The Bulloughs and SNH
The first geologists visited the Isle of rum in the early 19th century, and were fascinated by what they found. John MacCulloch went to Rum during research for this account of the geological structure of the Western Isles of Scotland, published in 1819. His description of Rum in this book beings thus. "Although the rough and dangerous shores, the trackless surface, and the perennial rain of this island, are repulsive to the general traveller, the geologist will here meet with the appearances of such interest, as to induce him to brave its tempests and to defy the toil which he must encounter in its investigation".
Only a few years after MacCulloch's visit, people were largely cleared off Rum to make way for sheep, but this venture was unprofitable. The island then passed through the hands of a series of wealth landowners who used it as a sporting estate. In 1888 the island was bought by a wealthy industrialist, John Bullough. It was his son George Bullough who built the stately pile of Kinloch Castle in 1900, shipping red sandstone all the way from Arran rather than using local building materials from Rum. The story goes that the workmen building the castle were paid extra to wear kilts! The Bullough family made use of the island as a private retreat until 1957, when it was sold to the forerunner of SNH, the Nature Conservancy Council, and became a National Nature Reserve. Since then it has been managed for nature conservation purposes including red deer research, sea eagle reintroduction, and woodland restoration.