Scottish island Tanera Mor in Summer Isles restores rich fishing history as it maps out future

Tanera Mor in the Summer Isles taps into its deep maritime past as it looks to the future.

They were journeys made thousands of times, but long absent from these waters. On the stillest of nights, with their tan sails holding against the lightest of breezes, the herring boats returned to this island in a sight not seen for more than 100 years.

Tanera Mor, the largest of the Summer Isles, which sits close to the mouth of Loch Broom, once pounded with the gutters, smokers and packers who sent these fish around the world before it fell quiet as the shoals no longer came.

As the St Vincent and Clan Gordon came close to shore on Monday, a sense of the island’s past life called once again. Two newly restored luggers – the Clan Gordon and the St Vincent – arrived at Tigh na Quay where the ruin of that once-heaving herring station stands firm. Although with no lucrative cargo on board, the value of this voyage was felt beyond pounds, shillings and pence.

Herring boats arrive at Tanera Mor in the Summer Isles. PIC: A Campsie.

Charlotte Watters, an artist from Ullapool, was among the fleet that sailed to Tanera on Monday, which also included the Barnabas from Cornwall. It earlier arrived in Ullapool to collect its new masts made from single Douglas Firs selected from woods just a few miles away.

To see them all on the water together had been hugely poignant, said Ms Watters, one of the organisers of Luggerfest – an event that celebrated the area’s maritime heritage in Ullapool over the weekend.

She said: “I was so emotional at the achievement of having these boats come together in Ullapool and now here we are sitting at the herring station at Tanera. Today we have also sailed past Isle Martin, which has a herring station that is 250 years old this year.

Charlotte Watters, an artist and organiser of Luggerfest in Ullapool who arrived at Tanera on Monday night as part of the fleet of old herring boats coming back to the island. PIC: A Campsie.

"There is a print that is a couple of hundred years old, which looks down this very quay with the herring boats in the water and here we are seeing it for real.

"Looking across the water there, you have got the mountains Suilven, Stac Pollaid, Cùl Mòr and Cùl Beag and Quinag in the background and it is just incredible seeing that skyline there and the water between us.

"When I was sailing out here today, I was just pinching myself. I’m lucky to have had experiences on amazing boats in different parts of the world, but to do it here in my home area by my hills, which I see everyday – well, it is phenomenal. I am so proud to do this here.

"There are photographs of Ullapool with all the herring boats lined up in the harbour. It is where I am from, but feels like a different era and suddenly last weekend it was happening again. There is a connection to this history, which now feels alive."

The Clan Gordon, Barnabas and St Vincent all once fished for herring and arrived together at Tanera to celebrate their restoration. PIC: A Campsie.

Ms Watters is married to Dan Johnson of boatbuilders Johnson & Loftus, who restored the St Vincent herring drifter along with partner Tim Loftus. Clan Gordon, a Loch Fyne skiff, which was in such a poor state a person could put a finger through it, was restored by Alasdair Grant of Isle Ewe Boats at Aultbea.

The Tanera herring station dates from the 1780s after Stornoway man Roderick Morrison capitalised on the growing herring trade, with the smokehouse and warehouse quickly built and 30 boats put on the water.

By 1798, the large herring shoals stopped coming, but a modest revival was felt in 1812 and 1819 before a boom of 1907 led to the exporting of 2.5m barrels.

The herring station at Tanera from where smoke billowed on Monday to celebrate its industrial past. PIC: A Campsie.

Population of the island fell away from a peak of 119 in the 1880s as fortunes were followed and the price of World War One was paid. By 2014, Tanera was officially uninhabited.

Tanera was bought by Ian Wace, a London-based financier, in 2017 with the island and its future passed it into a charitable trust that now owns the St Vincent and Clan Gordon.

Mr Wace wants to tap into the soul of the place, with Tanera now an island of retreat for guests of the charities he supports, with NHS staff and military veterans among those who benefit. Around 40 buildings have now been restored or rebuilt with a few added, such as the little wooden chapel perched on the highest point.

While the herring station now stands in a state of curated decay, fire and smoke rose once more on Monday as the boats were welcomed in. It came, not from tar barrels and fish fat, but from hay bales thrown on flaming pits and the grills where lemon sole and giant halibuts were cooked for around 150 guests and staff.

Among Tanera employees is Robin Irvine, who is in charge of land and regeneration and returned to the island on Monday on Clan Gordon.

He said the reception for the boats through the communities of Loch Broom had been “very special”.

The herring station, now in a state of curated decay, overlooked by the chapel which was brought to the island bought by financier Ian Wace and which is now in the hands of a charitable trust. PIC: A Campsie

“There are people who remember the tan sails in the bays and there have been a lot of emotions and messages and gratitude, for the boat builders in particular and also for us,” he said.

“For Tanera, these boats are all about people, heritage and work and the importance lies not just in restoring the boats, which is obviously something lovely, but it is a responsibility for us to put the boats to work, rather than just have them sit and look pretty or used just for education. For us the education is in the work.”

Dive surveys, rubbish collections from west coast beaches and transporting logs are among the vessels’ uses.

Herring spawn was spotted off Tanera recently, although large scale fishing is not expected given populations are only likely recovering. The boats will, however, likely be used to survey the spawn as Tanera builds on its past – and maps out its own future.