| Scottish Gaelic name | Èirisgeigh |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | [ˈeɾʲiʃkʲej]ⓘ |
| Old Norse name | Eiríksey |
| Meaning of name | Eric's Isle |
_with_the_Isle_of_Lingay_in_the_background_on_the_left%2c_Isle_of_Eriskay%2c_The_Outer_Hebrides.jpg) | |
| Location | |
  Eriskay Eriskay shown within theOuter Hebrides | |
| OS grid reference | NF795104 |
| Coordinates | 57°04′N7°17′W / 57.07°N 7.29°W /57.07; -7.29 |
| Physical geography | |
| Island group | Uist andBarra |
| Area | 703 ha (2+3⁄4 sq mi) |
| Area rank | 63 [1] |
| Highest elevation | Beinn Sgrithean 185.6 m (609 ft) |
| Administration | |
| Council area | Comhairle nan Eilean Siar |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 143[2] |
| Population rank | 40 [1] |
| Population density | 20.3/km2 (53/sq mi)[2][3] |
 | |
| References | [3][4][5] |
Eriskay (Scottish Gaelic:Èirisgeigh), from theOld Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island andcommunity council area of theOuter Hebrides in northernScotland with a population of 143, as of the2011 census.[2] It lies betweenSouth Uist andBarra and is connected to South Uist by acauseway which was opened in 2001. In the same yearCeann a' Ghàraidh in Eriskay became the ferry terminal for travelling between South Uist and Barra. TheCaledonian MacBrayne vehicular ferry travels between Eriskay andArdmore in Barra. The crossing takes around 40 minutes.
Although only a small island (about2+1⁄2 by1+1⁄2 miles or 4 by 2.5 kilometres) Eriskay has many claims to fame that have made the island well-known far beyond the Hebrides. It is associated with a popular song still sung byScottish traditional musicians, theart songEriskay Love Lilt, which was collected on the island as the lament forunrequited loveGràdh Geal Mo Chridhe[6][7] byMarjory Kennedy-Fraser with the assistance of the GaelicBard Fr.Allan MacDonald. The island is also associated with theEriskay Pony and the Eriskayjersey (made without any seams).
There is a shop in Eriskay, a community centre and a local history museum.
Eriskay is very important to the history of theJacobite rising of 1745. On 2 August 1745 the privateerDu Teillay arrived there and temporarily putPrince Charles Edward Stuart and theSeven Men of Moidart ashore upon the island. The sandy beach where the Prince first set foot upon Scottish soil is still called in his honourCoilleag a' Phrionnsa ("The Cockel Strand of the Prince").
In 1995, a memorialcairn was erected at the site with an inscription that includes the first stanza of Scottish Gaelicnational poetAlasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair's iconic song-poemÒran Eile don Phrionnsa:[8]
An English translation byHamish Henderson reads,
According to theNapier Commission testimony of local resident John McCaskill, the islanders of Eriskay had consisted as recently as the 1830s and '40s of only three families and less than 30 people. They had been radically multiplied, though, during the subsequent phases of theHighland Clearances. The estateFactors, who considered Eriskay "agriculturally worthless", accordingly used the island as a dumping ground for evicted tenants from the many other islands owned by ColonelJohn Gordon throughout theSound of Barra and the southernOuter Hebrides. For the most part, however, the newly arrived islanders of Eriskay belonged overwhelmingly to the once strictly illegalCatholic Church in Scotland and had their family roots inSouth Uist.[11]
Even so, for decades afterCatholic Emancipation in 1829, there was still no residentRoman Catholic priest in Eriskay, and the island's population was largely served by visiting priests from St Peter's Roman Catholic Church atDaliburgh,South Uist. Such priests had walk down to "The Priests' Point" along the south coast and kindle a bonfire as a signal for Eriskay fishermen to sail over and ferry them across theSound of Barra.
