An excess of bachelors

In 1992, Fiona MacDonald interviewed Dr John Macleod, the GP in Lochmaddy, North Uist, and a legendary figure in the Western Isles, for her collection of conversations, 'Island Voices'. We re-publish a short extract:

Island life is more a man's life. The girls bail out on the whole and this is a problem within the islands. I think you'll find that women do that in remote areas on the mainland too – they tend to move in to where the shops and facilities are. Here, it is very much a man's world – it's an outdoor world. Most people have got ground of some sort – that's why they're here.
     I'm particularly aware of a gross excess of bachelors here because I've measured it. I think it's got grave implications for the long-term future of the island if you want to keep Uist stock going. There is a huge shortage of women between the ages of 17 and 40 on the island. It's not so obvious down in South Uist, I don't think – but I haven't measured it there.
     It's the sort of thing that can be lost in population studies. Official statistics may not show it because for the Western Isles as a whole, it's not very obvious. That's probably because there's such a mass of girls living and working in Stornoway. The numbers there are so great they could obscure the figures elsewhere. But down here, it's obvious, and it affects how the men behave because no matter what men say, young women in the company are a stabilising influence. So there's a tendency to get boozed excessively at times [although, he says, he doesn't know that alcohol abuse is any more of a problem on the islands than it is anywhere else] and to say, 'Why the hell will I bother going to the dance? I'll just go and have a dram.' And then, 'Why do I bother going to the pub? I'll just stay at home.' This can happen, and I think you'll lfind that that applies to quite a number of other isolated communities.
     A bit of bad news I've got news for you is that the MacDonalds are dying out. They're dying out quite rapidly. The MacLeans are increasing – they seem to be continuing to have quite a number of children – but the MacDonalds have an awful lot of bachelors. And MacDonald was so much a North Uist name. Our notes in the surgery are shifting. There's a big increase in the names before M which tend to be mainland or English names – As, Bs, Ds, and Hs.
     In the 1970s, there were complete families of North Uist stock coming back to the island to live. That has stopped, and it seems to be that the people coming now are couples in their fifties and sixties who have no connection with the island and who have not got their children with them – couples whose families may not develop any particular affection for the island. Some come because they're involved with the military, some just come because they've been here on their holidays at some time.
     It's very difficult to tell what sort of effect this has had because there have been so many changes with electricity coming, the causeway being built between here and Benbecula, the car ferries, increased travel, television, but I would think that the people coming in are having very little detrimental effect compared with, for example, Mull in the 1950s, which we hear talked about a lot. Being this bit further out from the mainland, anyone coming here is probably going to have something they feel they can do.
     I do suggest this also to North Uist people who are thinking of retiring back to the island: they should come at a time when they can contribute their own thing, and can establish themselves in their own right rather than as somebody's cousin. When you go back home for a fortnight in the summer, you're just loaded with invitations. But if you retire and you come back to live on an island, the invitations happen once. Your cousins have you once, and that's about it. You've then got to establish yourself with people who are not your cousins. So it may be better for people who are retiring to stay where they are on the mainland, and come back on extended breaks instead.

Dr John Macleod died recently at the age of 74