VISITOR'S BOOK
Jim and Helen Drewery, Honeymoon in Escape, July 2006
Scott and Lizzie, Skyescape, October 2006
A Dream
Fulfilled
by Rona Cooper, New Zealand, August 2006
It had long been a wish of mine to visit the Isle of Rona. My name is Rona. As I child I wished I had had a name like, Anne, or Mary. Whenever they called out class lists, I felt my name stood out. However, as the years pass, I became to realize how my name came about. It is a small Scottish island, off the coast of the Isle of Skye This was where my forebears came from to New Zealand. Our quick reference was found in ‘the green book” written by Jean Smythe from Auckland.
There were two brothers on board the ship “Viscount Canning”. Murdoch and Angus McLeod with their families. They landed in New Zealand January 21,1865, They had come from the Isle of Raasay. Murdoch was a widower and came with five sons; Angus and his wife Jessie came with their three children. Murdoch and Angus had been farming on Rona for some years. Murdoch's wife, Jessie (Graham) and their infant daughter Christina had died and were buried there. Their youngest son John was born on Rona. It says in the book, that on those last days, Jessie (Angus’ wife )not wanting to leave, is known to have tied herself to her bedpost and clung there. The family rowed across from Rona to Arnish and the family home.
My dreams had come true the day when a second cousin, also a New Zealander, said we could get a boat from Portree to the Isle of Rona. Five of us set out, my husband, Jeremy; my son Tim Rossiter and Cathy and Jeff Winnington. We docked at Big Harbour (Acaseid Mhor) and were met by Bill Cowie, the island manager. The rocks and the barrenness of the island awed us. How could people live here? Life indeed would have been hard. Tim was really disappointed as he learnt that we could only stay on the island for a short time. The grave of Jessie Graham, we wished to visit was not at the part where we would be docking and it would be too far to walk.
However, the thrill was to walk on the path and see the landscape. The large highland cattle eyed us as we walked up to Rona Lodge. We walked a path to a high point and looked back at the harbour. The view was awesome. The feel of being on the other side of the world and to think that our forefathers had farmed and lived here was just incredible.
As I understand, the family home was on Raasay, and then in the clearances they moved onto the Isle of Rona. That family lost its sons; three went to New Zealand, (another brother came in 1868) one brother left for Australia, (John, (1) and John (2) for Prince Edward Island (Nova Scotia).One brother, Donald remained on Raasay. His descendent was Calum Macleod who for many years maintained the Rona light and later became light house- keeper on Rona. His duty was for a “month on and then two weeks off”*.He was also a postman on the Isle of Raasay. However, his fame is for building the road, single-handed, on the Isle of Raasay. Possibly this was a protest or a re -action to people leaving the island. He mourned about the people that left at the time of the clearances and observed families still leaving in the twentieth century. He hoped to encourage people to come once again to the isle.
Visiting the isle of Rona has been a highlight of my 12 weeks holiday. I reassured Tim he could easily come again, stay at Rona Lodge, or the Bothy and spend some time to visit the graves at another date.
Some interesting things came out of that visit. Firstly, on our way back to Portree we talked to the captain of the “MV Stardust” boat trips, Dan Corrigal. He said he had Nicolson and MacKay relations. We looked at him again and said.” Well I never! You do look like my cousin’s husband, Neville Nicolson.” Neville is also a descendent from people of Raasay.
Another link occurred later, when we registered at the B&B “Ardgarry” in Inverness. As I signed in, the proprietor asked about my name and he exclaimed:“My wife has connections with Rona. Wait till I tell her!”
George and Laura Clarke, proprietors of Ardgarry, B&B Inverness, were so friendly and hospitable. They were instrumental in introducing us to Alasdair and Chrissie Macleod. Their photo is on the www.isleofrona.com website. Alasdair has the reputation of being the last man born on Rona and Chrissie was from Eilean Tighe. We had an evening talking to them about those days. A chance meeting in Inverness led to such a memorable visit.
Since my trip to Scotland and the Isles, I have been reading “Calum’s Road” by Roger Hutchinson. I have also purchased “Raasay -The Island and Its People” by Norma MacLeod and “Ouanagan, Oain is Oualchas a Eilean Ratharsair Fladaidh is Eilean Tighe.” Names such as MacLeod, Nicolson and MacKay are frequently mentioned. I still have more to learn about our forebears and the ways of those days. And who knows, with all these questions maybe I will get there again. I shall certainly delight in telling the story to my children.