Orosay ( gd, Orasaigh) is a small uninhabited

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 ...

in the Sound of Barra lying at the north end of

Traigh Mhòr The Tràigh Mhòr, in English 'Big Beach', is a large expanse of sand forming a magnificent white beach at the northern end of the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, in the village of Ardmhor extending to the village of Eoligarry ...

, the "big beach" on the north east coast of Barra. It is one of ten islands in the Sound of Barra, a

Site of Community Importance A Site of Community Importance (SCI) is defined in the European Commission Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) as a site which, in the biogeographical region or regions to which it belongs, contributes significantly to the maintenance or restoration ...

for

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

in the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coas ...

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 ...

. It is about in extent and the highest point is . Orosay

Geography and etymology

Inland, the nearest settlement is Eoligarry, separated from the island by the

strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean chan ...

of Caolas Orasaigh (English: "Sound of Orosay")."Orosay, Sound of"
Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 17 August 2009. The smaller beach of Tràigh Cille-bharra ("the beach of the church of Barra") lies to the north. The islands of Fuday, Greanamul, Gighay and Hellisay lie further offshore in the Sound of Barra. The name "Orosay" is a variant of " Oronsay", from the

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

for "tidal" or "ebb island", found commonly in the

Hebrides The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebri ...

. For example, there are two other small Orosay/''Orosaigh''s surrounding Barra alone. One is at at the south eastern approaches to Castle Bay and the second at in Caolas Bhatarsaigh east of the causeway.

History

The writer

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 nationalist. He was one of th ...

lived on Barra nearby and is buried at Cille Bharra, opposite the island. There is no record of Orosay itself ever having been permanently inhabited.

Beach runway

Barra's airport uses Traigh Mhòr ("big beach"), also known as Cockle Strand, as a runway. Planes can only land and take off at low tide, and the timetable varies with the tides. Reputedly, this is the only airport in the world to have scheduled flights landing on a beach. The aircraft currently in operation on Barra is the

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restart ...

, flown by Loganair on services to

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

and

Benbecula Benbecula (; gd, Beinn nam Fadhla or ) is an island of the Outer Hebrides in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Scotland. In the 2011 census, it had a resident population of 1,283 with a sizable percentage of Roman Catholics. It is in a ...

. Traigh Mhòr also provides commercial cockle harvesting. In the 1970s concern was expressed about the progressive deepening of Caolas Orasaigh as a possible cause of increased ponding of water on the beach runway at low tide. The problem does not, however, appear to have been serious and apparently no action was taken.Ritchie, W. (1971) ''Commissioned Report No. 047: The beaches of Barra and the Uists. A survey of the beach, dune and machair areas of Barra, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist and Berneray''. SNH/Countryside Commission for Scotland. Retrieved 17 August 2009. pp 71-72.

Orosay in literature

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with '' Flaubert's Parrot'', '' England, England'', and ''Art ...

's short story "Marriage Lines" (collected in ''Pulse'' (2011)) is set entirely on Orosay.

References

* * Watson, W.J. (2004) ''The History of the Celtic Place-names of Scotland.'' Reprinted with an introduction by Simon Taylor. Edinburgh. Birlinn.

Footnotes