Martin Martin was a native Gaelic speaker from Skye who, in the 1690s, became convinced of the need for a first hand account of the society, the culture and the natural history of the Western Isles. He visited and mapped St Kilda in 1697, part of a larger project with John Adair to map the Hebrides more fully. The most important outcome of his travels was the publication in 1703 of his classic book: A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland.
Martin's book stayed in print for over a century after its initial publication, assisting later travellers like Thomas Pennant, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson. The book was revived, with a special edition being printed in 1884 as background for the members of the Napier Commission or the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands. It has since been republished in 1934, 1970, 1999 and, to mark the tercentenary of its original publication, in 2003.
Like other eBooks whose texts are reproduced on Undiscovered Scotland, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland by Martin Martin is long out of copyright. What sets the Undiscovered Scotland version apart is the cross linking between the text of the book and features elsewhere on the site, allowing the reader to explore beyond the text itself, finding out more about the places and people mentioned. The organisation of the original book has a tendency to ramble: we have taken the liberty of adding sub-headings to try to make the content more accessible.
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