According to Roger Hutchinson, the first St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church was built in 1852, "shortly after the arrival of hundreds of evictees from South Uist and elsewhere. It was no more than a big stone crofthouse, a single-storey rectangle, at first with a thatch and later with a corrugated iron roof."[12]
The currentSt Michael's Roman Catholic Church stands atopCnoc nan Sgrath, a hill overlooking the main village on Eriskay. It was famously built with stones and homemade mortar by the local population under the leadership of theBard Fr.Allan MacDonald (Scottish Gaelic:Maighstir Ailein).[13] Since the current church was consecrated by BishopGeorge Smith in 7 May 1903,[14] the site of the 1852 stone chapel has been marked by a Marian shrine with a statue ofOur Lady of Fatima, overlooking the Sound of Barra.
Due to the long residence, death, and burial there of Fr. Allan MacDonald, Eriskay is also important to bothChristian poetry andScottish Gaelic literature. In his iconic song poemEilein na h-Òige ("Island of the Young"), Fr. MacDonald praises the beauty of Eriskay, its wildlife, and the fondness of its people for telling tales from theFenian Cycle ofCeltic mythology inside theceilidh house. He also commented upon the visits to Eriskay bySaint Columba,Iain Mùideartach (Chief ofClanranald), andPrince Charles Edward Stuart. Fr. MacDonald also denounced theHighland Clearances, but expressed joy that thecrofters had been granted greater rights against theAnglo-Scottish landlords.[15][16]
Eriskay: A Poem of Remote Lives, made in 1934 by important early Germandocumentary filmmakerWerner Kissling, was filmed on the island and is comprised 15m 40s of silent, black-and-white footage. An introduction was added and asound track featuring narration,Scottish traditional music,waulking songs, and recorded conversations inScottish Gaelic.
Kissling's film formed the centre-piece of a "Hebridean Evening", hosted at theMarquess of Londonderry’sLondon residence, on Tuesday, 30 April 1935, in the presence of thePrince of Wales, QueenMary of Teck,Prime Minister of the United KingdomRamsay MacDonald,Macleod of Macleod andCameron of Lochiel. The funds raised were used to build Eriskay’s first major road, running from the old pier atNa Hann in the north to the harbour atAcairseid in the south. While the roads have long since been upgraded, part of the old road, which is namedRathad Kissling ("Kissling Street") in the filmmaker's honour, still survives near Acairseid.
The Politician Lounge Bar inNa Hann is named after theSS Politician which ran aground off the island's coast in 1941. The accident provided the whole island with a generous supply of freewhisky in defiance of both customs duties andwartime rationing and subsequently inspiredCompton Mackenzie's 1947 comic novelWhisky Galore! and it's1949 film adaptation.
During the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, an audio archive ofHebridean mythology and folklore and stories about local history were recorded from the Eriskayoral tradition by island schoolmaster Donald MacDonald and byCalum Maclean, both of whom were in the employ of Prof.Séamus Ó Duilearga and theIrish Folklore Commission. The recordings have since been digitized and made available online through theTobar an Dualchais – Kist o Riches website.[17]
Prince Charles andPrincess Diana visited Eriskay during their tour of theWestern Isles in July 1985.[18]
After a protracted campaign local residents took control of the island on 30 November 2006 in a community buy-out. The previous landowners, a sporting syndicate, sold the assets of the 372-square-kilometre (144 sq mi) estate includingBenbecula, South Uist and Eriskay for £4.5 million to a community-owned organisation known as Stòras Uibhist, which was set up to purchase the land and to manage it in perpetuity.[19][20][21]
Comann Eachdraidh Eirisgeidh ("The Eriskay Historical Society") was established in 2010 and, as of 2021, had recently purchased the island's schoolhouse, which had been closed down since 2013, to turn it into alocal history and heritage museum. In honour of Fr.Allan MacDonald, the Society has also established "Maighstir Ailein's Poetry Trail", a hiking trail where particularly scenic locations are accompanied by bilingual and laminated verses in boxes of the priest-poet's famous poem,Eilein na h-Òige ("Isle of Youth").[22]
Eriskay is traversed by a number of mountain paths and tracks, and has just a single motor road. The first stretch of that road was built in 1935, funded through proceeds from the first showing in London of the Werner Kissling film.
