Hallaig

The poem is named after a deserted township located on the south-eastern corner of the Hebridean island of Raasay, the poet's birthplace. Along with much of Raasay, the crofting settlement of Hallaig was depopulated between 1852 and 1854 by landowner George Rainy. MacLean's relatives were affected, and the author decided to evoke the community of this abandoned village in his poem. It is a reflection on the nature of time and the historical impact of the Highland Clearances leaving an empty landscape populated only by the ghosts of the evicted and those forced to emigrate. Hallaig was written in Edinburgh about 100 years after depopulation of the Isle of Raasay and was originally published…