Addiction (1995) 90, 277-288

RESEARCH REPORT

Alcohol in Hebridean culture: 16th-20thcentury

ALAN DEAN

Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Social Policy and Professional Studies, TheUniversity of Hull, HU6 7RX, UK

AbstractTJiis paper sets out to document certain cultural antecedents to alcohol use in a British community. In orderto demonstrate the extent to which patterns of alcohol consumption arise within broader social and culturalcontexts, drinking practices on the Western Isles of Scotland are examined in light of specific social, economicand religious changes which have taken place between the 16th and 20th centuries. This paper thus seeks toargue that drinking practices are historical in that they arise within the context of the social and materialconditions of a given epoch.

IntroductionHistorical studies of mood-altering substanceshave been able to demonstrate the enduring in-terest human communities have vnth particularforms of intoxication, and the ways these havechanged over time. Berridge's work on drug use(1988) and Harrison's (1986) on tobacco areparticularly noteworthy in this respect. As suchhistorical studies have shown, the recreationaluse of mood-altering substances has not arisenfrom the beginning within contemporary society,but is instead enduring, though changing in na-ture, over time. Although the use of intoxicantshas a specific form or forms in a given epoch,certain usage can be seen to originate in pastsocial practices. Thus any comprehensive analy-sis of substance use needs an historical compo-nent.

This current paper seeks to provide such ananalysis in charting the use of alcohol in a Britishcommunity over the last 350 or so years. Inundertaking this exercise it is not inten'ded toproduce an authoritative social history of thecommunity in question—this would not be poss-

ible over such an extended period of time withina short paper—but rather to trace out the strandsof continuity and discontinuity in the use ofalcohol over time. In doing so it is intended todemonstrate that drinking practices are historicalin nature. It will be argued that social changes,such as those arising from modifications in thelaw, the evolution of religious practices (particu-larly the decline of pagan beliefs and the rise ofpuritanistic Presbyterianism) and levels of econ-omic prosperity have acted to promote or limitpatterns of alcohol use over time.

This current study took place between 1988and 1991. Sections detailing drinking practicesin the pre-20th century are based on resourcesmade available at the National Library of Scot-land in Edinburgh. The contemporary work wasbased on an extensive ethnographic study ofisland drinking patterns carried out between1987 and 1990 on the Isles of Lewis and Barrain the Western Isles of Scotland. The studyincluded long periods of participant observation,the compilation of notes of numerous informalconversations, formal, taped individual or group

0965-2140/95/020277-12 1995, Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcoholand other Drugs

278 Alan Dean

interviews of one to two hours' duration withapproximately 160 people aged between 16 and95 years. This fieldwork included 15 in-depthlife history interviews with islanders aged 65 to95 years. This paper is one part of a larger studyof Hebridean drinking practices, the first sectionof which focused exclusively on contemporarydrinking practices within youth culture (seeDean, 1990).

The Hebridean contextThese islands lie several hours' ferry journeyfrom the west coast of Scotland, and the largesttown on the islands, Stomoway, is approximatelytwice the distance from London as Pads or Brus-sels. The 1981 census figures gave a total popu-lation of 31 000 spread between six main islands;Lewis in the north, Harris, North Uist, Benbec-ula. South Uist and Barra furthest south some100 miles west of Oban. These islands form aunique culture within the British Isles. Althoughthey have experienced a long past of externalinterference from Viking raids and occupationnearly 1000 years ago to southern English rule inthe present, through the oral tradition withinGaelic culture founded on story telling, poetryand song-writing and music, there has remainedfor islanders a distinct identity within contem-porary Britain. In consequence, established is-land families have maintained a form of social, ifnot always physical, ownership of the islands.The importance of the Gaelic language in themaintenance of a distinct identity for westernislanders has been noted by Thompson, Wailey& Lummis (1983): 'The Western Islanders speakGaelic as their first language. This has helpedthem to preserve a separate culture, and hin-dered their absorption into the mainland econ-omy.... Even in the 1870s ... Gaelic wasreported as "a check to the migration of bothsexes" from the Western Isles.'

The oral tradition within Gaelic culture wasbased to a great extent on stories and songsperformed within the home to audiences of im-mediate neighbours. These meetings, the ceilidh,provided not only a means of entertainment butalso a form of social bonding. These events were,for a long time, an integral part of island villagelife, as MacGillivray writing in the 1830sconfirms in the following refiection (quoted byGooper, 1979):

In the meantime the natives are snugly seatedaround their blazing peat-fires, amusing them-selves with the tales and songs of other years,and enjoying the domestic harmony which noother people can enjoy with less interruptionthan the Hebridean Gelts.

In the present, islanders themselves have notedthat increased affluence and the rise of moreinsular entertainment such as television has re-duced such social inter-dependency. The ceilidhat home has thus decreased in importance. How-ever, despite this change social bonds arisingfrom the shared culture and language continueto be maintained between islanders, even afrerthey have moved away from home to the main-land. Young people leaving the Western Isles forwork or college, for example, continue to social-ize within a predominantly, though not exclu-sively, closed community of other islanders. TheWest End Hotel in Edinburgh and the Park Barin Glasgow are two main meeting places forislanders on either a Friday or Saturday night inthe south of Scotland.

