Qualla: Muck

Muck: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Julian Paren, CC BY-SA 2.0. When Samuel Johnson and James Boswell came visiting the Small Isles in 1773, the owner of Muck made an unusual request. He hated being called Lord of Muck. Could the famous travellers, in their published accounts, please call him Lord of Monk instead? The owners of Muck have been losing this battle for several centuries. The name probably comes from the Gaelic muc, meaning pig, though scholars now think it actually refers to muc-mhara, sea-pig, the Gaelic word for porpoise, which abounds in the surrounding waters. Either way, the laird's family today, the MacEwens, who have lived and farmed here for a century, have given up trying to change the name. They have other things to do, like running an island of forty permanent residents with no shop, no church, and no letter-box.

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Image: Julian Paren | CC BY-SA 2.0

Muck: Two and a Half Miles by One

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User: (WT-shared) WelshGandalf at wts wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 3.0. Muck measures roughly two and a half miles east to west and one mile north to south. A single-track lane runs a mile and a half from Port Mor in the south to Gallanach in the north. There is no point in bringing a bike, and you cannot bring a car: the ferry from Mallaig takes foo...

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Image: User: (WT-shared) WelshGandalf at wts wikivoyage | CC BY-SA 3.0

Muck: Keil and the Cleared Village

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User: (WT-shared) Jamesbrownontheroad at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. Near the south of the island lie the faint outlines of A'Chille, also called Keil, the former main village of Muck. In the 19th century the islanders here were evicted during the Highland Clearances, swept off the land by landlords who preferred sheep to tenants. What remains tod...

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Image: User: (WT-shared) Jamesbrownontheroad at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

Muck: Bronze Age Cairns and Viking Ovals

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User: (WT-shared) Jamesbrownontheroad at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. On the promontory west of Gallanach stand two cairns dated roughly to 2000 BC, the Bronze Age. Part of the north cairn has been adopted as the MacEwen family grave, four millennia of burial use on a single mound. Below is the tidal islet of Eilean nan Uan, Isle of Lambs, with its...

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Image: User: (WT-shared) Jamesbrownontheroad at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

Muck: Cottages, Hebnet, and the Saturday Day Trip

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit nschouterden, CC BY 2.0. The Gallanach self-catering cottages, owned by the MacEwen estate, are the standard way to stay on Muck. New House is a 1930s timber cottage with one double, two twins and four single rooms. Gallanach Cottage at the end of the road has three bedrooms. Seileachean is a converted s...

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Image: nschouterden | CC BY 2.0