The village of Mallaig was founded in the 1840s, when Lord Lovat divided up his farm of Mallaigvaig into seventeen parcels of land and encouraged his tenants
to move to the west and turn to fishing for a living. The population expanded rapidly in the 20th century with the arrival of the railway. Now a busy ferry port,
with ferries to the Isle of Skye and the isles of Rùm, Eigg, Muck, and Canna. Mallaig is also the main commercial fishing port on the West Coast of Scotland,
and during the 1960s was the busiest herring port in Europe. Mallaig prided itself at that time on its famous traditionally smoked kippers, but today only one
traditional smokehouse remains.