Thirty Years of Adventures in Search of the Past: Volume 2 Skye and The Small Isles including Raasay, Rona & The Isles of Gavin Maxwell

This beautifully illustrated book, written in Marc’s inimitable informal style, fills a clear gap in the burgeoning market of books about Skye and the nearby Small Isles. The words in each part of its title - ‘Thirty Years of Adventures in Search of the Past’ – have been carefully selected and together are definitive. Unlike so many books about Skye, Marc is not primarily concerned with the dramatic scenery which attracts so many visitors, nor with tourist ‘hotspots’ such as the Old Man of Storr and the so-called ‘Fairy Pools’ and ‘Fairy Glen’, but rather with areas ‘off the beaten track’ which once sustained a viable human community but are now deserted. The history of such lost communities in Skye and in Raasay, South Rona, Soay, Rum, Eigg, Canna and Muck is often not covered in current guidebooks and requires significant research to appreciate, while to reach the locations today involves considerable preparation and physical effort.