Kelp gathering was for nearly forty years an important industry on the West Coast and in the Islands. Kelp produced an alkali which formed an ingredient in the manufacture of soap and other commodities. The same substance could be obtained at a cheaper rate from Spanish barilla, but a heavy duty kept it out. In 1822 the duty was reduced and at a later date it was removed altogether, but even before that time the reductions inflicted great hardship on a poor population. It is said that at the height of the kelp industry from 40,000 to 50,000 people were dependent on it. The steady growth of population intensified the misery which followed.
Yet it is not to be forgotten that landlords often tried to provide work to stave off destitution.

The seaweed was gathered and laid out to dry before being burned in a kelp kiln. The kilns were round, stone lined, pits measuring approximately 1.5 metres in diameter and 0.5 metres in depth. Once a good fire was burning in the pit the seaweed was added.

The fire was left to burn for up to 8 hours with seaweed continually being added, resulting in the formation of kelp, a dark blue oily substance. This substance would then be left to cool for several weeks before being shipped off to factories in the South.

At a meeting in Edinburgh in 1831,it was stated that in the Uists and Benbecula the population numbered 12,500 persons, and that 7000 or 8000 had no means of support, except the gathering of kelp.

In 1836 the island of Lewis suffered terribly from a cold spring, which destroyed the lambs and caused the death of several thousand sheep and 700 head of cattle and horses. Next year the failure of the crops in the Western districts for two successive seasons had intensified the distress, and an appeal for assistance was made both to England and Scotland. The want of fuel in Skye drove some of the people to demolish their turf huts, the dispossessed owners being distributed among the other families.

A committee was formed in Glasgow which raised a sum of nearly £30,000, and aid came also from other quarters, including the Government.

Such was the condition of the people in the Western districts and in a few spots on the mainland. However It would be a mistake to suppose that this poverty existed throughout. In many fertile glens a moderate degree of comfort existed.