HEBRIDES
Most of these are in Lewis. Almost all the crofter
townships are along the coast. Some of them are at
important points of communication, such as Bunessan
in Mull, Kyle-Akin and Broadford in Skye, Tarbert in
Harris, and Loch Maddy in North Uist. Fairs for live
stock are held regularly in Islay, Jura, Mull, Tyree,
Skye, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, and Lewis,
while dealers travel through all the districts. The
quoad civilia parishes of the Hebrides are : in Ross-shire
— Barvas, Lochs, Stornoway, and Uig ; in Inverness-
shire — Barra, Bracadale, Duirinish, Harris, Kilmuir,
North Uist, Portree, Sleat, Small Isles (Eigg), Snizort,
South Uist, and Strath ; in Argyll — the whole parishes
of Coll, Colonsay, Gigha, Jura, Kilchornan, Kildalton,
Kilfinichen, Killarrow, Kilninian, Small Isles (Canna,
Muck, Rum, and Sandy), Torosay, and Tyree, and por-
tions of the parishes of Ardchattan, Campbeltown, Kil-
brandon, Kilmartin, Kilmore, Lismore, Morvern, North
Knapdale, and Southend. There are also included the
quoad sacra parishes of Cross (in Barvas), Knock (in
Stornoway), Bernera (in Harris), Halin-in-Waternish
(in Duirinish), Stenscholl (in Kilmuir and Snizort),
Trumsigarry (in North Uist), Aharacle (in Ardnamurchan
and Morvern), Duror (in Lismore), Iona (in Kilfinichen),
Kinlochspelvie (in Torosay), Oa (in Kildalton), Portna-
haven (in Kilchornan), Tobermory (in Kilninian), Ulva
(in Kilninian). There are also 34 Free churches, 2 U.P.
churches, a Congregational church, 4 Baptist churches,
3 Episcopal churches, and 5 Roman Catholic churches.
The Argyllshire section has a sheriff-substitute with his
headquarters at Tobermory ; the Inverness-shire section
has a sheriff-substitute at Portree for Skye, and another
at Loch Maddy for Harris and the islands to the S ;
in the Ross-shire section there is a sheriff-substitute for
Lewis, with his headquarters at Stornoway. Of the
larger islands, Lewis belongs to Lady Matheson ; Harris
to the Countess Dowager of Dunmore and to Sir E.
Scott ; North Uist to Sir John W. C. Orde of Kilmory ;
Benbecula, South Uist, and Barra to Lady Gordon-Cath-
cart of Cluny. Benbecula and South Uist were purchased
in 1839 by the late Colonel Gordon of Cluny for£124,229,
and Barra in 1S40 for £49,500, and since then about
£6000 has been expended on it. The area of Lewis is
417,416 acres, and the rental £17,343, 13s. 7d., exclusive
of Stornoway ; Harris, 122,500 acres, rental £5979,
9s. Id. ; North Uist, 68,000 acres, rental £5000 ; Ben-
becula, 22,874 acres, rental £1800 ; South Uist, 82,154
acres, rental £4S00; Barra, 24,916 acres, rental £1900.
Pop. of the whole of the islands, (1871) 81,100, (1SS1)
82,119.
History. — The Hebrides make their first appearance
in historical times as the Ebudae of Ptolemy. He
only knew five islands under that name, and all these
lay to the S of Ardnamurchan, and were probably Islay,
Jura, Mull, Scarba, and Lismore, while Skye is men-
tioned separately as Scetis. The inhabitants at first
were probably Picts, but by the beginniug of the 7th
century, while the districts N of a line drawn through
the centre of Mull belonged to the Northern Picts, those
to the S had fallen into the hands of the Dalriadic Scots.
