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Following Viking expeditions to the islands they called the Suðreyjar in the eighth century, Raasay became part of the Norse Kingdom of the Isles and for much of the period religious observance came under the jurisdiction of the Bishopric of the Isles. [32]
The Kingdom of the Isles was a Norse-Gaelic kingdom comprising the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Clyde from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. The islands were known to the Norsemen as the Suðreyjar, or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the Norðreyjar or Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland.
Following Viking expeditions to the islands they called the Suðreyjar in the eighth century, Raasay became part of the Norse Kingdom of the Isles and for much of the period religious observance came under the jurisdiction of the Bishopric of the Isles. [32]
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The islands stretches about 14 miles north to south and 3 miles east to west at its widest. Raasay's terrain is varied. The highest point at 1,453 feet is Dùn Caan, an unusual, flat-topped peak. The island of Rona lies just off the north coast and the tidal islets of Eilean Fladday and Eilean Tigh are to the northwest. Other smaller surrounding isl...
The primary employment is in tourism, working for the ferry company, crofting and fishing, or commuting to work on Skye. There is a primary school, but older students go to Portree by ferry and bus. A twenty-minute ferry ride connects the island with Sconseron Skye. Sites of interest include the remains of a broch, the ruins of Brochel Castle, insc...
On Raasay lives an endemic subspecies of bank vole, the Raasay vole (Clethrionomys glareolus erica).This raasay vole is darker and heavier than the mainland variety of bank vole and is found nowhere else in the world. It is possibly a survivor of a Scandinavian race. Murray (1973) states that a single specimen of a Pine Marten, otherwise missing fr...
Little is recorded of Raasay's early Christian period. The placename Kilmaluag suggests the presence of St Moluagin the late sixth century. The Norwegians came to the islands they called the Suðreyjar in the eighth century and Raasay became part of the Norse Kingdom of the Isles. The church in the islands was under the jurisdiction of the Bishopric...
Piping tradition
John McKay, born on Raasay in 1767, was supported by the MacLeod Chief as the foremost island piper of his day and an inheritor of the MacCrimmon tradition. His son Angus published a pibroch collection and was the first piper to Queen Victoria. The subsequent family members have emigrated from the island, and their direct descendent lives in Inveraray.
Sorley MacLean
The poet Sorley MacLean was born in Osgaig, a small crofting community on the west coast of the island; perhaps his most famous poem is about Hallaig, an abandoned community on the east coast. MacLean's writings often combine an ancient traditional awareness, with a modernist political outlook, in which Raasay, and the areas adjacent to it are frequently referenced. But while MacLean's work dwells on the brutality of war, of the Highland Clearances and modern exploitation, he also writes abou...
Calum's Road
The two miles of road between Brochel Castle and Arnish were built using hand-tools by Calum MacLeod BEM over ten years. Only when complete was the road surfaced by the local council; by then Calum and his wife were the last inhabitants of Arnish. Calum's Road has been commemorated in song by Capercaillie on their 1988 album The Blood is Strongand in a book by Roger Hutchinson.
Books
1. Baird, Bob (1995) Shipwrecks of the West of Scotland. Glasgow. Nekton Books. ISBN 1-897995-02-4 2. Cooper, Derek (1979), Road to the Isles: Travellers in the Hebrides 1770-1914, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 978-0-7100-0256-3 3. Margaret Forster (1975), The Rash Adventurer: The Rise and Fall of Charles Edward Stuart, St Albans: Panther, ISBN 978-0-586-04082-9 4. Frank Fraser Darling; Boyd, J Morton (1969), Natural History in the Highlands and Islands, London: Collins, ISBN 978-0-00-...
The name “Raasay” comes from Norse, typically thought to mean Island of the Roe Deer. Some have suggested it may come from a more nautical origin, “rasar-eyjar” or tidal race islands, possibly named for the often treacherous channels and meeting tides found around the island.
Raasay Island dates back to the Gaelic Kingdom of Dalriada in the 6th Century and became a Norse subject in the 8th Century, which is why we see such a strong Norse influence on our place names.
Apr 18, 2020 · Between the mid 1960s and the mid 1970s, Calum constructed the road with little more than a wheelbarrow, a pickaxe and a spade, while combining the work with his job as a lighthouse keeper on Rona, crofting at his home in Arnish and being the part-time postman of the north end of the island.
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