Journey 1
Thomas Pennant
Islay
Why was ‘the green isle’ so poor?
Much of the old Hebridean capital is lush and fertile, sitting as it does in the Gulf Stream.
Pennant was drawn to ‘the green isle’ by that verdant wildlife, along with tales of ruins and secret cliff hideaways. What he found was something more, something that began to change the course of his journey.
For despite its agricultural abundance, the 7000-8000 inhabitants of Islay were starving, “worn down by poverty, their habitations scenes of misery”.
Why?
Readers of Pennant’s account could find the answer between his lines. The landowners, or lairds, were holding on to power by hiking rents impossibly high. And when tenants couldn’t pay, the lairds evicted them and turned the land over to more profitable sheep grazing.
These Highland Clearances were at their most ruthless in the 1800s, but were already underway in Pennant’s day. By drawing attention to them, he was the equivalent of today’s frontline journalist.