Soay ( gd, Sòdhaigh, ) is an island just off the coast of

Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated b ...

, in the

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Na h-Eileanan a-staigh'', "the inner isles") is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, whic ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Geography

Soay lies to the west of

Loch Scavaig ''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch. In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spellin ...

on the south-west coast of Skye, from which it is separated by Soay Sound. Unlike its neighbours Skye and

Rùm Rùm (), a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum (), is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, in the district of Lochaber, Scotland. For much of the 20th century the name became Rhum, a spelling invented by the former owner, Sir ...

, Soay is low-lying, reaching at Beinn Bhreac. The dumb-bell shaped island is virtually cut in half by inlets that form Soay Harbour (north) and the main bay, Camas nan Gall (to the south). The main settlement, Mol-chlach, is on the shore of Camas nan Gall. It is normally reached by boat from

Elgol Elgol ( gd, Ealaghol) is a village on the shores of Loch Scavaig towards the end of the Strathaird peninsula in the Isle of Skye, in the Scottish Highlands. Name According to tradition, its name derives from a battle fought with five ships by Ae ...

. The island is part of the Cuillin Hills National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland.

History

The name derives from

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

''Sauða-ey'' meaning ''Sheep Island''. Camas nan Gall (G: ''Bay of Foreigners'') is probably named after the Norse invaders, after whom the Hebrides (''Na h-Innse Gall'') are also named. The population peaked at 158 in 1851, following eviction of crofters from Skye in the

Highland Clearances The Highland Clearances ( gd, Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulte ...

. In 1946, author

Gavin Maxwell Gavin Maxwell FRSL FZS FRGS (15 July 19147 September 1969) was a British naturalist and author, best known for his non-fiction writing and his work with otters. He wrote the book ''Ring of Bright Water'' (1960) about how he brought an otter ba ...

bought the island and established a factory to process shark oil from

basking shark The basking shark (''Cetorhinus maximus'') is the second-largest living shark and fish, after the whale shark, and one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark. Adults typically reach in length. ...

s. The enterprise was unsuccessful, lasting just three years. Maxwell wrote about it in his book ''Harpoon at a Venture''. After the failure of the business the island was sold on to Maxwell's business partner's wife (Jeanne Geddes), Tex Geddes. The island had the first solar-powered telephone exchange in the world. Previously mainly

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

-speaking, most of the population was evacuated, at their request, to

Mull Mull may refer to: Places *Isle of Mull, a Scottish island in the Inner Hebrides ** Sound of Mull, between the Isle of Mull and the rest of Scotland * Mount Mull, Antarctica *Mull Hill, Isle of Man * Mull, Arkansas, a place along Arkansas Highway ...

on 20 June 1953 due to the poor ferry schedule in the winter when it was frequently cancelled due to bad weather , since when the island has been sparsely populated. In 2001 the population was 7. By 2003 this had dwindled to 2 and the usually resident population in 2011 were three people.

Stamps

Local stamps were issued for Soay between 1965 and 1967, all on the Europa theme, some being overprinted to commemorate Sir Winston Churchill. As the stamps were produced without the owner's permission, they are regarded as bogus.

Footnotes

References

* * {{coord, 57, 9, 0, N, 6, 13, 48, W, display=title Skye and Lochalsh Islands of Highland (council area) Islands of the Inner Hebrides

Geography

History

Stamps

See also

Footnotes

References