The remote Scottish island Eilean nan Ròn is home to grey seals, wild sheep and thousands of seabirds. However, this was not always the case. The island, which translates to “Island of the Seals” in Gaelic, was home to three crofting families from the early 1800s until 1938. At its population peak, the community flourished to around 70 people.
Composer, sound artist, and flautist Rob Mackay traces his family roots amongst the ruins of the island’s eight abandoned stone houses and their crofts, which still dot the dramatic landscape. His grandfather and great-grandfather lived on Eilean nan Ròn with their families. Rob arrives at the hard-to-access island by boat to spend 24 hours there. Up in the hills, he discovers a square where his ancestors would have cut peat for their fires.
Rob crosses the short stretch of North Atlantic water to wild-camp 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. Rob’s cousin, Lina Mackay, is with him, to help him cover the island’s history. Despite its population boom in the 1800s, people started to move away from the island. The gradual relocation of Eilean nan Ròn’s younger inhabitants back to the mainland left it human-free by 1938.
Apart from a brief period of research into the common cold in the 1950s, the island has sat empty, its small houses rotting away. Documenter of oral history Katherine Van Voornveld talks about the pull of the Island of the Seals. “Everybody who talks about the island talks about it as a really special place,” she said. “It just feels to me like it was a heartbeat away since folk were there.
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