Neist Point Lighthouse is located in Duirinish, the island’s most western protrusion. Its photogenic setting on a narrow headland makes it one of Europe’s most captured lighthouses. It played a part in the film Breaking the Waves, for which director Von Trier used plastic gravestones to create a non-existing churchyard.
A small monument beside the road reminds of a group of local heroes and their leader John MacPherson. In 1882 they stood up against their big landowner due to grazing disputes on Waterstein Farm. Their persistent resistance and occupation of the land landed them in prison. But their case was investigated and reached parliament all the way in London, a world apart, resulting in land reform. Glendale became a community owned estate and still is. The crofters are the freeholders of the land on which they live and work. The actions of these 19th century crofters caused a domino effect throughout the Scottish Highlands and Islands, eventually resulting in the historical Crofters Act.