However, the routine use of alcohol in day today social events has not always been a feature ofsocial life in Hebridean culture. Earliest evidencesuggests that alcohol served mainly, though notnecessarily exclusively, medicinal or ritualisticpurposes up to the early 20th century in crofringcommunities. Although informal consumptionduring social gatherings took place when incomelevels made this possible, it was only after the1939—45 war that such consumption becamewidespread. After this time alcohol began to beconsumed both more openly and routinely indaily life. In attempting to demonstrate thatcommunal patterns of alcohol use are groundedwithin particular aspects of community life, thiscurrent paper will seek to trace out these chang-ing circumstances of alcohol use in Hebrideanculture between the 16th and 20th centuries,and relate these changes to certain broader socialtransformations.

Alcohol use in Hebridean culture: 16th-19thcenturyEarliest references to alcohol use in the WesternIsles refer to ritual rather than informal socialuse. For example. Sir Donald Munro, who trav-elled through the islands in 1549, noted the useof alcohol during a baptism ceremony:

Alcohol in Hebridean culture 279

The inhabitants therof ar simple poor people,scarce learnt in aney religion. But McCloyd ofHerrat, his Stewart or he Quhom he deputs insic office, sailes anes in the year ther at mid-summer, with some chaplaine, they baptizether bairns themselfes. The said Stewart, as hehimself tauld me, uses to take ane maske ofmalt ther vfixh a masking fatt, and makes hismalt, and ere the fatt be ready, the comons ofthere town, baith men, weemen, and bairns,puts their hands in the fatt and findis it sweeit,and eats the greyns after the sweitness therof,quhilk they leave nather wirt or draffe unsup-pit out ther, quharwith baith men, women andbairns, were deid drunken, sua that they couldnot stand upon their feet (Munro, 1884).

Later accounts from the early 17th century makereference to drinking during a pagan ceremonyon the Isle of Lewis. Dymes (1630) made arecord of this ceremony, which took place at twomeetings in the year:

... one at candlemas, and the other at alhoUau-tide where theire custume was to eat anddrincke untill they were drunke.

Martin (1716) provided a fuller account of thisgathering which made clear its pagan origins(according to MacKenzie (1919), Martin wrotein about 1670, some 45 years earlier than thepublication date):

The Inhabitants of this Island had an ancientCustom to sacrifice to a Sea-God call'd Shony,at Hallowtide, in the manner following: TheInhabitants round the island came to thechurch of St Mulvay. having each Man hisProvision along with him; every Family fur-nish'd a Peck of Malt, and this was brew'dinto Ale ... and [after reciting an appeal forassistance in the coming year] threw the Cupof Ale into the sea ... [then after having goneto church] all of them went to the Fields,where they fell a drinking their Ale, and spentthe remainder of the Night in Dancing andSinging, etc.

In Dymes's account the ceremony continuedwithin the church while in Martin's version theproceedings had been removed to the fields.According to Martin the practice itself had dis-continued in 1653 as a result of an order by the

minister, Donald Morison. This certainly fitswith Dymes's account, which refers to interfer-ence in the proceedings by the church on thebasis of idolatry. The pagan basis of the ritual isfurther confirmed by MacKenzie's (1922)suggestion that 'Shony' may well be the He-bridean Sea God Seonaidh.

Pagan beliefs were important to island cus-toms at this time, and even into the 18th cen-tury. MacKenzie (1903) suggested that this ritewas probably a survival of a Norse autumnalsacrificial feast originating from worship ofNiordr, the Scandinavian god of the sea. Andeven though this specific form was discontinueddue to pressure fi-om the Christian church itsurvived in a different form as worship of a StBrianan. According to MacKenzie (1903) formsof Shony-worship were cited as having been ob-served in Lewis as late as the 19th century.MacKenzie further notes that 'Before the refor-mation, the religion of the Long Islanders, so faras can be ascertained, was a strange conglomer-ation of Christian beliefs and heathen rites. TheChristianity of the Celts ... was superimposedupon the ... pagan creed ... of Odin and Thor.'When Christianity began to increase in infiuencethe worship of pagan gods became transposed asthe worship of saints. As MacKenzie notes,'there is abundant evidence to show that down tothe eighteen century, the real religion of thepeople was simply saint worship strongly dilutedby the pagan rites inherited from their Norseforefathers'. At this time it thus appears thatislanders' religious practices promoted ritualizedalcohol use. However, as Christianity grew ininfiuence, particularly in the north of the islands,this association became reversed (see below).

Martin (1716) makes further reference to theritualized use of alcohol. In particular he refers toa Streah, a round, where drinking followed aformalized routine for sometimes 24-48 hours:

The Company sat in a Circle, the Cup-BearerfiU'd the Drink round to them, and all wasdrank out, whatever the Liquor was, whetherstrong or weak; they continu'd drinking some-times twenty four, sometimes forty eightHours: It was reckon'd a piece of Manhood todrink until they became drunk, and there weretwo Men with Barrow attending punctually onsuch Occasions. They stood at the Door untilsome became drunk, and they carry'd themupon the Barrow to bed, and retum'd again to

280 Alan Dean

their post as long as any continu'd fresh, andso carry'd off the whole Company one by oneas they became drunk. Several of my Acquain-tance have been witnesses to this Custom ofDrinking, but it is now abolish'd.

