Whisky Galore! was based on the true story of a famous incident in 1941, in which the SS Politician - whose cargo included 22,000 cases of whisky - was wrecked near the Hebridean islands of Eriskay and South Uist. Dozens of boats from every nearby island soon set upon the wreck, rescuing some 7,000 cases from a watery end.
Even today, bottles are found in the sand or in the sea
every other year!
The novelist Compton Mackenzie lived on Barra where his Whisky Galore was filmed. George Orwell wrote 1984 whilst living on Jura. J.M. Barrie's Marie Rose contains references to Harris inspired by a holiday visit to Amhuinnsuidhe Castle Estate. Iain Crichton Smith was brought up on Lewis and Derick Thomson was born there. The Hebrides are the setting of The Solitary Reaper, by William Wordsworth.
Tinted shots of parts of the Isle of Harris were used by Stanley Kubrick as the surface of Jupiter in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Recommended reading:
From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides
Margaret Fay ShawHarpoon at a Venture, Gavin Maxwell
Island Going, Robert Atkinson
Love of Country, Madeleine Bunting
The Farthest Hebrides and the Peat Fire Flame
Alasdair Alpin MacGregorThe Road to the Isles, Derek Cooper
Sea Room, Adam Nicolson