There is a regular bus service on the island which forms part of the "Spine Route" between Eriskay Slipway andBerneray viaSouth Uist,Benbecula andNorth Uist. Services are provided by DA Travel with funding fromComhairle nan Eilean Siar.
In 2009 the previous primitive quay facilities at the excellent natural harbour of Acarsaid Mhòr were extended and modernised, with improved vehicular access. Some smaller fishing boats continue—at least when the tides and weather are favourable—to use the shelving bay at Haun (from the Viking for 'harbour'—but scarcely with sufficient shelter to constitute a harbour in practice). Acarsaid Mhòr is also used by visiting yachts.
Following the establishment of the firstCrofting Commission in the 1880s, the whole of the island, together with the small adjoining Stack Island, was incorporated into thecrofting townships:
| Name of township | Numbers of | |
|---|---|---|
| Crofts | Shares | |
| Acarsaid Mhòr | 14 | 10 |
| Am Baile (Balla) | 16 | 15 |
| Bun a' Mhuillinn | 10 | 10 |
| Coilleag | 10 | 10 |
| Na Hann (Haun) | 6 | 4 |
| Na Pàirceannan (Parks) | 4 | 4 |
| Roisinis (Roshinish) | 4 | 6 |
| Rudha Bàn | 9 | 5 |
| Total | 73 | 64 |
The souming (a word originating in the Viking era) for each full share gives the right to put, on the common grazings (the high ground ofBeinn Sgrithean and Beinn Stac), ten sheep, two cows and oneEriskay Pony (all plus their 'followers'—young up to one year old). Most crofts have one full share, but many have a half share, and a few have two shares, and one croft has as many as 3 shares.
The crofts are small (typically five hectares or less) and the land is rocky and exposed to harsh weather. These days, very few crofts are actively worked: there is little economic return in relation to the effort, and although there is a strong cultural attachment to the land, the demands and distractions of modern life leave little time for tending livestock and manual work. Much of the best grazing land, themachair of the north west of the island, has been compromised by house-building and the increasing opposition to the free-range grazing of cattle and sheep during the winter. Now, the most actively worked crofts are in the township of Bun a' Mhuillinn.
The island's common grazings, and the grazing of croft inbye land during the winter months, are regulated by the Eriskay Grazings Committee, the members of which serve a three-year term, supported by a Grazings Clerk, and according to the Grazings Regulations as provided for in theCrofting Acts.[23]
Many Eriskay families have had to leave the island in recent years in search of work and some historic island families have few or no descendants left on the island. An example of these families is theMacInnes who were a prominent island family at the time of the Kissling film but now number just four members of the extended family dwelling on the island, and active in crofting, shell-fishing, building work, as well contributing to the community.
Many of those who leave for the mainland are young as—in common with remoter rural areas generally—there are few work opportunities and limited access to further or higher education.
The island's population was 143, as recorded by the2011 census[2]—an increase of 7.5% since 2001, when there were 133 usual residents.[24] During the same periodScottish island populations as a whole grew by 4% to 103,702.[25]
As of 2010[update] there were no hotels, two or three bed-and-breakfast establishments, and until recently few self-catering cottages or houses. Since the completion in 2001 of the causeway toSouth Uist and the inauguration of the vehicle ferry to Barra, a number of properties have been professionally renovated or purpose-built as holiday accommodation. The machair and beaches from Coilleag a' Phrionnsa to Rudha Bàn are increasingly popular with visitors travelling with their motor-homes.
The island is home to a herd ofEriskay Ponies owned and maintained by members ofComann Each nan Eilean – The Eriskay Pony Society, founded in 1972.[26] The ponies are bound by crofting regulations and are brought to the hill grazings in spring, and back down into the township for the winter. They graze and roam around the island to whichever part is most comfortable depending on the climate. Although the ponies have a laid-back temperament and are accustomed to humans, they should be approached with care and visitors should refrain from feeding them, as this can be harmful to the animals.
Sea bindweed, which is not native to theHebrides, grows on the island. Its presence there is said to stem from the arrival of the "Bonnie Prince", who accidentally dropped the seeds when he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket.[27]
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