland caused growing tension. The end finally came in 1493 when the Lordship entered into treaties with England in opposition to the Scottish Crown. The Lordship was finally destroyed by James IV (incidentally the last Scottish monarch to speak Gaelic) and its lands were distributed among the other clans.
With the disintegration of the Lordship, the lands it once controlled fell under the control of the local clans. This was a turbulent and bloody period of Highland history. Without the over-arching power of the Lordship, feuds were common and the clans often fought among themselves.
But a greater threat was on the horizon. The Scottish kings, now devoid of their Gaelic origins, turned their attention to bringing the troublesome Gaels to heal. Seeds were sown which would eventually lead to the collapse of traditional Gaelic society and it was during this period (before the Jacobite uprising) that we see the first erosion (around the geographical edges) of the Highland way of life.
One of the most destructive strategies used to suppress the Gael was to send in settlers from other, non-Gaelic, areas to take the land over. Gaelic Ulster was settled by Lowland Scots and English planters - a move, the resonance of which is still being felt today. James VI similarly tried to settle plantations on Lewis using a group of gentlemen from Fife (known as the Fife adventurers). However, stern resistance from the local chiefs eventually caused the adventurers to sell up and leave. These many tensions were present particularly in the islands at this stage of history.
There are many misconceptions about earlier Highland Life. The Highlanders were descendants of an educated and enlightened people in the shape of the early Gaels. The structure of society was based around the local chief, apart from Gaelic he would usually be able to speak English and have an understanding of Latin. Highland leaders were often well travelled and using their powerful birlinns enjoyed imports such as fine silks and wines from the European continent. Each maintained a household of highly trained poets and musicians. There were several types of poet, but those known as the Filidh were of the highest order. They were more orators and historians than poets and were versed in the genealogy of the chief and his clan. These artists, both poets and musicians were not simple minstrels but were educated in bardic schools and expected to travel and learn their art from the masters of the time- clan pipers took seven years to train. The traditional drink of the warriors and chief was red wine (not whiskey, which was considered a cheap lowlander's drink, unfit for Highland knights).
The chief protected the people on his land, who were expected to turn out at arms if necessary. These people, whether they were related or not, would take the clan name. Gaelic society had a social order, although this did not really amount to the class structures seen in other societies. Many sub-castes existed including hereditary doctors and lawgivers. The travelling people were also important in society, research has shown that this group originated within Gaelic society and are unrelated to the Romany peoples.
Much of what we view as Highland traits today are actually inventions or distortions of the Victorian era - the example of "Clan" tartans has already been given. It is this source which also gives the (totally false) impression of the uneducated "noble savage" so beloved in the popular imagination.
The reasons why many of the Highland clans fell in behind the Jacobite cause is complex. They concern politics, religion and the wish to restore the Stewart kings to the throne. The outcome is well known and disastrous. Highlanders fought on both sides at Culloden, but afterwards both the kings friends and his foes were treated equally badly.
To subdue the clans, their characteristic costume and music were effectively banned and General Wade built a system of military roads into the heart of the country. The decline in Gaelic language and culture which had been nibbling at the edges of Gaeldom intensified. However, this alone did not lead to the mass destruction of the language, that would take the education act over a hundred years later.
The most destructive policy that the victors persuade was ensuring that the next generation of clan chiefs were educated south of the border. Thus, the clan leaders, who were also the landowners, became anglicizied - something which would have far reaching consequences over the next one hundred and fifty years.
Life in the Highlands during the 18th century was hard, and many of the tacksman class of Highlanders had willingly chosen to emigrate. These early travellers headed mainly for the southern states of the USA, where some worked African slaves on plantations. In the mid 19th century this trickle of emigrants turned into a flood when a series of disasters of biblical proportions rocked the Highlands, wrecked Gaelic society and left the language in terminal free-fall.
The first of these catastrophes was the potato famine of the 1840s. Although the Highlands were not as badly effected as Ireland, the people were left destitute. This was followed by the cruellest blow. The Highland Chiefs, many now thoroughly anglicised and often absent from their lands, along with Lowland and English landowners, such as the Duke of Sutherland, decided that it was more economical to farm sheep on the land that to keep people. Thousands were forcibly removed and either given poor land or shipped away on emergent ships. It was the ultimate betrayal. The clan chiefs who had protected their people for centuries had turned on them. It also helps to explain the almost total apathy which most modern Highlanders feel towards the remaining great families.
