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Like the traditions of all Gaelic communities in Cape Breton Nova Scotia, the story of the Barra community is very much one of the spoken word, handed down in music, folklore, dance and poetry for seven generations.
The story begins in the late 1700s when Donald ‘Og’ MacNeil left the Isle of Barra in Scotland to serve with the British Army in Canada. Sailing through Cape Breton’s Bras d’Or Lakes, MacNeil fell in love with the land. On a visit home to Barra, MacNeil told his family that if they ever left Scotland they should settle on the northern bank of the lake, where the village of Iona is now situated.
Several years later, members of the MacNeil clan began to emigrate from the Isle of Barra to live near Bras d’Or, followed by many other island families, bringing with them the language, music and storytelling that live on in Cape Breton’s rich Gaelic heritage.
In this Community Memories exhibit, pictures show the faces of the Barra people over hundreds of years, stories tell of their determination to survive primitive living conditions and artifacts testify to their Gaelic values and love of the land.
The Highland Village Museum hopes that this exhibit will portray for Cape Breton’s young people the changes and constants in 250 years of their Barra ancestors’ history and tell all Canadians the story of a way of life transferred intact to a new land.