According to Martin, drinks accepted duringthese meetings had to be consumed withoutstopping. And anyone who left the company, ifeven for a few minutes, had to apologize for theirabsence on return in rhyme. Although the writernotes that the custom had discontinued at thetime of writing (1670), no mention is made ofthe reasons for this change in social custom. Alsoof note is, in contrast to pagan ceremonies, theapparent absence of women on these occasions^a practice which has more contemporary formsin the British Isles. Equality in public access toalcohol is only a recent phenomenon, and evenin the 1990s women who drink alone in a publichouse may be judged unfavourably.

Also recounted by Martin were details of adrinking protocol which, he recorded, appliedboth to formal meetings or when men met to-gether purely for the purpose of drinking. Onthese occasions the door to the house would beleft open but a rod would be placed across it towarn uninvited people ('persons without distinc-tion' in Martin's terms) not to enter. If thiswarning was ignored a hostile reception could beexpected:

If any should be of rude as to take up this Rod,and come in uncall'd, he is sure to be nowelcome Guestj for this is accounted such anAffront to the Company, that they are boundin honour to resent it; and the Person offend-ing may come to have his Head broken, if hedo not meet with a harsher Reception.

Political events which took place in the early partof the 17th century on the instructions of JamesVI of Scotland, I of England to reduce theWestern Isles of Scotland to obedience to theCrown provide further insights into alcohol useon the islands at this time.

Attempts to limit opposition to the Crown ledto the institution of the Statutes of Icolmhill(Privy Council of Scotland, 1889). Thesestatutes implemented a form of social policybound by law, which included, among a broadrange of changes, the provision of certain civilrights which sought to protect islanders from

exploitation by travellers demanding food anddrink. This provision was made within the con-text of opening inns on the islands to provide fortravellers and others requiring drink or food.Unfortunately, however, it was not possible totrace any travellers' accounts of inns at this time.In fact, it would seem that they may have hadlittle impact on island customs. Some 200 yearslater local families were still called on to providefor travellers within their own homes. MacCul-loch (1824), in letters to Sir Walter Scott, recallsthe continuing, nature of hospitality in NorthUist:

This is the true Highland hospitality, neverboasted of, yet never failing. In all the wilds Iever visited, I never yet entered the bleakesthut without having what was to be given, thebest place by the fire, the milk tub, the oatcake, the potatoes, the eggs, if it was possibleto persuade the hens to do such a deed, and aglass of whisky if it was to be found.

References were also made within the Statutes todrunkenness oti the islands and, in seeking toaddress this issue, the consumption of importedwine or 'acquavitie' was outlawed; except in theprivate houses of 'barons and gentlemen'. Whatform of drunkenness is being referred to here isnot clear: that is, whether it was a reference tothe formalized drinking ceremonies described byMartin, a perception of more widespread drink-ing or a problem of drunkenness among specificopponents of the Crown!

However, although imports of wine and spiritswere banned, provision was made for the localproduction of 'acquivitie and other drink to servein their own houses'. It should be noted thataqua vitae is Uterally translated into Gaelic asuisge beathe, that is whisky, but the term in theStatute may equally have referred to brandy.

According to MacGregor & Cooper (1984)whisky was a relatively new drink within islandculture which islanders began to distil after1609. This view was also held by Geddes(1955), who remarked that about 'the seven-teenth century there was introduced the makingof aqua vitae, uisge beatha or "whisky", an ad-dition to the ancient drink of home-brewed beeror ale (lionn), a pleasant brew still tolerated bythe excise'. Until this time it would appear,therefore, that the average island villager hadaccess to only a type of ale, as referred to by both

Alcohol in Hebridean culture 281

Munro (1884) and Martin (1716). And evenafter these developments, although islanders be-gan to brew several types of spirit, evidencesuggests that consumption was generally limitedto medicinal use. Martin provides some earlyevidence:

The Air is here [in Lingay] moist and moder-ately cold, the Natives qualify it sometimes bydrinking a Glass of Usquebaugh [uisgebeatha] the Diarrhea is cured by drinkingAquavitae, and the stronger the better.... aspotted Fever, which is commonly cured bydrinking a glass of Brandy or Aquavitae. [Thismay have been locally distilled Usquebaugh,uisge beatha.]

Such preventative or curative uses of whisky hasalso been noted by MacGregor & Cooper (1984)who noted that guests about to depart to anothervillage some miles away would be given the deochan dorus, the drink of the door, to drive away'evil humours' should they tire on the journeyand have to sleep out in the glen.

MacCuUoch's observations on the hospitalityof islanders in the 19th century, quoted above,suggest that it was uncommon to find whisky inthe average private house at this time. In somerespects this is surprising as, as has already beencited, the Statues of Icolmhill made allowancefor the distillation of spirits on the islands, thuseffecting the development of the required skillsand knowledge within the island community.Cooper (1979) notes that the excessive dutyimposed on legally distilled whisky resulted inthe growth of widespread illicit distilling which,he states, became 'as much a part of the ruralscene as hay making'. However, he further statesthat often whisky was the only currency availableon the islands, a proposition supported byMacKenzie (1919) who, in noting the commonpractice of illicit distilling, recorded the use ofsuch spirits as currency, particularly when payingrents, '... trade in whisky entered deeply into theeconomic life of the community. In the firstquarter of the century, the Lewis people paidrent to the proprietor in four forms—money,meal, butter and mutton ... the cash proportionof the rents was sometimes made up in part byits equivalent in "aquavity" '. This implies acertain level of acceptance of illicit stills by land-lords. Certainly the practice of illicit distillingappears to have been common knowledge as.

according to MacKenzie (1919), 'The stills ofColl and Gress were celebrated for the quality oftheir output of whiskey; and it was not an un-common thing, when treating an excise officer toa "glass", to ask him slyly which he preferred,"Coll or Gress" '. He further notes that althoughlegal distilleries were established to counter il-legal production, the practice 'died hard'. In facteven in the late 1980s there were rumoured to beillicit stills in operation on Lewis.

