Lost lives
Written by John MacphersonI was doing a documentary photography project on remote and forgotten Hebridean islands. And one island I visited, which shall remain nameless, was profoundly moving.
One amongst many many islands I visited that were charged with ‘atmosphere’ and which made me stop, think and reflect.
The sign said “KEEP OUT! DANGEROUS MASONRY” because the once-grand house was crumbling. Neglect and the wild Atlantic weather were eating it away.
First the roof must have leaked. Then the joists rotted. The roof finally collapsing. Ceiling plaster soaked up water, became heavy and it too finally gave in to gravity’s pull. Floors tumbled, pulling furniture from the walls and eventually on the ground floor the avalanche came to a halt.
The boatman who dropped me off told me stories about the island, the family, tales of aspirations, tragedy, alcoholism and lives that simply faded.
I looked through an absent window. It was a kitchen. Once a fine kitchen. But no more. Now it was a jumble of broken things. Drawers, still filled with cutlery. Food in jars and rusting tins long shorn of labels now anonymous. A room once filled with warmth and nourishment, but no smells now, save mould, and salty air.
The cold heart of a home.
I ignored the DANGER! sign and climbed in. I moved cautiously, reverentially, as if I were walking through some sacred place. I found sheep droppings everywhere, floors sagging and broken.
On hangers on a door were damp-stained clothes that had once been lovely, straggling now, tatty and faded.
And there in the middle of a room, sheep pellets all around, was a mouldering leather slipcase, open, papers spilling from it. I gently slid a few out. Letters from a solicitor advising on finances, dated 1953. Letters about personal matters, dated later. And more, much more. Far too much more for me, on this overcast day, in this place.
And all the paper soft with damp, powderysalt on my fingers.
Abandoned.
A whole life in letters, dying.
Author — John Macpherson
John MacPherson was born and lives in the Scottish Highlands. He trained as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards, before completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and then qualified as a Social Worker in Disability Services. Along the way he has cooked on canal barges, trained as an Alpine Ski Leader & worked as an Instructor for Skiers with disabilities, been a canoe instructor, and tutor of night classes in carpentry, stained glass design and manufacture, and archery. He has travelled extensively on various continents, undertaking solo trips by bicycle, or motorcycle. He has had narrow escapes from an ambush by terrorists, been hit by lightning, caught in an erupting volcano, trapped in a mobile home by a tornado, kidnapped by a dog's hairdresser, rammed by a basking shark and was once bitten by a wild otter. He has combined all this with professional photography, which he has practised for over 35 years. He teaches photography and acts as a photography guide & tutor in the UK and abroad. His biggest challenge is keeping his 30 year old Land Rover 110 on the road. He loves telling and hearing stories.