Eilean Shona ( gd, Eilean Seòna) is a

tidal island A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands, many of them have been sites of ...

Loch Moidart Loch Moidart is a sea loch (sea inlet) in the district of Moidart in Highland, Scotland. It is on the west coast of Scotland, and runs about 8 km (5 miles) eastward from the sea. It is connected to the sea by two narrow channels which are se ...

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 ...

. The modern name may be from the

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 ...

for "sea island". The pre-Norse Gaelic name, as recorded by

Adomnán Adomnán or Adamnán of Iona (, la, Adamnanus, Adomnanus; 624 – 704), also known as Eunan ( ; from ), was an abbot of Iona Abbey ( 679–704), hagiographer, statesman, canon jurist, and saint. He was the author of the ''Life of Co ...

was or , meaning 'foreshore island', similar to the derivation of

Erraid Erraid ( gd, Eilean Earraid) is a tidal island approximately square located in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It lies west of Mull (to which it is linked by a beach at low tide) and southeast of Iona. The island receives about of rainWalker, A ...

History

In 1851 there were reports of evacuations and emigrations of 37 families from the island and the nearby settlement of Dorlinn in the wake of

potato blight ''Phytophthora infestans'' is an oomycete or water mold, a fungus-like microorganism that causes the serious potato and tomato disease known as late blight or potato blight. Early blight, caused by ''Alternaria solani'', is also often called "po ...

. In 1856 the sale price of the island was £6,500. Until the middle of the 18th century, Eilean Shona was populated with a number of crofters. The main house was a small hunting lodge owned, in the middle of the 19th century, by a seafaring Captain Swinburne. He collected numerous types of pine on his travels and established what became one of the most diverse pinetums in Europe. At the end of the 19th century Edinburgh architect Robert Lorimer was commissioned by the island's owner, a Mr Thompson, to remodel the main house, doubling its size. It was leased to writer

J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succ ...

in the 1920s, who used it as a summer holiday retreat for himself, his foster sons

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

and

Nicholas Llewelyn Davies Nicholas "Nico" Llewelyn Davies (24 November 1903 – 14 October 1980) was the youngest of the Llewelyn Davies boys, who were the inspiration for J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. He was only a year old when ''Peter Pan, or The B ...

, and a few of their friends. It was here that he wrote a screenplay for the 1924 film adaptation of ''

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...

''. In the 1930s Eilean Shona was given to Lady Howard De Walden as a wedding present by her future husband. During this period numerous improvements to the island, particularly to the grounds and gardens, were made at the beginning of the 20th century by the De Walden family. Mr and Mrs Digby Vane bought the island in 1962 and sold it to the Stead family in 1982. The island has belonged to the Devereux-Branson family since 1995.

Vanessa Branson Vanessa Branson (born 1959) is an English entrepreneur and the founder of the Marrakech Biennale. Early life Branson is the youngest child of Eve Branson (''née'' Evette Huntley Flindt; 1924–2021), a former ballet dancer and air hostess, and ...

and Robert Devereux purchased the island in 1995 for around £1.3 million. In May 2020, Branson opened her holiday home to rentals by the public, including the 11 bedroom main house ("remodelled in the 1890s by Sir Robert Lorimer") and seven Hebridean croft cottages. The current usually resident population is 2, down from 9 in 2001. Other isles in the loch include

Riska Island Riska is a borough of the city of Sandnes in Rogaland county, Norway. The borough sits in the northern part of the municipality, northeast of the city centre of Sandnes. The Gandsfjorden flows along the west side of the borough and the Høgsfjo ...

, Eilean an Fheidh and Eilean Tioram. Eilean Shona House overlooks Riska and Castle Tioram. The old Schoolhouse (on the North Shore track between Sawmill and Baramore) is in an isolated position, some two miles down a track, reputedly because when it was built in the nineteenth century the wife of the island's owner did not wish to be disturbed by children. The peninsula of Shona Beag is accessible from the mainland by a short causeway at low tide (grid reference NM 669 739). Eilean Shona is one of 43 tidal islands that can be walked to from the mainland of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and one of 17 that can be walked to from the Scottish mainland.Caton, Peter (2011) ''No Boat Required - Exploring Tidal Islands''. Matador.

References

External links

Eilean Shona page
{{Coord, 56, 48, N, 5, 51, W, display=title, region:GB Tidal islands of Scotland Islands of Highland (council area)