Therefore, although whisky may have beenbecome increasingly commonplace on the is-lands from the 17th century onwards, its per-sonal use may have been limited as a result of itsmonetary value, which will have derived from itsscarcity (see below). Certainly MacCuUoch(1824) found Highlanders in general to be 'infact a sober people'. This condition he attributesto:

The natural consequence of their laudableeconomy and foresight; of the care they take oftheir families, and of the provision they areattentive to make for their rents, as for theirfuturity.

At this time the most usual form of communalentertainment appears to have been the ceilidh:that is, family-orientated evening gatherings inprivate houses which were structured aroundcommon singing and story telling, asMacGillivray noted in the early 19th century (seeabove), and further noted by MacKenzie (1919):

Nor were they dependent on the mainland fortheir amusement [they were also otherwiseself-contained]. They held their ceilidhs in thelong winter evenings, where they sang theirown Gaelic songs, improvised their own po-etry, told their traditional tales, and discussedtheir own folk-lore.

Geddes (1955) confirms a large degree of conti-nuity in the social and economic life of islandcrofters which existed from the 17th to the 19thcentury, '... until the nineteenth century thetownship was self-contained. Its people grew,reared or caught their food, and also found theraw materials for their clothing; they built theirown shelter, and cut their own firing ... weconclude that with even less money but moregrain the population in the islands had fiuctuatedabout a mean [of income and goods] for some

282 Alan Dean

centuries'. This average income is unlikely tohave provided a large surplus to be expended onluxuries, such as a plentiful supply of alcohol forpersonal consumption. However, despite thelack of prosperity, grain which could have pro-vided food for winter was given over to whiskyproduction, as MacKenzie (1919) noted, 'Whenbad harvests came, the stills were not scrapped;yet many of the people died of actual hunger'. Areason for this is provided by Geddes (1955), 'Inorder to pay the rent, the making of whisky fromhome-grown barley must have consumed a pre-cious foodstuff'. Therefore, although personalconsumption may have taken place, this appearsnot to have been the prime motive of whiskyproduction by crofters. Instead it served the pur-pose of a commodity with which rents, andperhaps other economic transactions, could bemet, and its value in this regard will have arisenfrom its scarcity; there being a restriction ongrain supply through reasons of food consump-tion.

Overall, the evidence available suggests thatexcessive drinking in island communities duringthe 16th and 17th centuries may have stemmedfrom the enactment of specific ritual gatherings.After this time Norse and pre-Norse traditionbecame increasingly supplanted by the Christianchurch and these rituals appear to have declined,there being no evidence of their existence afterthis time. During the 18th and 19th centurieswhisky appears to have featured little in the dayto day social life of the village except as a meansof paying rent or for medicinal purposes. Pat-terns of use of home-brewed ale are not known.However, given the limited supply of cropsgrown for food (and according to Geddes, croftsbecame less productive into the 19th centurythan they had been previously) it is unlikely thatlocal production would have been widespread orextensive.

The situation in crofting areas may have beendifferent from that in Stomoway as MacKenzie(1919) notes what he terms an alarming increasein public houses in the early part of the 19thcentury. He records that in 1833 there were 18licensed inns, 'some of them shebeens of theworst description'. This distinction between thecrofring areas of Lewis and Stomoway probablyarises from differing forms of occupation. Somepeople from traditional crofting and fishing com-munities will have been largely self-sufficient andbartered for other goods while others, holding

paid employment in either the kelp industry ofthe 18th or 19th centuries or the fishing industryof the 19th century and beyond, would havebeen a part of a cash economy where the pur-chase of alcohol when in the town may havebeen more realizable. Certainly, those with paidemployment would have benefited from largerincomes, as Thompson et al. (1983) noted forthe early 20th century, 'A government report of1906 on Lewis shows that while the sale of croftproduce provided the average Lewis family witha net cash income of less than £3 in a wholeyear, those members sent out to follow thefishing brought home altogether to each house-hold average earnings of £30'.

As will be shown in the following section,increases in paid employment, the developmentof fishing fleets which would be away from homefor long periods of time, the rise of Presbyterian-ism and a slow ingress of southern mainlandcustoms markedly changed patterns of social in-teraction in the Western Isles from the late 19thcentury through to the post-1939^5 war.

Alcohol use in Hebridean culture: 20th cen-turySo far it has been argued that patterns of drink-ing on the islands had been influenced by threemain factors: enduring communal celebrationswhich were grounded in ritual gatherings, theavailability of crops for brewing ale or distillingwhisky and the existence or otherwise of paidemployment. These elements of social ritual (re-ligious and other communal practices), croft pro-ductivity and employment continued to informsocial practices throughout the 20th century.

