Sound Of Barra Integrated Transport Project
Eriskay - The Place
Introduction
The Clearances
Eriskay Pony
S.S. Politician
Prince Charles Edward Stuart
Father Allan Macdonald
Community Centre
Eriskay Jersey
Map
Island Walks
How Times Have Changed
Iomairt aig an Oir
Art Gallery
The name Eirisgeidh is derived from the Norse for Eric's Isle. Many placenames on the Island and elsewhere on the Western Isles derive from Norse. This arises from the 400 years of Norse occupation (c800AD-c1200AD).
The area where the car ferry used to berth is called Haun - haven - also derived from Norse.
Eriskay is also referred to in Gaelic as Eilean na h-Oige, or Isle of Youth.
The causeway to Eriskay was the largest civil engineering project of its type under way in the United Kingdom in 2000-2001. It is the latest in a series of fixed links built between the many islands which make up the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides).
To the north of Eriskay lie the islands of the Uists, Benbecula and Berneray, all now linked by causeways. A high quality car ferry service now links these islands with Harris and Lewis to the north.
The causeway to Eriskay ended the isolation of its people and makes Eriskay a link in the north-south route along the 135-mile island chain. The ferry link to Barra will integrate that island (along with more distant Vatersay) with the other islands.
Over the last 100 years, a whole series of communities have vanished because of the problems caused by isolation. St Kilda is the most remote and most famous but others include Mingulay and Berneray south of Barra, the Monach Isles, Scarp and Taransay. The aim of the Council's transport policy is to reduce the effects of peripherality.
It will encourage local economic growth by creating a bigger market for local products and by improving access for visitors. It is also improving access to services - emergency and otherwise - for local people, making the Islands easier to live on.
The port village of Leverburgh in South Harris has already seen considerable development since becoming the ferry link to the south - and traffic on its Loch Bhrusda ferry greatly exceeded forecasts. A new bigger ferry is to be put on the run during 2003.
The Eriskay link gives fishermen from the South Uist area - with about 45 boats operating - access to the excellent anchorage at Acarsaid in southern Eriskay.
In 1746 the local records show only eight inhabitants. By 1841 there were 80. Ten years later there were 405 people on the Island. This followed clearances by landlords elsewhere. Eriskay had been considered too barren for people to live on - but now the landlords wanted people off their land to make way for sheep farms. Many others were forced to leave for the New World.
The native breed of pony has been rescued from near-extinction in the past 30 years. The Comann Each nan Eilean Ltd. (Eriskay Pony Society) was founded in 1972. The first sale of ponies for around 40 years took place in Lochboisdale on April 5 2000. Buyers came from all over Scotland. A feasibility study has been completed on a possible pony centre on Eriskay.
The Politician was a cargo ship rather than a person. The s.s. Politician incident became the basis for Compton Mackenzie's book Whisky Galore (Galore is itself derived from the Gaelic for enough). In 1941 the ship ran ashore north of Eriskay near the little island of Calvay - it carried 20,000 cases of whisky.
The Islanders and the Customs and Excise department took different views of what should be the fate of these bottles - even now, when houses are being extended, there are finds of 'Polly bottles' hidden from the authorities by being buried in the peat.
The only local pub is called "Am Politician".
Charles III, as he was regarded by his supporters, landed on Eriskay at the start of what became the '45 - the last time that a land invasion posed a serious threat to the government of Britain.
He landed almost alone on July 23, 1745, on what is still called Prince's Beach. This adjoins the new ferry terminal for the service to Barra. The Prince set off on a campaign which took his army as far south as Derby, causing panic to grip London, only just over 100 miles further on.
The campaign ended on Drummossie Moor near Inverness with the battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746.
Fr Allan took over the parish of Daliburgh - which then included Eriskay - in 1884. The people of the area - more than 80 per cent Roman Catholic - were then very poor. Despite this and other difficulties, he was able to encourage the building of a hospital in Daliburgh which was only recently replaced by a modern one in Balivanich, and the present church in Eriskay.
He is also remembered for his work collecting Gaelic folklore, one of the greatest collections related to one locality. He died aged only 46 in October 1905 after a cold became pneumonia.
A view of the Eriskay co-op shop and adjoining Community Centre from the outside. With the advent of the Causeway, this is now used for events attracting people from all over South Uist.
