This book gives a realistic description of life as it is and as it has been on an Outer Hebridean Island during the last four hundred years. It contains the accounts of travellers who visited the island at various times from 1549 to 1821; descriptions of Barra written by the local Church of Scotland ministers in 1794 and 1838; unpublished letters from the last two MacNeill lairds to the parish priest from 1805 to 1825; evidence given by Barra crofters and cottars to the Crofters’ Commission in 1883; and other material.