As has been argued, drinking practices arisewithin specific social, economic and culturalconditions. Unless each of these conditions isfavourable to informal alcohol consumption thensuch practices are likely to be constrained. Im-portant in this context are the efforts in the early19th century to 'improve' the islands for agricul-ture. In Scottish history these efforts are knownas the 'clearances' when, to make room for theintroduction of lowland sheep, islanders wereforcibly removed to marginal land. To supportthemselves islariders became increasingly depen-dent on the kelp and fishing industries, and thustheir independence as crofters was underminedand they becarne dependent on paid employ-ment. However, the kelp industry collapsed in

Alcohol in Hebridean culture 283

the 1820s and thus even when it revived in the1900s islanders were skeptical about returning tosuch temporary work; 'it was said that during thesummer £1 a day could be earned from pickingkelp of the shore, but crofters would only "playwith this industry as they do with anything elseof the kind", preferring to get their potatopatches dug ...' (Thompson et al., 1983). Ac-cording to Thompson et al., from the 1870sonwards the growing population was supportedby earnings from seasonal herring fishing andinshore line fishing at home.

Consequently, during the early part of the20th century island communities were depen-dent upon the sea to support incomes derivedfrom marginal crofting, and in consequence vil-lage social life was disrupted by long periods ofabsenteeism by both men and young unmarriedwomen. The women followed the fishing asshore workers gutting and packing the catch insalt barrels (or worked on the mainland in dom-estic service). Although some Lewis men ownedtheir own boats, the majority worked for othersas paid crew on herring boats. Of course, not allisland man went to sea. Many worked as tradersof various kinds and emigration to the mainlandto find work was common, especially for the wellqualified; but among those who remained in thevillages the sea provided important employment.

From 1810, when 90 000 barrels of herringwere caught, to 1907 when this had risen to 2.5million, fishing became established as a primaryindustry. During these times a boy leaving schoolwould first join a boat as the cook and thenslowly, with increased experience and maturity,gain higher rank. Periods spent at sea varieddepending on the areas being fished. In the earlysummer the herring shoals would be off thenorth west coast of Scotland and a crew could behome each weekend, while at other times, asthey moved down the east coast to the south,crews would be absent for weeks at a time.Regardless of the length of time at sea the pay-ment of wages followed the same pattern, from10 May, when the season began, until Septem-ber when it finished, fishermen would have tolive on credit from local traders and producefrom the croft. Only when the season hadfinished would boat owners, having been paid bythe fish wholesalers, distribute the crew's shareof the value of the season's catch. If the fishingwas plentiful during the season a crewman mighthave been lefr with a few pounds, but the

amount was always uncertain and even a fewpounds bought little, as 83-year-old DonaldMorrison from the Lochs area of Lewis recalled:

You'd be there at sea for the fishing seasonyou see, and if you had good fishing you mighthave a few pounds at the end of the season tokeep to yourself—going and get a bag of mealand the likes of that, for the house, oatmealand fiour There was no weekly wages, noweekly wages. You might get a few shillings fora packet of cigarettes or an ounce of tobaccoevery Saturday night, but not pocket moneyfor drinking.... At the end of the season yousee, when everything was cleared up, we weregetting our own share.... everything we ateand everything from the bakers, paying all theshops, our share was coming to us, a fewpounds.

According to oral accounts, at this time croftswere more productive than they are now in the1990s. Each crofr would have had a few sheep, acow for milk and other dairy products and sea-weed would be used as fertilizer to enrich theotherwise poor soil and a wide range of vegeta-bles would have been grown. When the menwere away fishing all of this work will have beenundertaken by women, although not all menwere so absent.

In consequence of the productiveness of thecrofts it was recounted that there was littlehunger, though diets would sometimes be re-stricted to a monotonous combination of saltherring and potatoes in some areas. This lack ofmoney for long periods meant that there waslittle chance to travel or to purchase any form ofentertainment, and it was reported that alcoholuse was relatively uncommon in the villages. Aswas the case in the 18th and 19th centuries,most social time was spent ceilidhing in thevillage, as Donald from Lochs described:

There wasn't much activity in the villages, yousee, at all on Saturday and Sunday nights yousee. You might go for a walk out to the roadsand meeting somebody and talking to themand passing away the time like that you see ...[and] you were going to ceilidh in the eveningsand the likes of that you see. To a house,neighbours house, and going about the villagelike that you see. But not going to Stomoway,you see you couldn't afford it.

284 Alan Dean

The lack of money for entertainment wasconfirmed by a former merchant seaman in hiseighties, also from Lxjchs:

They couldn't afford it, just to be correct, theycouldn't afford it. It's very seldom anyonecould afford even a couple of pints of beernever mind anything else.

Even during occasional trips from Lochs toStomoway alcohol was seldom consumed, ex-cept the infrequent pint or two of beer if moneywas available. The opportunity to drink beer wasmerely a chance event as the purpose of trips tothe town centred on the purchase of householdgoods rather than the pursuit of entertainment.Donald from Lochs explained:

You had to go to Stomoway to get some goodsfor the home and the— you might have a cou-ple of pints of beer to—but you couldn't affordto have anything else you see that's the waywe were doing it you see, going over to townwhen we had to buy something special.

It is of interest that these statements refer to theconsumption of beer and not spirits. As wasnoted from Martin's comments regarding the18th century, there is evidence that at this timewhisky was still used for primarily medicinalpurposes within crofting communities (withinStomoway merchants and traders may have fol-lowed mainland practices in this regard). Thisapparent continuity, which spans at least 250years, is given support by Donald Morrison:

They didn't bother with any hard stuff in thehouses then you see, except maybe a bottleinside for medicine or the likes of that.

