SHE was a wayward American orphan sent to school in Scotland in the hope it would 'sort her out.'
But for Margaret Fay Shaw, her trip across the Atlantic was a doorway into another world, of clear skies, rough seas and the mysteries of Gaelic culture.
Dispatched to St Bride’s school in Helensburgh where her family had friends, she was introduced to Gaelic when she heard it sung by the Victorian song collector Marjory Kennedy Fraser.
Enchanted by the people, songs and sounds of the Outer Hebrides, she set out in a quest to document all she saw and heard, recording images and stories of a now long-vanished world.
Now, almost 100 years after her journey to Scotland's far-flung places, her incredible treasure trove of photographs and films depicting island life in the 1930s has been turned into a documentary which modern-day islanders will see for the first time next month.
Margaret was happiest documenting people's lives
Margaret Shaw fell in love with the Gaelic language, and with the people she found in the wild landscape of her new home.
READ MORE: Island community generates its own green power supply
Each day she would set about photographing them working on their crofts and lobster boats, writing down their folk tales and history in a book she later published.
Among the pictures she took were photographs of the very first plane landing on the Cockle Strand on Barra in 1936, a flight which has now become world famous.
Shaw not only took film and photos in the Outer Hebrides but also on the Isle of Canna, where she lived with her husband, fellow folklorist John Lorne Campbell, from 1938 when they bought the island, until her death at the age of 101 in 2004.
One of the first female documentarians, she compiled a rich archive of island life and produced two films for the BBC which were shown in the 1950s, but have not been largely forgotten.
Her work reveals a way of life little changed from the 1800s, where men and women worked the land as subsistence farmers, trading what they caught from the sea with the mainland.
READ MORE: SNP MP calls for a network of tunnels for Scotland's islands
Writing of her arrival on the islands, she said: "One morning I sailed northwest from Scotland to the long line of blue islands known as the Outer Hebrides. As we entered the narrow neck of the bay at Barra, we passed herring boats sailing out eastward in single file to the fishing grounds.
"The pier was crowded with people welcoming the boat. As we tied up, I heard a great rush of Gaelic and realised that I was in a Scotland unknown to me - strange and foreign and really individual in a way the English speaking Lowlands could never be.
"Here were the Outer Isles- a refuge of the Gaelic tongues and customs. I had come to collect folk songs."
She later added in her journal: "Of all the islands I’d visited, there was something about South Uist that just won me; it was like falling in love; it was the island I wanted to go back to.
"Of course , I was not looking for islands: I was looking for a way to live my life”.
Ploughing stoney ground
During production of the film, National Trust for Scotland’s Canna House archivist Fiona Mackenzie uncovered some previously unseen film, including footage the first plane Cockle Strand landing.
The film, titled 'Solas', uses samples from the sound archive recorded by John Lorne Campbell during the 30s and 40s in the Hebrides, primarily Barra, South Uist, Eriskay and Canna.
It will be film premiered at an event in South Uist on 3rd May.
Ms Mackenzie said: “I am delighted that we have been able to produce this lovely piece of work, to profile the work of an incredible woman who had the foresight to save for the world today, a piece of Scottish lifestyle which would have otherwise disappeared.
“We are very grateful to the National Trust for Scotland USA Foundation for making this project possible and also for the opportunity to prove that archives can be a living entity, not merely a collection of boxes on the shelf.
“It is only right that the film is premiered in the middle of the community which took Margaret to their hearts and were so generous with their time, language, love and culture."
Ms Mackenzie added: "Margaret said that Uist was the place ‘where she was loved the best’ and we hope that this will be evident in the film.
"South Uist was where I personally first studied the songs collected by the Campbells and I am pleased to be able to give a voice and vision to Margaret’s work.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel