Early times In the 7th century the
Cenél Loairn kindred controlled what is today known as
Lorn in the kingdom of
Dalriada. From about the mid-9th century Belnahua would then have become part of the Norse
Kingdom of the Isles. The first written reference to the island appears in the 1549
Description of the Western Isles of Scotland by
Donald Monro. He wrote of "Belnachua" or "Belnachna"; "Narrest the Wolfiis iyle layes ane iyllane, callit in Erische Leid-Ellan-Belnachna, quharin ther is fair skailzie aneuche". In modern English this brief entry reads as "Nearest the Wolf's Iyle lies an island called in the
Scottish Gaelic language "Ellan-Belnachna", where there is good sufficiency of slate". Not all of the islands that Monro mentions have been identified and the location of "Wolf's Iyle" or "Ellan Madie" is uncertain.
Slate quarrying According to the
Old Statistical Account, quarrying began on Belnahua in 1632. The island was probably uninhabited prior to that. By this time the island may have become part of the Netherlorn estates of the
Breadalbane family (a branch of
Clan Campbell). In 1730 Colin Campbell of Carwhin was appointed to oversee their estates in Netherlorn and was tasked with exploiting the area's natural resources.
Easdale slate had been used from as early as the 12th century using seasonal labour from the Ardmaddy estate. In 1745 Campbell created the Easdale Marble and Slate Company (later shortened to Easdale Slate Company) in order to place extractions from the area on a more commercial basis. At that point Easdale was producing 1 million slates per annum and as further quarries were opened this further increased the company's production to 5 million per annum by 1800. In the 1790s Belnahua was leased out by the landowners to the Stevenson brothers whose aim was to supply slate for the developing town of
Oban. Cottages were constructed for the workers in the south east corner of the island and there was a school and company store. Virtually all the provisions had to be supplied from Luing, including drinking water. Rainwater was collected in reservoirs but it was used to power the steam engines that drove the quarries' pumps. By the early 19th century the Stevenson family were shipping slate from both Belnahua and Fladda to
Campbeltown in
Kintyre. Their lease was eventually passed on to the Shaw family of Luing who hired a quarry master that lived on a 2-storey house on the island. At the height of the activity there were 30 quarry workers and their families living there and a total population of over 150. With the commencement of
World War I in 1914 quarry work ceased and the island was completely abandoned and it has been uninhabited ever since. The Breadalbane estates were sold off in the 1930s and as of 2004 Belnahua was owned by the Carling family.
Life on the island Living on a remote island in the 19th century came with hardships. Quarry workers sought employment from around Scotland, some arriving in an area where they would have had few friends or family to support them in times of difficulty. There is no protection from the wind and it can be a "harsh and desolate" location, especially in winter. One writer has gone so far as to suggest that although some islands can suggest a lifestyle of peace and tranquility, that Belnahua "buffeted by the sea and the winds, overshadowed from the south by the lowering cliffs of Scarba, and dominated by the threatening deep maws of the slate quarries at its heart, could surely have engendered little more than tension, fear, agitation and anxiety."
Paul Murton took a similar view of the islanders' circumstances: "They were paid poorly and forced to rent their homes and buy all their supplies from their feudal superior, the Campbell Marquis of Breadalbane, who kept the workforce in a state of permanent debt and poverty. Effectively, the people of Belnahua were slaves." ==Shipwrecks==