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".
Donald McLean (New Zealand politician)
He was born on the Hebridean island of Tiree, and came to New Zealand via Australia in 1840. He married Susan Douglas Strang, daughter of the registrar of the Supreme Court in Wellington, Robert Strang, on 28 August 1851. She died after giving birth to their son Douglas in December 1852 and her death deeply affected McLean; he never remarried.