History

Canna’s history is one of Celtic saints, clan rule, and dedicated scholarship. The island is believed to have been a monastic settlement in the time of St Columba, and a beautifully carved 9th-century cross near the main church speaks to this long Christian heritage. For centuries, the island was contested by the powerful MacDonald and MacLeod clans before a period of relative stability. Unlike many islands, Canna was spared the worst of the Highland Clearances, allowing a continuity of life and culture to endure.

The island’s modern story is inextricably linked with its last private owners, the Gaelic scholar and folklorist John Lorne Campbell and his wife, the musician Margaret Fay Shaw. They bought Canna in 1938 and dedicated their lives to preserving and documenting Gaelic culture. They ran the island as a single farm and created a remarkable archive of Gaelic songs, stories, and photographs. In 1981 John Lorne Campbell gave the island to the National Trust for Scotland, which still looks after it.