My father, Ian William Angus clan Donald from the isle of Sleat, descendant of the Thane of Argyle, 1135 and Effrica, daughter of Olave the Swarthy once told me how it was made. It took two people, with patience: one to feed the heather to the other who would then walk backwards twisting the strands clockwise on a stick. The rope was used for tying up boats and gathering kelp, sometimes to fashion shutters. My father knew nothing of DNA, the twists and turns of inheritance just how heather was stronger than straw and stronger still if taken from the…