Memories of life on deserted island off north coast to be aired
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Traditional music will help set the scene for a BBC radio programme being aired this weekend about life on a now-deserted island off the north coast.
Between the Ears: Island of the Seals looks into the story of Eilean nan Ròn, a small island at the mouth of the Kyle of Tongue that was once home to around 70 people.
The first modern inhabitants took to the island in the early 1800s when three crofting families lived there, but it was finally deserted in 1938 when the last people relocated to the mainland.
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The story of those 100 years or more of human habitation will be told through ancestors of those who lived on the island, including Rob Mackay whose grandfather and great-grandfather lived there with their families.
Forty years on from his last visit as a child, Rob makes a return trip to search for a closer connection with these family roots, and to understand their self-sustaining way of life, which included fishing for herring, cooking over peat fires and making crowdie.
Rob wild camps next to his grandfather’s house, and uses recorded sound and his own flute playing to tune into the soul of the island’s deserted village, which consists of the ruins of eight abandoned stone houses.
Stories of the island and its people are told through the voices of Rob’s mum Iona Mackay, his cousins Lina and Donny Mackay, fellow descendant of islanders Ray Richard (with archive audio courtesy of Wick Voices), artist and rower Ruth Macdougall, local school head teacher and documenter of oral history Katherine Van Voornveld, and Jean Maclean, whose small fishing boat enables Rob and producer Andy King to spend 24 hours on the island.
Traditional tunes related to the area – The Dark Island, Waters of Kylesku and the Gaelic tune Cailin Mo Rùin-sa – were recorded specially for the programme by Caithness fiddler Karen Steven, whose granny Jamesina Johann Steven (nee Mackay) was also an inhabitant of the island, with accordionist Alastair Macdonald.
- Between the Ears: Island of the Seals is on BBC Radio 3 at 6.45pm on Sunday.
