Early history
At Rubh' An Tangaird, near Glamisdale on the southern coast, there are the remains of an oval house, with thick walls, and an upright stone at each side of the doorway. There are comparable structures in Shetland such as at Scord of Brouster, which suggests a Neolithic date.[22]
Evidence for the island having been occupied in the Bronze Age includes two axes and a cache of flints, one of them being thumbnail scraper found near Galmisdale, together with significant metalworking debris.[23][24] A barbed-and-tanged flint arrowhead of uncertain date was found to the south of Kildonnan.[25]
Iron Age
Early Iron Age hut circles are found throughout the island. One located near the northeast coast near Sron na h-Iolaire is close to a cave to which walls have been artificially added; several hammerstones are located in the cave and surrounding vicinity, some with concretions of crushed shells stuck to them. The cave site is difficult to reach leading archaeologists to speculate that the site may have been used for hermitic purposes.[26]
Later in the Iron Age, the inhabitants of Eigg chose to fortify the island. Small fortifications restrict access to rocky knolls at Garbh Bealach west of Galmisdale[27] and Poll Duchaill on the northwest coast[28] and on the promontory of Rudha na Crannaig south of Kildonnan.[29] More substantial duns existed at Galmisdale Point,[30] and at Loch nam Ban Mora, the latter of which is located on an island.[31]
Early Christianity
The Irish missionary activity which caused Columba to found a monastery on Iona also brought the Irish monk Donnán to Eigg around 600 AD, where he established a monastery, at Kildonnan. Columba had warned him of the dangers of settling in Pictish territory and Donnan was murdered on Eigg along with 52 of his monks in 617. By the following century, the monastery was significant enough for the death of its superior, Oan, to be mentioned in the Annals of Ulster. The monastery, which was excavated in 2012, was located within an oval enclosure, surrounded by a ditch, housing a rectangular chapel in the centre, and with a handful of smaller buildings either side.[32][33] A handful of early inscribed stone slabs were located there, of which one bears a Pictish design, comprising a hunting scene, with a cross on its obverse.[34]
On the coast at the opposite side of the island, are 16 or more quare cairns, lined up neatly into groups; they are each between 3.5 and 5 m square, most being bordered by a stone kerb, and some having upright cornerstones. This form of cairn is usually associated with the Pictish kingdoms of the first millennium AD. The site may thus have some connection with the contemporary monastery at Kildonnan.[35]
Kingdom of the Isles
Commencing in the early 9th century Norse settlers established the Kingdom of the Isles throughout the Hebrides. A silver/bronze sword handle from the beginning of this period was found in 1830, buried in a field named Dail Sithean near Kildonnan, together with an iron axehead, leather belt, buckle, wollen cloth, and a whetstone.[36] Wetlands near Laig, (which became peat-bog, during later centuries) appear to have been used for storing partly finished boat parts, as was common in Viking Scandinavia. A few oak posts, 6 ft in length, for the stern of a longship were found there.[37] A simple bronze brooch was found at a nearby site.[38] By the late 11th century the Isles were controlled by the Crovan dynasty but the dictatorial style of Guðrøðr Óláfsson (aka Godred the Black) appears to have made him very unpopular with the Islesmen, and the ensuing conflicts were the beginning of the end for Mann and the Isles as a coherent territory under the rule of a single magnate. The powerful barons of the isles began plotting with an emerging and forceful figure – Somerled, Lord of Argyll.
Early Clanranald rule
Upon the death of John of Islay his son Donald, Ranald's half-brother, was named Lord of the Isles at Kildonan on Eigg in 1387. Ranald, who became the founder of Clan Macdonald of Clanranald, appeared content with this decision by his father as suggested in the Charter of 1373, the misgivings of many of the noblemen of the Isles notwithstanding.[41]
However, when Ranald died in 1386 at Castle Tioram, Godfrey seized his lands, leading to violent disputes between his heirs (the Siol Gorrie) and those of Ranald (Clanranald). In 1427 James I arrested the leaders and declared the Lordship of Garmoran forfeit. Ranald Bane MacAllan, leader of Clanranald, refused to support the rebellion of Donald Dubh against James IV. In 1505, after the rebellion was defeated, he was "now in high favour at Court". In 1520, Ranald Bane's son Dougall, the 6th chief of Clanranald, was assassinated by his own clansmen in part for his lack of opposition to the crown. Leadership of Clanranald then passed not to his sons but to the Moidart branch of the clan. In 1534 John Moidartach, 8th of Clanranald, managed to obtain from the king a charter confirming his position as laird of Eigg and Morar.
