Thursday, February 15, 2007

Fraser Darling’s Island Years

In the 1930's and 40's there was a feeling that remote Scottish islands could be sources of peace and inspiration. Whether it was for a study of nature or just an attempt to reach out to the further reaches of the British Isles.

My own desire to visit remote islands started with a read of Frank Fraser Darling's Island Years (1940) and Island Farm (1948). In these books, Frank Fraser Darling describes his experience in living on several uninhabited Scottish islands. Fraser Darling was an ecologist before the word was in public use. His studies in the Scottish Highlands and Islands are what started his distinguished career.

furthermore...

In 1939 Fraser Darling published Naturalist on Rona: Essays of a Biologist Isolation (Oxford) and it was well like but the public who read this work complained that there was nothing of the author's own adventure:

But what we want to know is how you lived please

This, Frank Fraser Darling wrote in the Preface to his Island Years (1940). This was an account of his experiences on The Summer Isles, Treshish (Lunga) and North Rona. Much of this work was written on Tanera More (on of the Summer Isles) at the time when he and his wife Marian Fraser Darling were renovating the farm and pier there. This became 'Island Farm' published in 1944. This book starts with a nostalgia for the Hebrides and describes the physical hardship endured as Frank and 'Bobbie' undertake the restoration of the farm at Tigh an Quay. Amongst the many photographs in this book is a reproduction of William Daniell's print of the Pier at Tanera, showing how in the 1820's that this island was a very busy community.