View source for Eriskay

{{Short description|Island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland}}
{{Distinguish|Eriska}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox Scottish island
|Map=
|GridReference=NF795104
|coordinates = {{coord|57.07|-7.29|display=inline,title}}
|location_map=Scotland Outer Hebrides
|caption=Eriskay shown within the [[Outer Hebrides]]
|celtic name=Èirisgeigh
|gaelic pronunciation={{IPA|gd|ˈeɾʲiʃkʲej||Eirisgeidh.ogg}}
|norse name=Eiríksey
|meaning of name=Eric's Isle
|area= {{cvt|703|ha|sqmi|frac=8}}
|area rank=63
|highest elevation=[[Beinn Sciathan|Beinn Sgrithean]] {{cvt|185.6|m|ft|0}}
|Population=158<ref name=RESAS>{{RESAS}}</ref>
|population rank= 38
|population density ={{cvt|22.5|PD/km2}}<ref name=RESAS/><ref name=Smith/>
|main settlement=
|island group=[[Uist]] and [[Barra]]
|local authority=[[Comhairle nan Eilean Siar]]
|references=<ref name=Smith>{{Haswell-Smith}}</ref><ref>{{Ordnance Survey}}</ref><ref>{{Gaelic Placenames}}</ref>
|Image=Prince’s Beach (The Prince’s Cockleshell Strand) with the Isle of Lingay in the background on the left, Isle of Eriskay, The Outer Hebrides.jpg}}

'''Eriskay''' ({{langx|gd|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 160. 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, Barra|Ardmore]] in Barra. The crossing takes around 40 minutes.

==Geography==
[[File:Eriskay map.svg|thumb|left|Eriskay and surrounding islands]]
The island is about {{convert|2+1/2|x|1+1/2|mi|km|disp=or|round=0.5}}. The island is also associated with the [[Eriskay Pony]] and the Eriskay [[jersey (clothing)|jersey]] (made without any seams). 

There is a shop in Eriskay, a community centre and a local history museum.

==History==
===The Jacobite rising of 1745===
Eriskay is important to the history of the [[Jacobite rising of 1745]]. On 2 August 1745 the privateer ''[[Du Teillay (1744 ship)|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").<ref name="m346">{{cite book | last=Ross | first=David R. | title=On the Trail of Bonnie Prince Charlie | publisher=Luath Press Ltd | date=2024-05-03 | isbn=978-1-80425-213-0 | url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/On_the_Trail_of_Bonnie_Prince_Charlie/36xAEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Du+Teillay+Eriskay&pg=PT37&printsec=frontcover | access-date=2025-08-11}}</ref>

In 1995, a memorial [[cairn]] was erected on Eriskay site with an inscription that includes the first stanza of Scottish Gaelic [[Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair]]'s iconic song-poem ''Òran Eile don Phrionnsa'':<ref> [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1358088 Bilingual Inscription on Cairn] taken 15 years ago, near to Coilleag, Eriskay an Easgann & na Brugannan, Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Scotland.</ref><ref>Edited by Eberhard Bort (2011), ''Tis Sixty Years Since: The 1951 Edinburgh People's Festival Ceilidh and the Scottish Folk Revival''. Page 206.</ref>

===19th century===
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 [[Factor (Scotland)|Factor]]s, 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 (soldier)|John Gordon]] throughout the [[Sound of Barra]] and the southern [[Outer Hebrides]]. For the most part, however, the newly arrived islanders of Eriskay belonged to the [[Catholic Church in Scotland]] and had their family roots in [[South Uist]].<ref> Roger Hutchinson (2010), ''The Life and Legacy of a Hebridean Priest'', Birlinn Limited. Page 130.</ref> 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]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}} The first St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church was stated to have been 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."<ref> Roger Hutchinson (2010), ''The Life and Legacy of a Hebridean Priest'', Birlinn Limited. Page 136.</ref> The current [[St Michael's Church, Eriskay|St Michael's Roman Catholic Church]] stands atop ''Cnoc nan Sgrath'', a hill overlooking the main village on Eriskay. It was built with stones and homemade mortar by the local population.({{langx|gd|Maighstir Ailein}}).<ref>Frederick G. Rea (1997), ''A School in South Uist: Reminiscences of a Hebridean Schoolmaster, 1890–1913'', edited and with an introduction by John Lorne Campbell, [[Birlinn Limited]]. Pages 116–117.</ref> The site of the 1852 stone chapel is now marked by a Marian shrine with a statue of [[Our Lady of Fatima]], overlooking the Sound of Barra.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}

