The small isles off the west coast of Scotland, in particular the Inner Hebrides, south of Skye, have long been the haunts of people who wanted to indulge fantasies of owning their own island. But as this second leg of the series The Edge of the Land demonstrates, times have been changing.
Since the series was filmed in 1996, two of the islands have been taken over by their own inhabitants. In the case of Eigg, it was from a mysterious German artist known as Maruma, in 1997. At Rum, it was from Scottish Natural Heritage who have run the island as a nature reserve for the best part of half a century. The final vote, from all 17 of the islanders entitled to vote (out of a total population of about 30) was taken as recently as January 2009.
Other islands such as Islay continue to thrive though the population has fallen slightly to about 3500. The Bruichladdich distillery there has closed and re-opened in the hands of a new consortium in the meantime.
Jura remains as wild as ever and on Colonsay, still owned by Lord Strathconan whose son and heir does actually live on the island, life has been enhanced by the opening of a micro-brewery, one of a considerable number springing up around Scotland’s fringes thanks to a recent change in the way beer production is taxed.
On Mull, no visit to Tobermory, the island's charming capital, is now complete without a reference to the children's TV series Balamory which was filmed there, making use of the colourfully painted house along the harbour front.
The Duke of Argyll launched another effort in 2008 to locate the Spanish galleon whose gold doubloons, according to local legend, carpet the sea-floor in the bay but nothing has been found at the time of writing (February 2009).
The sea-eagles introduced back onto Rum (with chicks from Norway) have been one of the outstanding successes of nature conservancy. Now birds are being brought to Scotland’s east coast as well and one was spotted only last month as far south as the Cumbrian coast in England.
