Tour Scotland short travel video clip, with Scottish bagpipes music, of the Sound, Gaelic: Caolas Bhatarsaigh on history visit and trip to the Island of Vatersay on visit to the Outer Hebrides. Vatersay, Scottish Gaelic: Bhatarsaigh, is the southernmost and westernmost inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides, Britain, United Kingdom. Vatersay is linked to the larger island of Barra to the north by a causeway across the sound about 660 feet long. At the end of the nineteenth century, the existing landowner, wanting to use the whole of the island for their own farming purposes, evicted all the existing crofter inhabitants. In 1906, some of these men, the so called Vatersay Raiders, returned and took possession of land, claiming that an ancient law allowed a man to acquire land by building a wooden dwelling and lighting a fire on its hearth within a day. However, the landowner Lady Gordon Cathcart took them to court, and they were imprisoned. After much public protest at these events, in 1909, the Congested Districts Board Scotland bought Vatersay island and it was divided into 58 crofts. Lady Emily Eliza Steele Gordon Cathcart, née Pringle, was born in 1845. Her father was John Robert Pringle. Her first marriage was to Captain John Gordon in 1865. The natural son of Colonel John Gordon " the richest commoner in the northern kingdom. " The estate included Cluny Castle, North and South Uist, Benbecula and Barra. When Captain Gordon died without legitimate issue in 1878, Emily Gordon inherited the estates. Her second husband was Sir Reginald Archibald Edward Cathcart whom she married in late 1880 at St George's Hanover Square, London, England. He was the sixth baronet of Cathcart, succeeding to the title in 1878. The Cathcart family seat was Killochan Castle near Girvan in Ayrshire but the couple lived mainly in Titness Park, Sunninghill, Berkshire, England. Known for her stance against Catholicism, she played a leading role in the Highland Clearances as she continued the clearances initiated by her father in law. Many crofters on her lands were re-settled to the North West territories of Regina and Wapella in Canada, possibly due to the shares she held in the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1891 Lady Cathcart commissioned Old Tom Morris from St Andrews in Fife to design a golf course at Askernish on South Uist. She included a clause in the crofters tenancy agreements retaining the right to allow golf to be played on the land. Lady Cathcart never lived in the Highlands or Islands and is thought to have visited only once; she took ten Vatersay crofters to court in 1908 after they refused to vacate their cottages. They were sentenced to serve two months imprisonment but released two weeks early. She died on 8 August 1932 at Margate in Kent. Her will included instructions for a Long Island, United States emigration fund to be set up but this was never undertaken as the trustees refused to carry it out for fear of repercussions. One of the saddest events to befall the island happened when the Annie Jane, a three masted immigrant ship out of Liverpool bound for Montreal, Canada, struck rocks off West Beach during a storm in September 1853. Within ten minutes the ship began to founder and break up casting 450 people into the raging sea. In spite of the conditions, islanders tried to rescue the passengers and crew. There were only a few survivors. rescued. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome. The date for astronomical Summer in Scotland is Tuesday, 21 June, ending on Friday, 23 September. @tourscotland
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