Читать книгу The Isle of Mull. Mull, Ulva, Gometra, Iona and Erraid онлайн

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In the 14th century, Mull became part of the Lordship of the Isles, but after the collapse of the Lordship in 1493, the island was taken over by the Clan MacLean, who were to suffer for their support of the Royalist cause during the Commonwealth and later for their Jacobite tendencies. Their dispossessed lands were awarded to the Campbells, the Dukes of Argyll, and although they tried to encourage industry in Mull, without much success, financial problems forced them to part with their Mull lands by the mid-19th century.

The clan system, however, was always important, and following the end of the 15th century, virtually all the inhabitants lived within the clan system, a complex social hierarchy within which the clan chief held the land in trust for his clansmen, who were in turn bound to him in ties of kinship. This way of life was largely pastoral, founded on breeding cattle, which was the only form of wealth that could be liquidated by export to the mainland. Many of the routes taken by the cattle drovers across the island can still be followed today, virtually all of them leading to the lovely setting of Grasspoint near Craignure from where the beasts were taken to the island of Kerrera and onward to the mainland.