According to MacKenzie (1919) beyond 1827illicit distilling was no longer openly practised.Hence it may be assumed that most whiskyconsumed after this time would have been pur-chased legally. The extent of illicit productionduring the 20th century is not known.Donald Sinclair from Castlebay, Isle of Barra,who made a private study of island customs alsoprovided supporting testimony:

There was the bottle of whisky but whiskywas—well after the war and even prior to thewar whisky wasn't drunk as it is drunk today in

the islands...; between the wars, 1914-18 to'39 whisky wasn't drunk it was—there wasalways a bottle in the house but it was used formedicinal purposes. If you went to the bar youwent for the beer.

Unfortunately, the rise in living standards pro-vided by the fishing industry did not last. By theend of 1920 fish prices had fallen and unemploy-ment increased; According to Thompson et al.(1983), by 1934 lobster fishing was the mainLewis fishing, and by 1938 there were only 350fishermen, a third of the number in 1918. Al-though in 1906 2 300 women and 2 000 menfound employment in the herring fishing, thenumber had fallen to 1000 women and only 100men found work by 1938. During these difficulttimes between the wars villagers were supportedby produce from the crofr, supplemented byhome weaving.

In consequence, these changes reaffirmed theimportance of the crofr, and these communitiesremained self-contained in many respects. Travelaway from the croft would have been limited, asGeddes (1955) notes 'In 1919 ... when crofterscrossed the island they went on foot or took thepony and cart at a slow walk: it was a day'sjourney'.

As in earlier times, lack of money did notmean that lives were a mere unrewarded strugglefor existence. Village communities continued toprovide a focus for collective recreation bothwithin and outside private homes. In areas thathad public houses these would provide a focusfor a social outing. Donald Sinclair recalled publife prior to the 1939-45 war:

Saturday night was the night to go up onetime. And people who went just once a weekthey'd go up, you know, and meet there andyou'd get some good going songs, you know,without any inhibitions. And men whowouldn't sing in women's company or any-thing. You'd get the yams and old tales, whichyou can't do today, because of the—the tele-vision's on and the radio's on. The juke box ison and there's a rattle of the balls. No, theatmosphere has gone of the old pub.

He felt that the modem bar of the 1990s isalmost always dominated by loud music, pooltables or electronic games and thus features littleof the past communal interaction. In contrast, he

Alcohol in Hebridean culture 285

stated, the pre-war bar provided for men, aswomen were virtually never seen in a public bar,an additional focus for communal recreation.The pub was thus another place to ceilidh, fol-lowing the tradition of some hundreds of years.

Not all areas within the islands had licensedpremises during this period. The rise of Presby-terianism in Lewis, Harris, North Uist and partsof Benbecula, particularly the founding of theFree Church and the Free Presbyterian Churchin the mid and late 19th century, respectively,saw a rise in opposition to alcohol consumption.The Free Churches promoted temperance andPuritanism to the extent of seeking to restrictmany traditional forms of entertainment, includ-ing dancing. This religious censure was effectiveto the extent that even up to the late 1970s somenorthern parts of the island were 'dry areas' freefrom commercially available alcohol (Mullen,Blaxter & Dyer, 1986).

The pattern was different in the largely RomanCatholic southern areas of South Uist, Eriskayand Barra. As Mullen et al. (1986) note, theCatholic Church was not opposed to alcoholconsumption. Indeed the Church allowed con-sumption on their premises; so, whereas thepublic house was an important meeting place formen on Barra, this alternative meeting placewould have been unavailable in the north andthus the home remained the central focus forcollective interaction.

However, in the early 1930s a new form ofmeeting house, a tigh ceilidh, a bothan or 'littlehouse', appeared in Ness on the Isle of Lewis.Among those who built the original house, whichwas a communal enterprise by men in the area,was an uncle of 64-year-old Nina MacLeod fromNess in Lewis. She provided a detailed descrip-tion of the purpose behind the construction andearly pattern of use of the bothan. Contrary tomodem views, which centre on the supposedillicit consumption of alcohol, the first bothanswere used solely as a meeting place, particularlyfor men initially but later included both womenand children (see below). Nina recalled the rea-son for its construction:

You see there was an old man in the villageand the boys [men] used to meet in his house.He was a bachelor. But when he died they hadno meeting place—and by that time the girlswere coming home, you see, from the fishingand from service, domestic service, [on the

mainland] And the posh making of houses,tidying up the houses, and they didn't wantmen with big boots coming crawling in. Andthe houses were getting rather flashy, so theydecided they would build a place, seeing theold man had died. And that was how the firstone was built and it was such a success thatthe other villages started building them.

Once built it quickly became a popular meetingplace within the community:

That was the first one that was built and it waspurely a ceilidh house, a place for the men, inparticular, to meet. And we were allowed in aschildren. And they had a gramophone, whichwas a great marvel, and a wireless anddraughts and cards, which were rather naughtyin our eyes but—they played whist and theywould allow us in. I remember being there forthe funeral of King George V on the wireless.

