:''"Eilean an Taighe", or "Eilean Taigh" is a fairly common island name''
Eilean an T(a)ighe, meaning "House Island" (lit. "Island of the House"), is one of the
Shiant Islands
The Shiant Islands (; gd, Na h-Eileanan Mòra or ) or Shiant Isles are a privately owned island group in the Minch, east of Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. They are southeast of the Isle of Lewis.Keay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) ''Collins ...
. It is joined to
Garbh Eilean by an isthmus, so they each form part of what is actually a single island.
History
Before the 1820s, the island was called ''Eilean na Cille'' ("church island"),
[Haswell-Smith (2004) pp. 275-76.] and there is evidence of a church, possibly dedicated to the Virgin Mary, near the site of the present cottage.
[Haswell-Smith (2004) pp. 277-78.]Eilean Mhuire
Eilean Mhuire (meaning "Virgin Mary's island") is the most easterly of the Shiant Islands in the Outer Hebrides.
Once populated, Eilean Mhuire is now used only for grazing sheep. There was an old local tradition that said there used to be a cha ...
, one of the other islands in the Shiants, also takes its name from Mary.
In the mid-18th century, 40 people were living there, but by 1770 they had all left. In the 1820s a shepherd and his wife were resident, but, by 1842, they too had gone. From 1862 to 1901, another shepherd, Donald Campbell, and his wife and two daughters lived there. The daughters, Mòr and Catriona, were apparently very beautiful, and attracted the attention of visiting fishermen and yachtsmen alike.
[
In 1937, the islands were acquired by ]Nigel Nicolson
Nigel Nicolson (19 January 1917 – 23 September 2004) was an English writer, publisher and politician.
Early life and education
Nicolson was the second son of writers Sir Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West; he had an elder brother Ben, ...
, then an undergraduate at Oxford, who — like the former owner, Compton MacKenzie
Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish independence, Scottish nation ...
, was later a writer, publisher and politician. Nicolson's son, the writer Adam Nicolson
Adam Nicolson, (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. He is also the 5th Baron Carnock, but does not use the title.
He is noted for his books ''Sea Room'' (about t ...
, published the definitive book on the islands, ''Sea Room''. The Shiants now belong to Adam's son, Tom. Sheep belonging to a Lewis crofter graze all three islands. The simple bothy
A bothy is a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge. It was also a term for basic accommodation, usually for gardeners or other workers on an estate. Bothies are found in remote mountainous areas of Sco ...
restored by Nigel Nicolson on Eilean an Taighe is currently the only habitable structure on the islands.[Nicolson, Adam ''Sea Room: an island life'' ]HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
, 2001 ()
Footnotes
Bibliography
*
*
External links
Site about the Shiant Isles
Shiant Islands
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Western Isles North
{{WesternIsles-geo-stub