SALUTE AND FAREWELL

For a short spell in 1950, Sir Christopher Andrews and scientists from Harvard University selected Island Roan as a field laboratory for research work in their effort to find a cure for the common cold. Accompanied by a number of volunteer students, they made the island their home for three months, with no outside contact.

Their only communication was by radio telephone to the store at Skerray. All messages to and from the island were transmitted by Miss Mackay, the Post Office, Skerray. Stores and equipment arrived at Skerray Pier by lorry. Old George Anderson, the ferryman, had the task of ferrying all personnel and stores to the island. The charm of the island cast its spell over the students, and one of them composed the following song, which is both a salute and a farewell to Eilean nan Ron.

Eilean nan Ron, oh, Eilean nan Ron,
Island whose hills are as dear as my own,
Over your heather I'll never more roam,
I feel sad that now I must leave you.

I've roamed o'er your pastures a whole summer long.
I've stood on your cliffs where the fulmar belong,
I've listened at night to the curlew's sweet song;
How sad that now I must leave you.

The surf it is white round your wild rocky shore;
The wind whistles o'er and the bracken bends lower;
The breezes grow stronger, the surf it flies high;
It is sad that now I must leave you.

I'll cross the Kyle Rannoch to Skerray,
and there I'll stand on the jetty and look back again;
Oh, then, fairest isle, you'll be gone from my ken,
And I know that I'll never more see you.