Rona, General

RAASAY (Roe-Isle - Old Norse). Raasay, with its sister isle of Rona, lies sheltered between the corrugated flank of Trotternish and the axehead peninsula of Applecross. A table of rough moorland (rising to over 800 ft and once heavily wooded) runs down its spine, descending eastwards to empty, cliff-edged slopes and westwards to lower fertile pastures, sheltered copses of natural birch, and ornamental plantings now threaded with commercial forestry. Volcanic Dun Caan presides over a landscape and buildings that represent in microcosm the geography and social history of the Inner Hebrides.

Raasay and Rona formed part of the lands belonging to the Bishops of the Isles, controlled from 1266 by the Earls of Ross. By 1493, when the Lordship of the Isles broke up, the Macleods of Raasay - known as 'MacGilleChaluim' and descended, some say from the Macleods of Lewis, others say from the Macleods of Gairloch - were in control; they received a charter for their lands in 1596. More effectively than other Hebridean lairds, they succeeded in transforming themselves in just a few generations from roving pirates to gentlemen of cultured taste. Something of the Arcadian landscape they created here in the eighteenth century can still be seen, despite the vicissitudes of the last 150 years. After the bankruptcy of John, 13th chief, and his emigration to Tasmania in 1843, a new proprietor, George Rainy, instigated a mass clearance to make way for sheep walks, while simultaneously improving the estate and its buildings. By 1872 Raasay had again changed hands. Over the next half century it was to pass through various different owners, during which time a substantial portion of its southern half was transformed into a deer forest. In 1923 the Board of Agriculture for Scotland bought the island, resettled crofters and in 1949 granted land to the Forestry Commission. The Scottish Office still owns Raasay today.

RONA (off Raasay) Described by Sir Donald Monro (Dean Monro) in 1549 as '...full of wood and heddir, with ane havin for heiland galeys in the middle of it, and the same havin is guyed for fostering theives, ruggairs, and reivairs...', and by Martin Martin in 1697 as 'the most unequal rocky piece of ground to be seen anywhere', Rona forms part of the Raasay archipelago. James Boswell thought it so rocky 'that it appears to be a pavement.... a great deal of grass, in the interstices'. It has good anchorages, however, and Macleod of Raasay tried to encourage the British Fisheries Society to build a fishing station here, but money was not forthcoming. Rona remained relatively sparsely populated until the 1850s, when many evicted from Raasay settled here, increasing the population to about 400. In 1922 , the island was taken on, along with Raasay, by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland. Since the early 1990s, with the exception of 100 acres at the north end owned by MOD, Rona has had a private Danish owner.

Acarsaid Thioram (dry harbour) - largest of the island's three main settlements, occupied until c. 1930. Among the ruins are the school and schoolhouse, 1875 by Alexander Ross, attended by 60 children in the early 1900s.

The mission church and manse of 1912 have recently been renovated as holiday lets. Formerly, the islanders worshipped in Uaimh an Fhuamhair (giant's cave) on the east of the island. The pulpit was a stone pillar beneath the cave's arched opening, to the right of which was the font - a hollow in the rock fed by water dripping from the cave roof. The pews were rows of boulders.

Acarsaid Mhòr - on the north side of this anchorage is Rona Lodge, built as a shooting lodge for George Rainy in 1866; renovated 1990s. At the southern end of Rona is the small, oblong ruin of An Teampall, an Early Christian chapel with a burial ground to its north west, surrounded by a later stone wall.

Lighthouse and Keeper's cottage, 1857, at the island's north end, automated in 1975

Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk