The Life of John Lorne Campbell of Canna by Ray Perman

Tag: Canna Island (page 1 of 1)

Canna whisky tasting

When I was researching John’s story I came across unopened bottles of long-forgotten brands of whisky in his desk, relics of the SS Politician which foundered on Eriskay in 1941. Now, revising The Man Who Gave Away his Island for a new paperback edition, I am intrigued to find how often whisky works its way into the book. Perhaps that’s not surprising. As Addicted to Pleasure, Brian Cox’s diligently researched documentary records, Scottish history is saturated with uisge beatha, which no doubt accounts for the potent blend of fact and fantasy in so many stories.   Read more

Modernising Canna farming

Canna in 1938 by Margaret Fay Shaw

In the 1930s it wasn’t that unusual for wealthy men to buy up whole islands, but John Lorne Campbell was an unusual young man.

A nice surprise in the post, a review in Farming Scotland Magazine which,  not surprisingly, concentrates on John’s modernisation of the farm on Canna. Interestingly, it also highlights his essential belief that efficiency must go hand in hand with wildlife conservation and sustainability.

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A great adventure on Sanday

Welcome to the Spence family – Alison, Duncan, their children, two-and-a-half year-old Savourna and five month old Fergus, and two collies – who moved at the weekend into MacIsaac’s cottage, on Sanday [the picture above shows the restored cottage in its spectacular setting and the view is just as dramatic in the other direction as you will see below].

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Canna questions

Today’s story in the Guardian moves me to write a letter to the editor.  Severin Carrell’s report on the sudden depopulation of Canna draws attention to the difficulties of living in a small, remote community and the problems facing the National Trust for Scotland.   The problem as always centres on land ownership.