There is more than a local significance in the complete migration of the inhabitants of the island of Boreray to a settlement provided by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland on the mainland in North Uist. There were nineteen families on the island, which is situated in the Sound of Harris, about two miles from the larger island of Berneray, and something like the same distance from the Board of Agriculture's estate of Newton, where the islanders have found a new home.
It is worth reminding ourselves that Boreray is the exception to the fact that the islands in the Sound of Harris belong to the Parish of Harris which is why, to this day, sheep from Berneray, Harris are grazed on some of those islands.
This uprooting of a race of hardy independent people from the place of their birth has been brought about by the force of modern economic circumstances; they found it impossible any longer to eke out living in their cherished isolation from the ordinary haunts of men. The evacuation of Boreray the first definite indication of an inevitable process of decay which has set in amongst the more isolated outer islands of the Hebrides as they are now known. The stream of immigration from the outer isles, such as St Kilda and Berneray, has been growing in volume from year to year, and has now reached serious proportions. Since last year the population of St Kilda has dropped from 72 to less than 40, and the same tale has to be told of Berneray, while several other islands in the group are also feeling the pinch of modern competition.
Within five years of this article St Kilda would be evacuated, but Berneray still survives and thrives.
Causes of Decline
The principal causes of this decline of these once virile island communities may be summarised as follows:
(1) The failure of the fishing industry owing to isolation from the world's markets;
(2) the low productivity of the soil, which is for the most part peaty;
(3) the inability of the islanders to compete successfully in the manufacture of Harris tweeds owing to the introduction of modern methods on the mainland; and
(4) the disinclination of the younger to follow the rough-and-ready life led by their forefathers.
An interesting list, the third of which is a reminder that the status of 'Harris Tweed' was still in a great state of flux during the interwar period. There is some wonderfully productive machair land, as well as the predominant peat, and commercial fishing has always been subject to periods of boom and bust. What is incontrovertible is the significance of the final cause which remains the greatest challenge almost a century after the article was published.
The last reason the most potent cause of all of the changes which we overtaking the western island peoples. The introduction of modern education has brought about a metamorphosis in the outlook the younger generation. Whereas the older islanders were content to go about their simple rural tasks and converse in Gaelic, which was the only language known to them, the younger people have had instilled in them broader ideas of the purpose of life, and at an early age seek the greater attractions of city life or the more spacious atmosphere of life in the Dominions.
Present indications, says the Observer, are that within the next few years many of the islands of the oft-sung Outer Hebrides will become but relics of history.
Source: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000563/19251012/031/0003
Dundee Evening Telegraph-Monday 12 October 1925
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