Eriskay is also important to both [[Christian poetry]] and [[Scottish Gaelic literature]]. In his 19th century iconic song poem ''Eilein na h-Òige'' ("Island of the Young"), 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]] ([[Scottish clan chief|chief]] of [[Clanranald]]), and [[Prince Charles Edward Stuart]].<ref>Edited by Ronald Black (2002), ''Eilein na h-Òige: The Poems of Fr. Allan MacDonald'', Mungo Press. Page 172-185.</ref><ref>Edited by Donald E. Meek (2019), ''The Wiles of the World Caran an t-Saohgail: Anthology of 19th-century Scottish Gaelic Verse'', Birlinn Limited. Pages 24–31, 397–399.</ref>

===20th century===
''[https://www.youtube.com/user/spekkyguy#p/u/2/O9_tOh6NYOs Eriskay: A Poem of Remote Lives]'' is documentary made in 1934 by early German [[documentary film]]maker [[Werner Kissling]], was filmed on the island and is comprised 15m 40s of silent, black-and-white footage.<ref name="a126">{{cite web | title=A Poem of Remote Lives (1935) | website=BFI Screenonline: Eriskay | url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/714045/index.html | access-date=2025-08-11}}</ref> An introduction was added and a [[sound track]] featuring narration, [[Scottish traditional music]], [[waulking song]]s, and recorded conversations in [[Scottish Gaelic]]. Kissling's film formed the centre-piece of a "Hebridean Evening", hosted at the [[Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry|Marquess of Londonderry]]’s [[London]] residence, on Tuesday, 30 April 1935, in the presence of the [[King Edward VIII|Prince of Wales]], Queen [[Mary of Teck]], [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Ramsay MacDonald]], [[Reginald MacLeod of MacLeod|Macleod of Macleod]] and [[Donald Walter Cameron of Lochiel|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.<ref name="z994">{{cite web | last=Beach | first=the | title=Isle Of South Uist | website=Outer Hebrides | date=2025-08-11 | url=https://www.visitouterhebrides.co.uk/food-and-drink/eat-drink-hebrides-am-politician-p562251 | access-date=2025-08-11}}</ref> The accident provided the whole island with a generous supply of free [[whisky]] in defiance of both customs duties and [[Rationing in the United Kingdom|wartime rationing]] and subsequently inspired [[Compton Mackenzie]]'s 1947 comic novel ''[[Whisky Galore (novel)|Whisky Galore!]]'' and its [[Whisky Galore! (1949 film)|1949 film adaptation]].<ref name="g154">{{cite web | last=Sangster | first=Jackie | title=Whisky Galore: The story of a close-knit community | website=Historic Environment Scotland Blog | date=2022-06-14 | url=https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2022/06/whisky-galore/ | access-date=2025-08-11}}</ref>

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 (folklorist)|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.<ref> [https://www.whfp.com/2023/10/25/tobar-an-dualchais-legend-not-historical-record-behind-a-name/ TOBAR AN DUALCHAIS: Legend, not historical record, behind a name], by Liam Alastair Crouse, ''[[West Highland Free Press]]'', 25 October 2023.</ref>

[[Prince Charles]] and [[Princess Diana]] visited Eriskay during their tour of the [[Western Isles]] in July 1985.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://thescotsmanpublications.newsprints.co.uk/view/20379421/1027011_jpg |title=''Scotsman'' photos of royal visit to Eriskay in 1985 |access-date=16 June 2013 |archive-date=6 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106063712/http://thescotsmanpublications.newsprints.co.uk/view/20379421/1027011_jpg |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===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 {{convert|372|km2|sqmi|adj=on}} 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6195966.stm |title=Land buyout reality for islanders |work=BBC News |date=30 November 2006 | access-date=4 January 2010}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060629104706/http://www.storasuibhist.com/index.php "Stòras Uibhist: Going Forward Together"] storasuibhist.com. Retrieved 26 June 2010.</ref><ref>''The quiet revolution''. (19 January 2007) Broadford. ''West Highland Free Press''.</ref> In 2018, legal issues around governance from the buyout were reported.<ref name="r751">{{cite web | last=Simpson | first=Alan | title=Tranquility shattered in South Uist by community-buy out tensions | website=The Herald | date=2018-05-31 | url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16259342.tranquility-shattered-south-uist-community-buy-tensions/ | access-date=2025-08-11}}</ref>

''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 [[Allan MacDonald (poet)|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").<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20211129-the-scottish-isle-where-native-ponies-roam | title=The Scottish isle where native ponies roam | first=Karen | last=Gardiner | publisher=[[BBC]] | date=30 November 2021}}</ref>

==Transport==
{{CalMac Oban ferries|collapse=yes}}
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.<ref name="a126"/>

There is a regular bus service on the island which forms part of the "Spine Route" between Eriskay Slipway and [[Berneray, North Uist|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.

