Eriska is a flat tidal island at the entrance to

Loch Creran Loch Creran is a sea loch in Argyll, on the west coast of Scotland. It is about long from its head at Invercreran to its mouth on the Lynn of Lorne, part of Loch Linnhe. The loch separates the areas of Benderloch to the south and Appin to the n ...

on the west coast of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. Privately owned by the Buchanan-Smiths from 1973 until August 2016, Eriska is now owned by Creation Gem, a family-owned business from Hong Kong.Isle of Eriska to be operated by Inverlochy Castle Management Company"
The Caterer. Retrieved 6 February 2018. The island is run as a hotel with wooded grounds. The island is evidently populated although no record for the total was provided by the census in 2001 or 2011.

Geography

Eriska looking South West from Hotel - geograph

The island is largely of

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes ...

and slate with the lower ground to the west as a raised beach. To the east of the bridge, there is a partly submerged

crannog A crannog (; ga, crannóg ; gd, crannag ) is typically a partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes and estuarine waters of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Unlike the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, which were bu ...

, or fortified dwelling, dating from the Bronze Age around 200 B.C."Eriska Island"
Isle of Eriska Hotel. Retrieved 16 September 2013. It is part of the Lynn of Lorn National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland. The estate as a whole includes about on the mainland with a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The island itself has been measured at in total.

Eriska House

Eriska House was built in 1884 by the Stewarts of Appin. Built in the

Scottish Baronial Scottish baronial or Scots baronial is an architectural style of 19th century Gothic Revival which revived the forms and ornaments of historical architecture of Scotland in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Reminiscent of Scot ...

style by architect

Hippolyte Blanc Hippolyte Jean Blanc (18 August 1844 – 17 March 1917) was a Scottish architect. Best known for his church buildings in the Gothic revival style, Blanc was also a keen antiquarian who oversaw meticulously researched restoration projects. ...

, who was highly acclaimed for his meticulous attention to detail and for a very high degree of specification in materials. Eriska was occupied by the Blairs and Clark Hutchisons, who built the bridge over the drying channel, connecting the island to the mainland at all states of the tide. When they left in 1930 little upkeep was done until the island was purchased by the Buchanan-Smith family in 1973. The house remains essentially the same with the surrounding buildings converted to become part of the hotel.

Sculpture

Public sculptures near the shoreline include the carved stone horse by

Ronald Rae Ronald Rae is a Scottish sculptor born in Ayr, Scotland, in 1946. His works are entirely hand-carved in granite. He has over fifty outdoor granite sculptures in public and private collections throughout the UK. His largest work to date is the 20 t ...

and Otter by Kenneth Robertson at Otter Point overlooking Loch Linnhe.

Footnotes

Tidal islands of Scotland Islands of Argyll and Bute Islands of the Inner Hebrides Private islands of the United Kingdom {{Argyll-geo-stub