Canna

This is the definitive history of Canna, one of the most beautiful of all the Scottish islands. Fertile and with a sheltered harbour, Canna has played an important part in the story of the Hebrides.

After the Reformation the island was of considerable importance to the Irish Franciscan mission of the 1620s and also the Jacobite risings before it was swept up in the tragedies of depopulation and clearances of the nineteenth century.

Gifted to the National Trust in 1981, the island is currently undergoing something of a revival, with the creation of the St Edward Centre on Sanday, and the proposed developments of Canna House.

Recent archaeological surveys and historical research has uncovered much new evidence about the island. Hugh Cheape of the Royal Museum of Scotland, who has been intimately involved in the Canna project, has fully edited the book. New contributions both update and fill out the account of the island.



John Lorne Campbell was one of the foremost scholars of the Gaelic world. His library on Canna is possibly the finest collection of Gaelic material in existence and has now become a study centre. He was the author and editor of many books and was responsible for putting into print some of the major figures of the Gaelic world, such as The Coddy, from Barra and Angus Maclellan, from South Uist. His wife, Margaret Fay Shaw, still lives in Canna House. Canna was first published in paperback by Canongate in 1994.



'The scholarly dignity of this book is impressive, yet delightfully unforbidding. It makes splendid reading'



'The story of Canna is one of optimism, memorably written by a man who cares passionately for people, their language and their landscapes'