One of the greatest travellers in Scotland, Martin Martin was also a native Gaelic speaker. This text offers his narrative of his journey around the Western Isles, and a mine of information on custom, tradition and life. Martin Martin's wrote before the Jacobite rebellions changed the way of life of the Highlander irrevocably. The volume includes the earliest account of St Kilda, first published in 1697 and Sir Donald Monro, High Dean of the Isles, account written in 1549 which presents a record of a pastoral visit to islands still coping with the aftermath of the fall of the Lords of the Isles.

It is three hundred years since Martin Martin's great journey around the Western Isles, Orkneys and Shetlands. The first and one of the greatest of all travellers in Scotland, Martin is also unique in being the only native Gaelic speaker amongst them. A Description of the Wester Isles is a unique and authoritative resonance which makes it, even today, a mine of information on the history, customs, traditions and life of the Hebrides. It also casts light on the islands during a crucial period of history when the old structures of society still held sway before Jacobite rebellions altered society irrevocably.