This is what the community used to look like on a tiny archipelago in the Inner Hebrides

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

On the most westerly point of mainland Scotland, a group of four islands – the Small Isles – have a population of 200 today

They were once home to more than 1,600 residents, but the sequence of forced displacement known as the Clearances, during the 18th and 19th centuries, saw the islanders reluctantly move to the Scottish mainland and across the Atlantic, as sheep farming took over.

Physical evidence of the lost communities can still be traced. When Professor John Hunter wandered almost the entirety of the islands, he found the rock shards of prehistoric trading networks, forts built by warlords and the chassis of a 1930s sports car dumped in the sea by an aristocrat.

Some of the settlements were established 10,000 years ago, and bloodstone with “magical” qualities was once a source of income here. Some early Christian pilgrims were murdered, and elite Victorian sporting retreats were set up.

“They are small islands with big histories,” says the professor. “Over the last two centuries, the traditions, customs, buildings and even place-names of these four islands had been depleted and erased.

“They had become islands without memories. The islanders took their traditions and memories with them. They were economic migrants.

“All that remain are ruined townships, like Port Mor on Muck, where islanders, forced off the land, tried to make a living before leaving for the New World.”

His research drew on 150 years of unpublished maps, drawings, photos and field surveys, trying to find the footprints of an uncharted culture.

“These quiet-seeming landscapes hide centuries of hardship, intrigue, controversy and violence.

"The Small Isles are fascinating in how they both display and hide their secrets within their modern landscapes.

“There are few places so geographically concentrated that provide such a vivid illustration of Scotland’s past from prehistory to the present day.”

• Professor Hunter’s book, The Small Isles, is published by Historic Environment Scotland.

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Three Scottish coastal museums to see

Isle of Arran Heritage Museum, North Ayrshire
Originally the site of a small school, the present group of buildings were a croft and smiddy, and include a farmhouse, cottage, bothy, milk house, laundry, stable, coach house and harness room. The exhibits reflect the social history, archaeology and geology of the island.

Museum of the Isles, Isle of Skye
Six interconnecting galleries take you through 1,500 years of the history and culture of the area once known as the Kingdom of the Isles.

Raasay Heritage Trust Museum, Isle of Raasay
Raasay Heritage Society was formed to preserve and promote the language and culture of the island for future generations and to show visitors all aspects of the island's unique past and its unusual geological and botanical features.

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/art558390-inner-hebrides-small-isles-book-hunter