Writing in 1549, Donald Munro, High Dean of the Isles wrote of "Egge" that it was: "gude mayne land with ane paroch kirk in it, with mony solenne geis; very gude for store, namelie for scheip, with ane heavin for heiland Galayis".[42]
Massacre cave
Uamh Fhraing, also known as the Cave of Francis or the Ribbed Cave, lies on a raised beach on the south coast of Eigg. The entrance is low and narrow but the interior is about 60 m long and 6 m wide. In 1577, according to Clan MacLeod historians, a MacLeod galley was forced ashore by bad weather at Eilean Chathasteil. Led by a foster-son of Alasdair Crotach the 30 men roasted some cattle and "molested" the young girls who were tending them. The local men then arrived on the islet and massacred most of the MacLeods, sparing only a few leaders whose legs and arms were broken and who were then cast adrift in the Minch. They were however either rescued by MacLeods from elsewhere or perhaps drifted back to Dunvegan. In the MacDonald version of the story the girls were raped and the MacLeods were asked to leave. Looking for revenge, a large group of MacLeods led by Alasdair Crotach landed on Eigg, but had been spotted by the islanders, all but one of whom decided to hide in the cave. The traditions go on to say that the MacLeods conducted a thorough but fruitless search for the inhabitants. They found only an old lady at the singing sands who they spared and left the island after 3 days. Just as they were leaving they saw a scout outside the cave and were able to follow their footprints in the snow to the entrance. The MacLeods piled thatch and heather at the cave entrance, and set fire to it. Water from a waterfall nearby dampened the flames, so that the cave was filled with smoke, asphyxiating the 395 people inside. Human remains inside the cave have been reported many times over the centuries. Most of the remains were removed from the cave and reburied by 1854[43] although occasionally further sets of human bones are exposed.
However, serious doubts remain about the veracity of the tale. MacPherson wrote of it that "it is curious to find how difficult it is to determine its date or to decide with certainty on whom the odium of this deed should lie."
Jacobite risings
Clan Ranald took part in the Jacobite rising of 1689 against William II. The following year a boat had gone from Eigg to Armadale on Skye and found that the Royal Navy ship the Dartmouth was anchored there. A brawl broke out and one of the Cameronian soldiers was killed. The captain ordered the Dartmouth to Eigg and pillaged the island. The soldiers also took an island girl on board and returned her the next day with her hair shorn.
The men of Eigg also rose and fought in both the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745. After the failure of the rebellion a navy vessel arrived on the island seeking one of the Clanranald officers, John MacDonald of Kinlochmoidart. After his discovery on the island all 38 surviving islanders who had served in the '45 were arrested by Captain John Ferguson. They were held on board H.M.S. Furnace and remained there when it became a prison hulk anchored in the River Thames off Gravesend, Kent. Although many died aboard the Furnace from torture, disease, or starvation, the remaining 16 were eventually transported to the Colony of Barbados and the Colony of Jamaica, to work as slave laborers on sugar cane plantations.[49][50]
19th century clearances
The 18th century introduction of the potato to Eigg lead to increased yields compared to cereal growing and by the end of the century the population had expanded to about 500 The outbreak of the Peninsular War created a potential new route to wealth, by limiting foreign supplies of valuable minerals. Kelp could be harvested to produce soda ash and rapidly increased in price. In 1817, the estate factors reduced the size of each tenancy (for example, Cleadale was re-arranged into 28 plots), to stop their tenants from becoming self-sufficient and forcing them to also harvest kelp in order to break even. However, soon after the creation of these smaller tenancies (crofts), foreign mineral supplies were re-introduced, as the Napoleonic Wars had ended. The kelp price crashed and the crofters struggled to avoid destitution.
Some families voluntarily emigrated to Antigonish County, Nova Scotia to escape both rising rents and crushing poverty. They settled on a high plateau near the coast of the Northumberland Strait, which they named Eigg Mountain. Meanwhile, like many other Anglo-Scottish landlords during the Highland Clearances, Ranald George Macdonald, 19th Chief of Clanranald issued orders to evict the whole village of Cleadale, and use the land for sheep; both to cover his debts and to continue funding his extremely extravagant spending.
Raonuill Dubh's son Aonghas Lathair MacDhòmhnaill took over the tack of Eigg and gained local infamy by beginning evictions from Cleadale. When severe hardships fell upon Aonghas Lathair and his family, which resulted in the tacksman committing suicide, the old people of Eigg blamed the family's misfortune on the curse that was said to have been put on them by the women whom he had evicted from Cleadale.
Later lairds
The purchaser and new owner of Eigg was Dr. Hugh MacPherson, a Sub-Principal at King's College, Aberdeen. He was not wealthy and had 12 children but was well-connected. The Scottish geologist and writer Hugh Miller visited the island in the 1840s and wrote a long and detailed account of his explorations in his book The Cruise of the Betsey published in 1858. Miller was a self-taught geologist and the book contains detailed observations of the geology of the island, including An Sgùrr and the singing sands.
The financial woes of the islanders were compounded by the Highland Potato Famine. Furthermore, Dr. MacPherson decided to evict his tenants en masse and replace them with herds of sheep. In 1853, the whole village of Gruilin was cleared and all but three families emigrated to Nova Scotia. One woman who was left behind never recovered from the evictions and threw herself into the sea off the cliffs. Three more villages were similarly cleared shortly thereafter.
The MacPhersons sold Eigg to Robert Thompson, a wealthy shipbuilder, in 1893. He died in 1913 and is buried on Eilean Chathastail. After being sold by Thompson's family in 1917, the island passed through various hands, including the cabinet minister, Walter Runciman, until being purchased by Keith Schellenberg in 1975. Unlike his predecessors, who had sought to use the resources of the island for their own power, profit, or leisure, Schellenberg had conservationist motives; he wished to restore its listed buildings, and preserve the natural environment.[54]
