Notes on lore and customs in the district near Portnahaven, Rhinns of Islay, Argyll, Scotland

Abstract

THE Rhinns, a fairly bleak peninsula in the west of the Isle of Islay, have been the main source of the scattered items of Islay lore and practices that have been published.' Even a casual enquiry would ascertain this, as can be seen from Neil Munro's Fancy Farm2 where the reader is expected to take in stride similes like 'As, at Portnahaven, the country people pluck the larger feathers from the tails of fowls to keep the winds of that stormy coast from blowing them out to sea .. .'. Much of R. C. Maclagan's published notes on Islay lore seem to apply to the Rhinns only. At the tip of the Rhinns peninsula are two villages, Portnahaven (NR 167523) and Port Wemyss (NR 169518), less than a quarter of a mile from each other. They are on separate estates and date largely to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Islay folk regard the people of the southern Rhinns as 'different' and as more isolated from the newsy comings-and-goings of Bowmore and Port Ellen, or even Port Charlotte less than eight miles away. There was a tradition of trade and barter with Northern Ireland and Rathlin in