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".
Magnus Maclean
He was born on the isle of Skye on 1 November 1857. He was educated at Colbost on the island then sent to Glasgow for secondary education. He then began training as a Free Church minister at the Free Church Training College in Glasgow and also studied at Glasgow University. However, her abandoned this after two years and became a teacher in Sutherland.