Mitford family to "The Times" journalist Ben Macintyre, as "Diana the Fascist, Jessica the Communist, Unity the Hitler-lover; Nancy the Novelist; Deborah the Duchess and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur". The family traces its origins in Northumberland back to the time of the Norman conquest. In the Middle Ages they had been Border Reivers based in Redesdale. The main family line had seats at Mitford Castle and Mitford Old Manor House prior to Mitford Hall in 1828. The sisters achieved notoriety for their controversial but stylish lives as young people, then for their public political divisions between communism and fascism. Nancy and
Loch na Keal the shares of Diana, Deborah and Pamela. Jessica, a former communist, teasingly suggested that it might become a Soviet submarine base. Eorsa is an uninhabited island in to the east of Ulva. The island once belonged to the Abbey of Iona and later became the property of the Duke of Argyll. The island is the fictional setting of Nigel Tranter's 1952 novel "Bridal Path", which was made into film of the same name in 1959. As the comic novel takes the perils of island inbreeding as its theme, it is assumed that Tranter deliberately chose an unpopulated island to avoid