Raasay
The poet Sorley MacLean was born in Osgaig, a small crofting community on the west coast of the island; perhaps his most famous poem is about "Hallaig", an abandoned community on the east coast. MacLean's writings often combine an ancient traditional awareness, with a modernist political outlook, in which Raasay, and the areas adjacent to it are frequently referenced. But while MacLean's work dwells on the brutality of war, of the Highland Clearances and modern exploitation, he also writes about nature. Thus, although the Clearances leave an empty landscape populated only by the ghosts of those evicted or forced to emigrate, "Time, the deer, is in the Wood of Hallaig".
Ernie McLea
McLea was born in Montreal, Quebec. He was the fifth and final child of John Brine McLea and Phoebe Elizabeth (Currie) McLea, who were both born in Newfoundland and moved to Quebec in the 1860s, then to Montreal in the 1870s. As a youth, McLea attended the Bishop's College School boarding school in Lennoxville, where he met future Victorias team-mates Hartland MacDougall and Robert MacDougall (not related). He followed this with studies at McGill University where he played rugby football and cricket.