Thousands left, mainly for Canada but also Australia, New Zealand, America and Patagonia. In the New World, Gaelic speaking communities sprung up. The strongest, most culturally significant and most famous of these enclaves was Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. Here Gaelic survived for many generations, almost down to the present day. Cape Breton is culturally important for two reasons: Firstly, it preserved some Gaelic traditions which had died out in Scotland, the most important example of which is Highland Step Dancing which is still very much alive. Secondly, it developed its own, new, traditions. The most interesting of these is the distinctive, highly accented, style of instrumental musical performance (mainly on the fiddle) which is closely associated with the dancing tradition.
One might think that the clearances were the main cause of the Gaelic decline which continues to this day. However, Gaelic managed to survive reasonably intact even through these most difficult of times. Eventually the people rebelled and the government had to call in troops to keep the peace. This resulted in the Napier Commission, the clearances were stopped and the people's rights protected with the Crofting Act of 1886. The real nail in the coffin of Gaelic was the education act of 1872. The idea behind this was to bring education to all. However, education meant English. In the schools the speaking of Gaelic was banned, even from the playground (and sometimes punished). At the same time, many Highlanders came to see their language as a handicap and ensured that their children were brought up to speak English. Even today, this has left many feeling disinherited of their birthright and occasionally leaves modern native Highlanders with a bitter feeling towards their language and culture. Radio and television put an English speaker in the corner of every living room every night.
The decline is perhaps best illustrated by the situation of Manx Gaelic (which evolved from Western Isles Gaelic during the middle ages). In 1850 practically the whole island spoke the language, by 1900 there were perhaps some thousand speakers, Gaelic ceased to be spoken in conversation in the 1920s and by the 1950s there were only a handful of speakers left. The last known native speaker of Manx was Ned Maddrell who died in 1974. Only a few tens of hours of native Manx Gaelic were recorded and the earliest of these, nearly three decades after the language had ceased to be spoken in everyday life. It is not certain, therefore, that the language these recordings contain is a good reflection of the spoken idiom when Manx was in good health.
Although many areas lost Gaelic during this century, for example Aberdeenshire in the 1940s and Perthshire in the 1960s, the loss of two areas was particularly significant from a cultural viewpoint. Both lost their last speakers in the 1950s or 1960s. They were Rathlin Island and the Glens of Antrim in Northern Ireland. These were important because they were the link between Scottish and Irish Gaelic having some characteristics of both (Rathlin closer to Scottish, Antrim close to Irish), their loss represented the breaking of a bond one and a half millennia old.
Martin Martin was the first of many travellers to record their impressions of the Hebrides. As time when on, other descriptions were often coloured by the increasingly desperate plight of the people. Despite the worsening conditions, however, Some things didn't change and one of these was the annual migration to the summer pasture. Whole communities would, each year, up sticks and leave their homes to drive their livestock inland to the shieling known in Gaelic as the Airidh.
Moving to the airidh was a time of great excitement, especially for the children, in many ways it was as close as most of the people got to a holiday (all-be-it a working one). Along the way, special hymns were sung (now unfortunately lost), prayers said, rituals observed and the animals renamed.
This unique aspect of Gaelic life, with all its richness, may have been a throwback to much earlier times. It ended on Lewis with the First World War, although many still used the airidhs for summer breaks and cutting peats into the 1970s. Browse any collection of Gaelic songs and one will get an impression of the affection in which this way of life was held.
It was during the period 1850 - 1920 when many of the old traditions reported by Martin and his successors finally died out. The final remnants being mostly swept away between 1920 and 1970 with first radio and then television.
The decline in the Gaelic Language and culture continues to this day. The British government's regular ten-year census indicates that, in the 1990s, there were about 60,000 speakers in Scotland, although some researchers claim that the actual number of true native speakers may be somewhat less. However, if one considers those people immersed in the culture of the Scottish Gael, although perhaps not fluent speakers, there may be in excess of 100,000 people who may reasonably claim to be "Scottish Gaels". The figure for true native Irish Gaels are similar.
