The Lady of Hirta

About the Book: 

Imprisoned for 13 years. Isolated on the largest island in the St Kilda archipelago, over 100 miles from the mainland.

In 1732, mystery and betrayal lurk around every corner. Lady Rachel Grange was kidnapped and imprisoned after her attempt to expose her husband’s secret connections to the Jacobites to force him to leave his mistress backfires. She is instead removed from Edinburgh and shipped off to the Western Isles.

7 years later, we meet Reverend Ferchard Ross, a determined minister seeking to uncover her secrets. The Reverend must untangle a web of deception and the knotted threads of Lady Grange’s tumultuous marriage to the formidable Lord Grange. With the elusive Lady of Hirta at the centre, the Reverend’s tale takes him from St Kilda to London as the unsuspecting minister finds himself embroiled in malicious deceits, unrequited love and Jacobite rumblings.

Where power clashes with passion against the haunting backdrop of one of Scotland’s now uninhabited islands, will the truth be uncovered before it’s too late?

Reviews: 

The events that led to the mysterious kidnapping of Lady Grange are steeped in conspiracy, deception and a marriage that had gone very, very sour… HISTORIC ENVIROMENT SCOTLAND

About the Author:

WILLIAM COOK MACKENZIE (1862–1952) was a distinguished Scottish historian, folklorist and archaeologist, born in Cromarty. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he taught at Glasgow Academy for 17 years before becoming secretary to the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments, a role he held from 1913 to 1935. Following retirement, he served as acting head of the Department of Scottish History at Edinburgh University. A prolific writer, Mackenzie produced editions of Dunbar’s and Barbour’s poems and authored works on Hugh Miller, Flodden, Bannockburn and Arran, leaving a lasting contribution to Scotland’s historical and cultural scholarship.