EDINBURGH, 7 September 2003 — The inhabitants of a remote island community in Scotland are welcoming the chance to determine their future after their landlord moved to place his ancestral lands in public hands.
Estates on two islands in the Western Isles owned by the 46th chief of the clan MacNeil, Ian Roderick MacNeil, 74, whose family have ruled there for 1,000 years, are to be donated to the Scottish government.
The elderly laird has agreed in principle to hand over his 3,600 hectares (9,000 acres) of crofting estate on Barra and Vatersay.
The deal means the Scottish executive will own virtually all of the two islands — a total of 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) — paving the way for a community takeover.
The 1,300 inhabitants could thus become the owners of the islands’ 440 crofts (small tenant farms), two working quarries, foreshore and all fishing and mineral rights.
“We are delighted he’s taken this step to protect the future of the island. It effectively means the island is in a trust for its people,” said Jessie MacNeil of the Barra island community council. “He could have put the island on the open market at a time when Scottish estates are changing hands for millions of pounds,” said MacNeil, a distant relative of the clan chief. “That in itself speaks worlds about the man and how we see him. This means we have time to reflect on the pros and cons of community ownership.”
It is not the first gift to the nation by MacNeil, a US citizen and professor emeritus of law at Northwestern University in Illinois who has a croft on Barra and a home in Scotland’s capital Edinburgh.
In 2001 he donated the ancestral family seat, Kisimul Castle, on Barra, to the Scottish nation for what few would deny was a bargain price — a bottle of drink and one pound ($1.58) a year.
Historic Scotland, a heritage charity, has since carried out conservation work to make the castle, which is set on a rocky sheltered bay, accessible to the public.
Repair and maintenance costs had become too much for the MacNeil clan, which is descended from an infamous band of marauding Irish pirates.
Once the deal announced Friday is signed, the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD) will manage the islands. Should the inhabitants of Barra and Vatersay request, ownership would then be passed by the department to the islands’ community free of charge.
The deal means the islanders would not have to stump big money for a community buy-out, such as the four-million-pound acquisition of Gigha Island by its 110 inhabitants that was concluded in March.
Clan chief MacNeil, whose son and half-Chinese grandson live in Hong Kong, said: “During my 35 years of active management I have tried to run the estate of Barra in harmony with the best interests of the crofters and of the community as a whole.”
“A transfer to SEERAD will open exciting opportunities for local community ownership and management, if appropriate democratic processes reveal that this is what the crofters and wider community of Barra and Vatersay want.”
MacNeil’s forefathers first came to Barra from Ireland in the 11th century and built Kisimul Castle as a stronghold from which to launch raids.
From their base, the MacNeils became powerful lords — but eventually their might faded and in 1795 fire destroyed much of the castle. In the clan’s 18th century heyday, it was custom at meal times for a trumpet to be sounded from the ramparts of the castle, followed by the call: “Hear ye, hear ye, the great MacNeil having eaten, the princes of the earth may dine.”
