Hallaig
Hallaig is a cleared township on the east coast of Raasay, the island between Skye and the mainland. It is one of the most famous deserted villages in Scotland, because it inspired Hallaig, a poem by Sorley MacLean, one of the greatest Gaelic poets of the 20th century, who was born on Raasay in 1911.
History
Hallaig was a crofting township of several families until it was cleared between 1852 and 1854, when the island’s new owner, George Rainy, removed the people from the south and east of Raasay to make way for sheep. Some families moved to the poorer land in the north of the island, others emigrated to Australia and Canada. MacLean’s poem, written in the 1950s, imagines the people of Hallaig returning among the birch woods, and it has become a powerful symbol of the Clearances and of the Gaelic language; it has been translated by Seamus Heaney among others. A cairn with the words of the poem stands on the path above the township.
Visiting
Hallaig is reached by a walk of about four kilometres each way from the end of the road at North Fearns, along a path through birch woods above the sea, with views across to Applecross. The ruined houses lie in green fields above the shore. Raasay is reached by ferry from Sconser on Skye.
About island abandoned villages
All abandoned villages →All over the islands of Britain and Ireland stand the roofless houses, overgrown fields and empty streets of villages whose people left. Some were cleared by landlords to make way for sheep, some emptied slowly as the young went to find work, and some, like St Kilda, were evacuated when life became too hard to…