It is from one of the chief Dalriadic tribes, the Cinel
Loarn, that the Lome district takes its name. The
islands became known to the Scandinavian sea-rovers
about the end of the 8th century (a. d. 794), and suffered
severely from their attacks during the whole of the 9th
century. In 880 some petty Norwegian kings, who
resisted the celebrated Harald Harfager's power in the
north, made permanent settlements in the islands of
the west, and thence piratically infested the coasts of
Norway. In 888 Harald retaliated, and according to
the Islands Landnamabok, subdued all the Sudreys — a
name given to the Western Islands in distinction to the
Orkneys, which were the Nordreys or Northern islands
— so far west that no Norwegian king afterwards con-
quered more, except King Magnus Barefoot. He had
hardly returned home, however, when the petty kings
or vikings, both Scottish and Irish, ' cast themselves
into the islands, and made war and plundered far and
wide, but in the following year they fell under a fresh
262
HEBRIDES
ruler. This was one of their own number, Ketill Flat-
nose, who had settled in the Sudreys, and who now
probably, however, with Harald's aid, made himself
their king. By the 10th century the islands had been
extensively colonised by the Norwegians, and very com-
pletely subdued to Norwegian rule, and to the Scandi-
navians they were a valuable possession, and ' eminently
fitted to serve as a stronghold for the Northern Vikings,
whose strength consisted almost entirely in their large
and well-constructed ships.' In 990 the Hebrides passed
by conquest from the Danes of Dublin into the posses-
sion of Sigurd, Earl of Orkney, and were governed by a
deputy appointed by him. Ragnal Macgophra, who had
seized the supreme power, was driven out by Sigurd in
1004, and we find a native chief, Gilli (evidently, how-
ever, tributary to Sigurd), ruling shortly after. Sigurd
was killed in 1014 at the battle of Clontarf, and for a
while the Isles were free ; but they again, about 1034,
passed under the rule of his (Sigurd's) son, Thorfinn, in
whose hands they remained till his death. From 1064
to 1072 they were annexed to the Irish dominions of
Diarmid Macmaelnambo, and they next passed into the
possession of Setric and his son Fingal, kings of the
Isle of Man. Godred Crovan, a Norwegian, having
landed on the Isles as a fugitive in 1066, gradually drew
around him influence and power, so that between 1075
and 10S0 he was able to dethrone Fingal and take pos-
session of the throne of Man. His son Lagman was
placed over the Hebrides. In 1093, while Malcolm
Ceannmor was busy making preparations for his fatal
expedition into England, Magnus Barefoot, who had
recently become King of Norway, revived the Nor-
wegian claims, and enforced them by a descent on
the islands with a large and powerful fleet. He
does not seem to have disturbed the rulers he found
in power, but merely to have caused them to become
his vassals, and so Godred Crovan remained ruler
till his death in Islay in 1095. Lagman his son went
on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he died, and Mag-
nus appointed a new Norwegian ruler named Inge-
mund, whose government proved, however, so oppres-
sive, that he was murdered in Lewis. To avenge his
death Magnus again passed to the islands with large
forces, and after he had deprived the Earls of Orkney of
power, and sent them prisoners to Norway, ' He went
with his whole army to the Sudreys, but when he came
there he commenced plundering immediately, burned
the inhabited places, killed the people, and pillaged
wherever he went. But the people of the country fled
to various places, some up to Scotland, or into the
fjords or sea-lochs, some southward to Satiri or Kintyre,
some submitted to King Magnus and received pardon.'
The animus against the original inhabitants of the
islands thus shown by Magnus would seem to point
to the murder of Ingemund as being merely part of a
general scheme to throw off the Norwegian yoke. When
Magnus returned to the Isles after a visit to the Isle of
Man, he entered into an agreement with the King of
Scots, ' by which all the islands to the west of Scotland,
between which and the mainland a helm-carrying ship
could pass, were ceded to him ; ' and as he wished to
include Kintyre in the number, he is reported to have
had his galley drawn across the narrow neck of land
between East and West Loch Tarbert. The islands
were thus severed from all connection with Scotland — a
condition that lasted for more than 150 years. On the
death of King Magnus in Ulster in 1104, the native
islanders, with the assistance of some Irish under
Donald MacTadg, appear again to have attempted to
throw off the Norwegian yoke, but in 1113 Olave, the
son of Godred Crovan, who had taken refuge in Eng-
land, recovered possession of the now independent king-
dom of the Isles, and reigned till 1153 or 1154, when he
was murdered by his nephews. Godred the Black,
Olave's son, succeeded him, but so alienated his sub-
jects by his arrogance, that Somerled, the powerful and
ambitious thane of Argyll, who had married Ragahildis,
the daughter of Olave, was encouraged to try to gain
the throne for his infant son Dougall. He carried the