It’s a dog’s life – Canna’s Cairns and other canines

When Margaret moved in with the Peathraichean NicRath – the Macrae sisters Peigi and Mairi, more often known by their Gaelic patronymic name ‘Peigi is Mairi Anndra na h-Àirigh Molaich’ – her life became largely centred around the people and animals of North Glendale, South Uist. She often spoke of the people’s kindness to animals, sometimes upon whom their very lives depended. Croft animals may have been largely working beasts but they were still very much members of the family. Margaret recounts in her biography the December night she walked to Daliburgh (some 5–6 miles from North Glendale), took tea with a friend and then went to walk home, accompanied by a neighbour’s young collie, Pat. She could see nothing, but Pat kept her to the side of the path, away from the treacherous bogs and deep drains where she could fall and drown.

‘I remember Pat running ahead of me in the moonlight, which was then brighter with the fog not so thick. He would run ahead and then lie down flat, absolutely exhausted on the road until I caught up with him and then he’d get up and start off again. Instead of coming home at five or six o’ clock, I didn’t arrive till after midnight.’

When John and Margaret got married in 1935, they moved to live on the island of Barra. Like most of the Hebridean islands, Barra is a paradise for dogs, with wide open moorland and long stretches of deserted beaches. The Campbells’ home was a little tin-roofed house on the shores of Northbay, where their animal family could sit on the doorstep and watch the whole world go by.

This little house was frequented by their many friends from near and far, friends who have become famous tradition bearers of lore and legend over the years. They often brought their pets with them to recording sessions! Here is Calum Johnston, famous piper and singer of Barra, and brother of another folklore legend, Annie Johnston. He’s playing the Highland bagpipes in this rendition of Thàinig Mo Rìgh air Tìr am Mùideart (‘My king has landed in Moidart’), recorded by John in 1962.

Mr Smith and the kitten may look the best of friends in the picture above but it was not always so! Margaret captured them on early film outside the house. Peigi Macrae accompanies the film, singing a little port a beul (dance song): ‘Mo Gheala Chas thu’ (‘My white-footed one’), recorded by John. Margaret also transcribed the song in her notebooks.

Mr Smith was a very inquisitive little dog and is seen below trying to unearth a rabbit! It was this inquisitiveness which became his downfall. He came to Canna with John and Margaret in 1938 and was very prone to chase rabbits up on the high cliffs of the island. One day he disappeared and after several days with no sign, it was assumed that he had chased rabbits on the cliffs and sadly chased them too far over the edge. He was much missed but he set the tradition for having cairn terriers on the island!

The steps of Canna House were the perfect setting for many of the images taken over the years of the Campbells and their canines. Here are two images of Margaret, taken 36 years apart but in the same spot – different cairn terriers obviously but still very much part of the family.

To conclude our celebration of the Canna canines, here are two delightful studies taken in the 1930s by Margaret of her nephews, sons of her sister Biddy.

Dogs on both sides of the Atlantic were central to the lives of John and Margaret Campbell, and they deserve just as much focus as the better-known Canna purrfect pussycats. We wish you a very happy National Dog Day!