==Culture==
===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:
{|class=wikitable
!rowspan=2|Name of<br>township!!colspan=2|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
|}
[[File:L1010741.JPG|thumb|left|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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}

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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}

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]].<ref>[https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-PF2eEWoOdqflVNSWNGaWhOS1Q3SXJwbjZ6TzlTb2xPb1hGYWhpdlUwbVlXTmRxTldzQkU&usp=sharing Regulations for the Management of the Isle of Eriskay Common Grazings, 14 July 1997, as amended in 2010]</ref>

===Music===
[[Eriskay Love Lilt]] is a [[Scottish folk music|Scottish folk song]] associated with the island.<ref name="e244">{{cite book | last=MacKillop | first=James | title=Highlanders: Unlocking Identity Through History | publisher=McFarland | date=2024-01-04 | isbn=978-1-4766-9312-5 | url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Highlanders/BBrtEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Eriskay+Love+Lilt&pg=PA188&printsec=frontcover | access-date=2025-08-12 | page=188}}</ref>

===Emigration and population===
[[File:Eriskay.jpg|thumb|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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}} The island's population was 143, as recorded by the [[United Kingdom Census 2011|2011 census]]<ref name=NRS>{{NRS1C}}</ref> —an increase of 7.5% since 2001, when there were 133 usual residents.<ref>{{GRO10}}</ref> During the same period [[List of Scottish islands|Scottish island]] populations as a whole grew by 4% to 103,702.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23711202 "Scotland's 2011 census: Island living on the rise"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630183449/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23711202 |date=30 June 2016 }}. BBC News. Retrieved 18 August 2013.</ref> By 2022 the population had grown further to 158.<ref name=RESAS/>

==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.
[[File:Eriskay pony with the coastal village of Rubha Ban and the Isle of South Uist in the background, Isle of Eriskay, The Outer Hebrides, Scotland.jpg|alt=Eriskay pony with the coastal village of Rubha Ban and the Isle of South Uist in the background.|thumb|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 Pony|Eriskay Ponies]] owned and maintained by members of ''Comann Each nan Eilean – The Eriskay Pony Society'', founded in 1972.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Island {{!}} Comann Each nan Eilean|url=https://www.eriskaypony.scot/eilean|access-date=2021-09-16|website=Comann nan Each|language=en}}</ref> 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==
[[Calystegia soldanella|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 "[[Charles Edward Stuart|Bonnie Prince]]", who accidentally dropped the seeds when he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket.<ref>Drainey, Nick (19 April 2009) [http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/walkoftheweek/Walk-of-the-week-Beinn.5181727.jp "Walk of the week: Beinn Sciathan (Ben Scrien), Eriskay"] Scotland on Sunday. Retrieved 17 September 2010.</ref>

==Notable people==
*[[Allan MacDonald (poet)|Allan MacDonald]] (1859–1905), a [[Catholic Church in Scotland|Roman Catholic]] [[Roman Catholic priest|priest]], important figure in [[Scottish Gaelic literature]], and activist for crofters' rights, died and was buried on Eriskay.

== See also ==
{{Portal|Scottish islands}}
*[[List of islands of Scotland]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |title=Father Allan : The Life and Legacy of a Hebridean Priest |first=Roger |last=Hutchinson |publisher=Birlinn |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-84158-548-2}}
*{{cite book |title=Eriskay: Where I was Born |first=Angus |last=MacInnes |date=25 August 2017 |publisher=[[Birlinn Limited]] |isbn=	978-1780273815}}
* Amy Murray (1920), ''[[Allan MacDonald (poet)|Father Allan]]'s Island'', [[Harcourt, Brace and Howe]], Inc.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Eriskay}}
{{Wikivoyage|Eriskay}}
*[http://www.ampaipear.org.uk/ Am Paipear Community Newspaper]
*[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2000/1/schedule/enacted Legislation relating to construction of causeway]
*[http://ssa.nls.uk/search.cfm?search_sort_order=Film.dateRelease%2CFilm.name&search_sort_direction=ASC&search_term=eriskay&search_fields=6&search_join_type=AND&search_fuzzy=yes&videos_only=1&search_mode=Advanced&submit=Search+%3E%3E%3E National Library of Scotland: SCOTTISH SCREEN ARCHIVE] (selection of archive films about Eriskay)]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110322220014/http://www.uist.co.uk/ Uist & Eriskay Community News and Information Resource]

{{Sound of Barra}}
{{Hebrides}}
{{Islands of Scotland}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Uist islands]]
[[Category:Islands of the Sound of Barra]]
[[Category:Community buyouts in Scotland]]
[[Category:Highland Estates]]