Eriskay

Not to be confused with Eriska.

Eriskay

Scottish Gaelic name	Èirisgeigh
Pronunciation	[ˈeɾʲiʃkʲej]
Old Norse name	Eiríksey
Meaning of name	Eric's Isle
Location
Eriskay Eriskay shown within the Outer Hebrides
OS grid reference	NF795104
Coordinates	57.07°N 7.29°W / 57.07; -7.29
Physical geography
Island group	Uist and Barra
Area	703 ha (2+3⁄4 sq mi)
Area rank	63
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
Population rank	40
Population density	20.3/km2 (53/sq mi)
References

Eriskay (Scottish Gaelic: Èirisgeigh), from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland with a population of 143, as of the 2011 census. It lies between South Uist and Barra and is connected to South Uist by a causeway which was opened in 2001. In the same year Ceann a' Ghàraidh in Eriskay became the ferry terminal for travelling between South Uist and Barra. The Caledonian MacBrayne vehicular ferry travels between Eriskay and Ardmore in Barra. The crossing takes around 40 minutes.

Geography

Eriskay and surrounding islands

Although only a small island (about 2+1⁄2 by 1+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 by Scottish traditional musicians, the Eriskay Love Lilt, which was collected on the island by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser with the assistance of the Gaelic Bard Fr. Allan MacDonald. The island is also associated with the Eriskay Pony and the Eriskay jersey (made without any seams).

There is a well-stocked shop in Eriskay and a community centre and local history museum.

History

The Jacobite rising of 1745

Eriskay is very important to the history of the Jacobite rising of 1745. On 2 August 1745 the privateer Du Teillay arrived there and temporarily put Prince Charles Edward Stuart and the Seven Men of Moidart ashore upon the island. The sandy beach where the Prince first set foot upon Scottish soil is still called in his honour Coilleag a' Phrionnsa ("The Cockel Strand of the Prince").

In 1995, a memorial cairn was erected at the site with an inscription that includes the first stanza of Scottish Gaelic national poet Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair's iconic song-poem Òran Eile don Phrionnsa:

"Moch sa mhadainn 's mi dùsgadh

'S mòr mo shunnd 's mo cheòl-gàire

On a chuala mi 'm Prionnsa

Thighinn do dhùthaich Chlann Raghnaill."

An English translation by Hamish Henderson reads,

"Early in the morning as I wakened,

great [is] my joy,

for I hear that [the Prince] comes

to the land of Clanranald."

The Highland Clearances and their legacy

According to the Napier 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 the Highland Clearances. The estate Factors, who considered Eriskay "agriculturally worthless", accordingly used the island as a dumping ground for evicted tenants from the many other islands owned by Colonel John Gordon throughout the Sound of Barra and the southern Outer Hebrides. For the most part, however, the newly arrived islanders of Eriskay belonged overwhelmingly to the once strictly illegal Catholic Church in Scotland and had their family roots in South Uist.

Even so, for decades after Catholic Emancipation in 1829, there was still no resident Roman Catholic priest in Eriskay, and the island's population was largely served by visiting priests from St Peter's Roman Catholic Church at Daliburgh, 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 the Sound 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."

The current St Michael's Roman Catholic Church stands atop Cnoc 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 the Bard Fr. Allan MacDonald (Scottish Gaelic: Maighstir Ailein). Since the current church was consecrated by Bishop George Smith in 7 May 1903, the site of the 1852 stone chapel has been marked by a Marian shrine with a statue of Our 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 both Christian poetry and Scottish Gaelic literature. In his iconic song poem Eilein 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 the Fenian Cycle of Celtic mythology inside the ceilidh house. He also commented upon the visits to Eriskay by Saint Columba, Iain Mùideartach (Chief of Clanranald), and Prince Charles Edward Stuart. Fr. MacDonald also denounced the Highland Clearances, but expressed joy that the crofters had been granted greater rights against the Anglo-Scottish landlords.

20th century

Eriskay: A Poem of Remote Lives, made in 1934 by important early German documentary filmmaker Werner Kissling, was filmed on the island and is comprised 15m 40s of silent, black-and-white footage. An introduction was added and a sound track featuring narration, Scottish traditional music, waulking songs, and recorded conversations in Scottish Gaelic.

Kissling's film formed the centre-piece of a "Hebridean Evening", hosted at the Marquess of Londonderry’s London residence, on Tuesday, 30 April 1935, in the presence of the Prince of Wales, Queen Mary of Teck, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Ramsay MacDonald, Macleod of Macleod and Cameron of Lochiel. The funds raised were used to build Eriskay’s first major road, running from the old pier at Na Hann in the north to the harbour at Acairseid in the south. While the roads have long since been upgraded, part of the old road, which is named Rathad Kissling ("Kissling Street") in the filmmaker's honour, still survives near Acairseid.

The Politician Lounge Bar in Na Hann is named after the SS Politician which ran aground off the island's coast in 1941. The accident provided the whole island with a generous supply of free whisky in defiance of both customs duties and wartime rationing and subsequently inspired Compton Mackenzie's 1947 comic novel Whisky Galore! and it's 1949 film adaptation.

During the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, an audio archive of Hebridean mythology and folklore and stories about local history were recorded from the Eriskay oral tradition by island schoolmaster Donald MacDonald and by Calum Maclean, both of whom were in the employ of Prof. Séamus Ó Duilearga and the Irish Folklore Commission. The recordings have since been digitized and made available online through the Tobar an Dualchais – Kist o Riches website.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana visited Eriskay during their tour of the Western Isles in July 1985.

21st century

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 including Benbecula, 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.

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 a local 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").

Transport

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 and Berneray via South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist. Services are provided by DA Travel with funding from Comhairle 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.

Crofting

Following the establishment of the first Crofting Commission in the 1880s, the whole of the island, together with the small adjoining Stack Island, was incorporated into the crofting 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 Eriskay shore

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 of Beinn Sgrithean and Beinn Stac), ten sheep, two cows and one Eriskay 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, the machair 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 the Crofting Acts.

Emigration

Eriskay, looking north towards Easabhal on South Uist

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 the MacInnes 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 the 2011 census—an increase of 7.5% since 2001, when there were 133 usual residents. During the same period Scottish island populations as a whole grew by 4% to 103,702.

Tourism

As of 2010 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 to South 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.

Eriskay pony with the coastal village of Rubha Ban and the Isle of South Uist in the background.

The island is home to a herd of Eriskay Ponies owned and maintained by members of Comann Each nan Eilean – The Eriskay Pony Society, founded in 1972. 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.

Wildlife

Sea bindweed, which is not native to the Hebrides, 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.

In popular culture

• Allan MacDonald (1859–1905), a Roman Catholic priest, important figure in Scottish Gaelic literature, and activist for crofters' rights, died and was buried on Eriskay.
• Father Calum (Malcolm Joseph) MacLellan (1926–2012) priest, appearing in series 5 and 6 of An Island Parish, first vice-convener of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.

See also

• List of islands of Scotland

Further reading

• Hutchinson, Roger (2010). Father Allan : The Life and Legacy of a Hebridean Priest. Birlinn. ISBN 978-1-84158-548-2.
• MacInnes, Angus (25 August 2017). Eriskay: Where I was Born. Birlinn Limited. ISBN 978-1780273815.
• Amy Murray (1920), Father Allan's Island, Harcourt, Brace and Howe, Inc.

External links

• Am Paipear Community Newspaper
• Legislation relating to construction of causeway
• National Library of Scotland: SCOTTISH SCREEN ARCHIVE (selection of archive films about Eriskay)]
• Uist & Eriskay Community News and Information Resource