Fishing Boats moored in sheltered Loch Carnan, South Uist, Scotland. SCO 6490
Image details
Contributor:
David Gowans / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
BW8TABFile size:
60.5 MB (2.2 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
5620 x 3762 px | 47.6 x 31.9 cm | 18.7 x 12.5 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
18 June 2010More information:
South Uist was clearly home to a thriving Neolithic community. The island is covered in archaeological sites including chambered tombs, Beaker sites, a Bronze Age hoard, roundhouses, brochs, cairns, ogham insciptions, Viking settlements, medieval longhouses and post-medieval industry. After the Norse occupation, South Uist was held by the MacDonalds of Clanranald until 1838 when Colonel Gordon of Cluny bought the island and initiated Highland Clearances to make way for sheep farming, supplanting the crofters with farmers from the Borders and their Blackface flocks. The population of South Uist fell from a total of 5093 in 1841 to its present level of 2285. As a result there was large scale emigration from the island. Lochboisdale became a major herring port later in the nineteenth century. The island is one of the last surviving strongholds of the Gaelic language in Scotland and the crofting industries of peat cutting and seaweed gathering are still an important part of everyday life.