According to Nina MacLeod it was only after the1939-45 war that the pattern of use changed andalcohol began to be brought in from nearbyStomoway (there is evidence that illegal she-beens had existed in Stomoway from the mid19th century):

Now they weren't originally drinking places atall, but did deteriorate into that latterly.... Ohyes, when people came home with money andnew ideas they'd picked up in the army ... andthe money they got, when they were paidoff—they all had money.

Oral accounts remarked that the end of theSecond World War brought many changes to theislands. The experience of mainland customsaffected a departure from both formal and infor-mal tradition as communities became quicklyorientated away from the socio-economic inter-dependence that had lain at the centre of islandaffairs, and instead interests became more di-rected towards commercial consumption. Sixty-eight-year-old Alistair McNeil from Castlebayprovided the following observation:

Around here they've got sort of Englified now.Everybody keeps to themselves sort of... somepeople got better off and others were lefr be-hind ... they were lefr behind and sort offorgotten.

286 Alan Dean

Alistair's comments describe succinctly the frag-mentary effect the unequal sharing of new wealthcan have within a previously interdependentcommunity. Such changes can alter the outwardform of the most entrenched traditions as estab-lished social practices become submerged withina drive towards modernity. Consequently, as is-landers began to return home from the war theadoption of mainland ways began to quicklytransform many aspects of village life and pat-terns of alcohol consumption. Of course, manyof these influences were present during and afterthe 1914-18 war, but as has been noted, theeconomic growth which took place post-1918collapsed in the 1920s. This will have acted toinhibit further changes in the lifestyle of croftingcommunities.

Seventy-eight-year-old Mary MacDonald fromPoint, near Stomoway, recalls that village hallsbegan to appear in rural areas and that thesebegan to supplant the ceilidh at home and meet-ings in the street as places to gather. Geddes(1955) commented that after the 1939-45 war,'the young have won greater freedom. Near onevillage a Nissen hut, handed over by the HomeGuard, was also used by young people formonthly dances. When I asked a young crofterinvalided from the Navy whether the Elders ofthe Kirk made no protest, he replied that theyhad, but had to give it up: "They see that wewon't stand for it". This would have been un-thinkable during the First World War, or afterit'. Slowly the nature of the ceilidh in the bothantoo began to change. Increasingly regular,communal, purchases of ale from Stomowaygave rise directly to a departure from the trans-generational and cross-gender character of thetraditional ceilidh. At first, no doubt, thesechanges were barely noticed, not least becausethe bothan had, through the introduction ofalcohol, once again become a private male onlyaffair away from the public view. Nina MacLeodonce again provided a personal recollection ofevents at that time:

We never used to see anybody drunk if theywere dmnk in the bothan they stayed there allnight you see. They weren't thrown out oranything. If somebody was drunk he juststayed there, he slept there all night, so younever saw them.

Formal social rituals too began to undergo trans-

formation. For example, traditionally a villagewedding would be a complex affair involvingeveryone in the community and lasting severaldays, but during the late 1940s to early 1950syoung people began to aspire to a 'modem wed-ding' of the type they knew took place in citieslike Edinburgh and Glasgow.

A traditional wedding would have been lo-cated within the bride's home village and wouldbegin the night before the ceremony when everyfamily within the local community provided anddelivered a hen to the bride's family. These wereusually taken by young girls or women whowould then remain to pluck the hens and preparethe food for the following day (it seems morethan likely that this practice gave its name to the'hen night', a common pre-wedding day ritualfor the bride and close female friends). Once theceremony had been completed, the couple wouldreturn to the bride's house where tables hadbeen prepared for the wedding dinner.

When the bride and groom returned from thechurch they would remain at the table for hours,sometimes long into the early hours of the mom-ing, until everyone in the community who couldhad taken their turn at the table. Such multiplesittings were necessary as usually only 20 or soguests could be seated at a time, and on occasionthere would be hundreds of guests to entertain.During a sitting each guest would be given onedrink, usually port for the women and whisky forthe men, and each in turn would make a toast tothe bride and groom which comprised a humor-ous aside at the bride's or groom's expense, ifpossible. After their turn at table guests woulddepart for the bam where a 'four-and-a-halfbarrel of ale would be available, and singing,music and dancing would often continue untilthe following moming. The bride and groom,alas, would remain at the table until the lastguest had been catered for.

The following moming the bride and groomwould visit everyone in the village who was un-able to attend the main ceremony. Each personvisited was given a piece of cake and a glass ofeither wine for the women or whisky for the men.In this way a wedding could last at least threedays from the initial preparation to the final visitsto the elderly and infirm. Thus, although alcoholfeatured in wedding ceremony, its use wasclosely defined by convention. Smith (1875) re-calls a similar event in the 1870s. In the presentday (1990s) island wedding ceremonies are no

Alcohol in Hebridean culture 287

different from those found in any area of main-land, mainstream Britain.

Over the remaining 30-40 years from the im-mediate post-war years to the present day, cus-toms within the islands have in many respectsconverged increasingly with those of the main-land. Slowly, but perhaps inevitably given thepower of modem media and communications intransporting cultural images from one com-munity to another, the Western Isles embracedculturally the introduction of hotels into previ-ously alcohol-free areas, and increasingly lookedtowards organized dances, modem weddings andthe 'ceilidh' in the village hall for entertainment.In consequence young people no longer dance inthe road in blizzards, as 80-year-old NormanMacLeod from Lochs recalled from his child-hood. The introduction of television, as late asthe 1960s in Barra, and then video recordingseventually fiarther undermined the home as acommunal meeting place.