Unfortunately, these figures mean that the future of the language is bleak. Research sponsered by the European Union shows that for a language to have a reasonably sustainable future as a living tongue it needs around 500,000 speakers. Given its current decline, Gaelic will disappear as a language of everyday speech sometime within the next 150 years. However, unlike the Cornish language and even to a lesser extent Manx, it will not completely die. Many thousands of hours of audio-visual material in Gaelic by true native speakers have been recorded. However, modern research shows that with each language which dies (in the sense that there are no native speakers left), we lose a unique way of looking at the world which will never again return.
Given the decline described above, it often puzzles historians why modern Scotland chooses to present an entirely Highland face to the world. The symbols of Scotland, the kilt, tartan and bagpipes are immediately recognised everywhere on earth and all are of Gaelic origin. One could certainly contend that this is because the culture of the Gael is so powerful, distinctive and immediately recognisable. Whether that piece of cultural chauvinism is true or false, one interesting trait of Gaelic culture is its uniformity. The nature of the people shows remarkable similarities from Co Cork to the Butt of Lewis. Many of the Socio-cultural elements of this nature also seem to be remarkably stable over time. When one studies Old Irish texts, a striking aspect is how little even the language has changed over more than a millennium. Perhaps it is the distinctiveness of the culture which has helped to keep it so isolated from change across the centuries.
With so much Highland culture on show, one must be careful not to interpret it at face value. Yes, the kilt was worn by Highlanders, but not in the form of the short garment mainly seen today. Although tartan was worn, each clan did not have a distinctive pattern - that is an invention of the Victorians. Often the Highlands and its symbols have often been hijacked and turned into a curious and surreal kitsch distortion for presentation to the outside world.
Too often today the Gael is viewed in terms of language alone and not common experience and heritage. It is certainly possible to speak Gaelic and not be a Gael - that is to share in the common mode of thought, experience and culture of the people. The relationship between language and culture is rather analogous to an egg. The yoke and white are the culture and the shell is the language. Without the shell, the yoke spills out, becomes ill-formed and diffuse. It would eventually become absorbed into its surroundings. However, equally, the shell without the yoke is an empty thing, devoid of its goodness - in fact of its whole reason for existing. Unfortunately, in today's rush to save the language, much of the culture has simply slipped away unnoticed.
In some ways Gaeldom is a nation which never was. In the 19th century one could have still walked from the North of Scotland, down the western seaboard, to the South of Ireland and heard Gaelic spoken all the way, changing dialect subtly as one moved between neighbouring towns. This cultural unit never became a nation and either did its offshoot, The Lordship of the Isles. The old Gaelic nationalism which once existed has now changed into the Scottish and Irish varieties, something which would have been foreign to the Highlander of old. Now only the Isle of Man stands as a rather curious monument what might have been, had the Lordship of the Isles not fallen to the Scottish kings.
The music we hear today is the strongest surviving reminder of a way of life which has passed into history. Musical performance is alive and kicking, in fact it has undergone something of a renaissance in recent years, but the bards which once graced every village are long gone. The visitor can, if he or she is persistent enough, still occasionally find some delightful cultural survivals among the older generation in remote areas such as the West Side or Lochs district in Lewis, the Bays of Harris, Barra and the rural areas of The Uists. These relics of a former age are largely gone from the larger Inner Hebrides, with some exceptions in Skye, Tiree and Islay.
There are some encouraging signs. The diverse and interesting range of Gaelic dialects can still be heard, each with its own unique words and phrases. One interesting and worthwhile recent project was the production of the book "Sgeulachdan a Seisiadar" by Chris Lawson. This is a collection of modern Gaelic tales from the Point district of Lewis. The stories, recorded on cassette by native speakers from the area, are accompanied by a transcription of the words and an English translation. Not only is the dialect of the area captured for later generations, but the stories themselves are of great interest to the folklorist of the future. An extension of this idea to recordings of other areas would in be a worthwhile project indeed.
Other inspired projects include the building of a Sgoth - a traditional fishing boat from the Ness district of Lewis, by the last man with the skills necessary to do the job properly. The work of the Comuinn Eachdraidh or Historical Societies is another excellent example. It is to be hoped that the new University of the Highlands and Islands will take the lead and become a centre for linguistic, musical and cultural research in the islands.
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