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Inside the Community Centre
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One of the rarest pieces of craft-work in Scotland is the Eriskay Jersey, originally made by Island wives for their fishermen husbands. Produced entirely in one colour - navy blue - but now available in cream, the single hue has the effect of downplaying the extraordinary intricacy of the patterns which cover the jumper.
Close-fitting and seamless, the Eriskay Jersey is produced using very fine needles with a very tight, light stitch which kept out damp and kept in warmth for its wearers by the skill of its knitters rather than by thickness. It is produced for the Co-Chomunn Eirisgeidh (the local co-operative, one of several on the Western Isles) by two or three Island women, although perhaps as many as seven are still involved in knitting the traditional patterns.
The work is done exclusively by older women, each working to their own individual style within the traditional motifs. But the work needed for each jersey - perhaps two weeks of intricate knitting - is deterring younger people from taking up the traditional work, formerly passed down through families. It is thought that the original inspiration for the work came more than a century ago from contact with the East Coast of Scotland, where men went to fish and women to work in fish processing - cutting and gutting. Once widely practised in the Hebrides, this kind of knitwork is now confined to Eriskay.
The Stornoway Gazette editorial of March 20, 1997, gives an indication of the concern about the problems facing Eriskay a few years ago.
"Something must be done. That's the only conclusion that can be reached about the problems which the people of Eriskay face in merely moving on and off their island. But aside from the need for greater spending on ferry services, there is the vital need to protect the passengers using the services from the effects of tide and weather at Ludag landing in South Uist. The conditions which people have to face there are simply not acceptable.
This is at a time when the Stornoway Pier and Harbour Commission is very proud of providing a covered walkway on its new ferry terminal which will enable passengers to transfer from ship to shore without even encountering a drop of rain. Yet people on the Eriskay link have to run the gauntlet of the tides and winds, fearful that the only effect of drawing attention to the dangers of the pier will be a further reduction in the availability of services to it.
Delays awaiting a decision on a Barra ferry cannot be accepted. It will not do to await an accident before something is done about providing a breakwater. On the wider issue of the transport links, it is no good to talk of the inevitable problems of island life when these are not encountered on similar islands elsewhere.
Great Bernera has its bridge; Vatersay has its causeway; Scalpay has a far more frequent car ferry service and has a bridge on the way; Berneray's ferry service at present in the run up to the construction of the causeway, though it has attracted complaints, is still far better than Eriskay; and Scarp ... of course, Scarp no longer requires a ferry service.
Everyone throughout the Western Isles is quite familiar with delays and hold-ups caused by airline snags, poor weather or ferry problems. But the occasional late delivery of daily newspapers - or supermarket shelves temporarily bare of fruit or milk - is not the same as the daily disruption caused to the lives of people on Eriskay by their transport provision.
And it is clear that there must be a direct relationship between the limitations of the ferry services and the lack of investment in the island. It is also clear that only a fixed link - a causeway - will solve the problem. Providing the money for one can only be a political decision based on the principle of avoiding further depopulation of remote islands. It is time the causeway was re-appraised before millions of pounds are committed to ferry scheme which may improve the situation very little."
Iomairt aig an Oir (Initiative at the Edge)
Eriskay - along with neighbouring Lochboisdale - is one of the four areas on the Western Isles which is covered by the Initiative at the Edge/Iomairt aig an Oir project.
This is a development programme which aims to help some of Scotland's most distant and fragile communities. It was launched by Brian Wilson, then a minister at the former Scottish Office in 1997 and is intended to bring the full range of development agencies closer to the communities they serve.
The pictures below were drawn by Eriskay School children to give their impression of construction work on Cabhsair Eirisgeidh - Eriskay Causeway.
Calum Macinnes, Primary 6
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Alasdair Dòmhnallach, clas 1
A' coiseachd a-null gu Uibhist, airson a'chiad uair, air cabhsair Eirisgeidh |
Ashleigh Mackinnon, Primary 6
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Dòmhnall Iain Dòmhnallach, clas 2
A' coiseachd a-null gu Uibhist, airson a'chiad uair, air cabhsair Eirisgeidh |
Duncan Macinnes, Primary 4
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Mìcheil MacFhionghuin, clas 1
A' coiseachd a-null gu Uibhist, airson a'chiad uair, air cabhsair Eirisgeidh |
Michaela Macinnes, Primary 4
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Karyn NicAonghais, clas 2
A' coiseachd a-null gu Uibhist, airson a'chiad uair, air cabhsair Eirisgeidh |
Jade Hawkins, Primary 4
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