“He’d probably have been very much against it. To be honest, he’d have wondered what all the nonsense was about.”

More than 60 years ago the Isle of Eriskay earned its place in history when villagers, including Mrs Campbell’s grandfather, defied the law by “liberating” 28,000 cases of whisky from a sinking cargo ship, the SS Politician, inspiring the Compton Mackenzie novel Whisky Galore and the 1948 Ealing comedy.

Few places in Scotland are more synonymous with rogues and rebellion than Eriskay, a tiny island in the Outer Hebrides with a string of beautiful white sand beaches, on one of which Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in 1745 to launch the Jacobite Rebellion.

Yesterday there was not even a hint of resistance in the Politician Inn, Eriskay’s only pub, as smokers were barred from lighting up. “Nobody’s even tried to smoke, and we’ve had only one going outside for a cigarette,” said Mrs Campbell, 36, the landlady, as she cast an eye over some of the island’s 132 inhabitants. “The bar already feels fresher.”

Jenna Marie MacDonald, 18, said: “I’m not sure they’d have liked the ban in the days of Whisky Galore, but I think most people will obey the law.”

Popping outside for her first cigarette since the ban, she added: “I smoked up to 20 a day before, but I’m going to cut down completely now. I don’t mind going outside on a day like today but it’ll be different when there’s torrential rain.”

In a tiny community such as Eriskay, it is a measure of how much life has changed that even Iain Smith, 97, who took six crates of whisky from the SS Politician and is one of few still alive to have set foot on board, is in favour of the ban.

He said: “They say that smoking is bad for you, that it gives you lung cancer. I gave up eight years ago.”

Despite its legendary reputation there are no police permanently stationed on Eriskay, nor is there much call for them.

The constable on duty on the neighbouring island of South Uist appeared undaunted by Eriskay’s history.

He said: “Our instructions are that we’re to become involved only if there’s a public order incident. It’s being dealt with by enforcement officers from the council in Benbecula or Stornoway.”

In the Polachar Hotel, across the causeway in South Uist, a pile of cigarette ends was growing outside the front door.

Angus Walker, 38, objected when the barman lit a fire. “With all that smoke coming into the room from the fire why shouldn’t we smoke?” he asked with a grin. Joe Campbell, 37, the hotel owner, said: “I came down to the bar this morning and a whole crowd of them was just sitting there with cigarettes in their mouths. Fortunately it was just a wind-up.”

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