ConclusionsThis paper has sought to provide an examinationof certain social, economic and religious an-tecedents to drinking practices on the WesternIsles of Scotland. This has in no sense been aconventional historical article: the time scaleused has been too great to permit a detaileddiscussion of broader cultural change throughthe period depicted. Instead it was intended thatthe choice of a large time period would allowspecific trends to be more readily discernible.

This analysis has revealed in part the waysocial, economic and religious changes in theWestem Isles of Scotland has impacted on pat-terns of alcohol consumption. It has been arguedthat during the 16th and 17th centuries alcoholuse within crofting communities appears to havebeen highly ritualized around traditional gather-ings. The impact of Christianity appears to havefirst modified and then later led to the discontin-uance of these customs. Subsequently alcoholuse became to be focused on either medicinal orinformal social use, or as currency once theStatutes of Icolmhill permitted local whisky dis-tilling. As has been argued, informal use hasbeen constrained over time by the economy ofcrofring. To consume alcohol socially and infor-mally a crofrer would have either had to havebeen in possession of surplus produce for homebrewing or distillation, or surplus cash to pur-

chase ale or whisky from local merchants. Thesubsistence-level existence of most crofters fromthe 18th to the early 20th centuries would haveseverely limited this form of consumption. Dur-ing this time crofters' communities remainedlargely self-sufficient, and social interaction fo-cused on communal singing, dancing and storytelling. The puritanism of the Westem Isles Pres-byterian Churches also acted to limit alcoholconsumption in crofring communities in Lewis,Harris, North Uist and parts of Benbecula.

However, during the early part of the 20thcentury island people began to travel increasinglybeyond the Westem Isles for work in eitherdomestic service or within the fishing industry.These developments facilitated change withinthe social life of the islands and meeting placesoutside the home were fostered. The greatestchanges with respect to alcohol consumptiontook place after the 1939-45 war when youngpeople sought and gained more personal free-dom. From then to now the trend has continued,incomes have risen and now alcohol consump-tion is a routine part of social life on the islands(see Dean, 1990), as it is throughout the main-land. Nevertheless, I would like to leave the lastwords to an anonymous contributor to Parman's(1972) study, who for me sums up well anenduring interest of island drinking:

I went for a holiday on the mainland and cameback with money in my pocket because it's nouse drinking in a place where you don't knowpeople. You want a yam.

AcknowledgementThe fieldwork on the Westem Isles was fundedby the Health Promotion Research Tmst, whichderives its funding from the tobacco industry. Iwould like to thank Richard Wakeford of theHPRT for his help and support.

ReferencesBERRIDGE, V. (1988) The origins of the British drug

"scene" 1890-1930, Medical History, 32, pp. 51-64.COOPER, D . (1979) Road to the Isles: Travellers in the

Hebrides 1770-1914 (London, Routledge and KeganPaul).

DEAN, A. (1990) Culture and community: drink andsoft drugs in Hebridean youth culture. SociologicalReview, 38, pp. 517-565.

DYMES, CAPTAIN (1630) Description of Lewis, StatePapers. Domestic Chas. I, 180, in: MACKENZIE, W. C.

288 Alan Dean

(1919) The Book of the Lewes: The Story of a He-bridean Isles (Paisley, Alexander Gardiner).

GEDDES, A. (1955) The Isle of Lewis and Harris (Edin-burgh, Edinburgh University Press).

HARRISON, L . (1986) Tobacco battered and the pipesshattered: a note on the fate of the first Britishcampaign against tobacco smoking, British Journal ofAddiction, 81, pp. 553-558.

MACGILLIVRAY, W . (C. 1830) Quoted in: COOPER, D .(1970) Road to the Isles: Travellers in the Hebredes1770-1914 (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul).

MACKENZIE, D . A. (1922) Ancient Man in Britain(London, Blackie and Son).

MACKENZIE, W . C . (1903) History of the Outer Hebrides(Paisley, Alexander Gardiner).

MACKENZIE, W . C . (1919) The Book of the Uwes: TheStory of a Hebridean Isles (Paisley, Alexander Gar-diner) .

MACGREGOR, A. & COOPER, D (1984) Barra (Edin-burgh, Canongate).

MACCULLOCH, J. (1824) The Highland and Western Isles

of Scotland: Founded on a Series of Journeys between theYears 1811 and 1821 (Letters to Sir Walter Scott) VolIII (London, Longman).

MARTIN, M . (1716) /I Description of the Western Isles ofScotland (Edinburgh, Republished by James Thin,1970).

MULLEN, K . , BLAXTER, M . & DYER, S. (1986) Religionand attitudes towards alcohol use in theWestern Isles, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 18,pp. 51-72.

MtJNRO, SIR DONAUJ (1884) A Description of the West-em Isles of Scotland catted Hybrides (London, Hamil-ton Adams and Co).

PARMAN, S. (1972) Sociocultural Change in a ScottishTownship (London, London University Microfilms).

PRrvY CotJNCiL OF SCOTLAND (1889) The Register, Vol.IX.

SMrrH, W. A. (1875) Lewsiana, or life in the Hebrides,(London, Daldy, Isbister & Co.).

THOMPSON, P., WAILEY, T . & LUMMIS T . (1983) Living

the Fishing (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul).