and was delayed by bad weather. Haakon used the time to secure the allegiance of the local chiefs and to excuse the Lord of the Isles from having to take up arms against his other overlord – the Scots’ King Alexander. Another king, William of Orange, landed on Gigha in 1689 and gained the support of MacNeill of Gigha. MacNeill also remained loyal during the 1745 uprising but this is not altogether surprising as the Duke of Argyll was his overlord.
The old watermill on Gigha
The island’s renowned hospitality comes with a relaxed way of life, a nine-hole golf course, a balanced community of about 140 souls, and one of Scotland’s most beautiful gardens.
When William James Yorke Scarlett, owner in the 1890s, was away on the mainland and his servants were taking time off for a round of golf, a fire burned down most of the main house. It was eventually rebuilt and renamed Achamore House. But it was Sir James Horlick (of bed-time drink fame), owner from 1944 to 1973, who converted the deciduous woodland around it into a truly magnificent garden which he planted with many rare species collected worldwide. Apart from the varied tree cover there are rhododendron (including the famous Horlick hybrids), azalea, laburnum, Primula candelabra, and various sub-tropical plants such as palm lilies, palm trees and flame-trees (Embothrium longifolium) which grow happily in Gigha’s mild climate. Sir James was a benevolent landlord who modernised the farms, built up a dairy herd, started a cheese factory, and drove through his gardens in a dragon-caparisoned motorised tricycle. He died at Achamore House in 1972. The gardens are open to the public from April to September inclusive and May is probably the best month to see them. The plants were gifted to the National Trust in 1962.
The red and yellow sandstone ruins of the 13th-century Kilchattan church are near Achamore gardens. St Catan was an Irish missionary of the 6th century who settled in Bute. There are a number of interesting carved grave-slabs in the churchyard dating back to the 14th century and the nearby ogam stone is the only example of its kind in the west of Scotland. Ogam is an ancient Celtic writing which is still largely undeciphered.
The beaches at Ardminish and the many other attractive coastal bays and inlets are of fine white Hebridean sand. There are a number of interesting caves around the coastline but the largest, Uamh Mhor on the west coast, is difficult to approach from the land. It was probably occupied in prehistoric times, was certainly a favourite hideout for smugglers, and has never been fully explored. And at the most southerly point, Sloc an Leim – ‘the squirting pit’ – is a long subterranean passage through which the sea rushes violently during westerly gales and then jets up to a great height like a geyser.
The two largest lochs, Mill and Upper Loch, are very ancient artificial lochs with small islets which may be crannogs. They used to be kept regularly stocked with fish, but the very narrow adjacent loch, Tarr an Tairbh (‘tail of the bull’), is not recommended for fishing as it is reputed to hide a shy bull-like monster which I may have actually seen. There is a derelict watermill near Creag Bhan – Gigha’s highest hill – which I wanted to sketch so Peter and I hired cycles from McSporran’s Store near the ferry pier and pedalled off down the road. Rounding a bend near the Mill Loch we met an enormous bull in the middle of the track who looked decidedly unfriendly. There was no easy retreat and no time to think so we muttered a greeting and cycled past – one on each side of him. He merely snorted.
No description of Gigha should end without mention of the worthy Seumas McSporran. Apart from hiring bicycles and running a well-stocked store, he held, until his recent partial retirement, fifteen official posts including postman, policeman and registrar of births, marriages and deaths. As far as I know he has not yet conducted a church service – but give him time.
Ruins of the Augustinian Priory
ORONSAY
. . . The natives of Colonsay are accustomed, after their arrival in Oronsay Isle, to make a tour sunways about the church, before they enter upon any kind of business.
. . . My landlord having one of his family sick of a fever asked my book, as a singular favour, for a few moments. I was not a little surprised at the honest man’s request, he being illiterate; and when he told me the reason of it I was no less amazed, for it was to fan the patient’s face with the leaves of the book, and this he did at night. He sought the book next morning, and again in the evening, and then thanked me for so great a favour; and told me the sick person was much better by it. . .
Oronsay is separated from Colonsay by a wide expanse of shell sand – The Strand – which can be crossed on foot when the tide is out. If a fugitive could reach the sanctuary cross, which is halfway across, before being caught by pursuers or the tide, he was granted immunity from punishment – or so it is said.
These linked islands have been inhabited for 7000 years. Many early Christian and pre-Christian relics have been discovered including the bones of primitive domestic animals and Neolithic flint tools. The pagan ship-burial of a Viking warrior in 855 complete with his weapons, horse and coins, had been given extra insurance cover for the hereafter by the incision of two Christian crosses on stone slabs. It was uncovered in the sand dunes in 1882.
Oronsay is a tidal island, and the name normally means just that in Gaelic, but in this particular case it refers to St Oran who founded a monastery here in 563. Later, about 1380, a fine Augustinian Priory was built on the site and the ruins today run a close second to those of Iona. Some human bones from the neighbouring graveyard are kept by the high altar in the chapel and beautifully sculpted medieval tombstones are protected in a roofed building. From an architectural point of view the delightfully proportioned miniature cloisters are particularly worth seeing and in front of the group of buildings there is a remarkable 3.7 metre (12 feet) high Celtic cross on a mound. The whole island is suffused with a feeling of tranquillity and it is easy to understand why St Oran chose it for a retreat, although Columba is reputed to have rejected it because it was too near Ireland.
MacNeil of Knapdale acquired both the islands from the Campbells in 1700 and sailed over with his cattle in an open boat to take possession. MacNeil’s wife is said to have given birth during the voyage and he slaughtered a cow so that mother and child could lie inside the carcass to keep warm. The MacNeils were good landlords but, unfortunately, in the manner of the time, raided the existing buildings for stone so the spacious farmhouse and outbuildings which they built next door to the Priory are part of the reason for the Priory’s ruined state today. Likewise, he is thought to have completely demolished an abbey and convent in order to build Colonsay House.
This was one of the few Hebridean islands which was fortunate enough to escape the 19th-century clearances thanks to the liberal approach of John MacNeil, the laird at the time. But this was partly because so many families had already been driven by poverty to emigrate to America and the Statistical Account lamented, ‘Pity it is that such numbers should bid farewell to their native country, when there is so great a demand for useful citizens’. By 1904 debt had forced the MacNeils to put the island up for sale and it was bought by Lord Strathcona in 1905. The Strathcona family still own Colonsay but sold Oronsay in the 1970s.
A reef of islets and some skerries lie parallel to the east coast of Oronsay, creating a channel, Caolas Mór, which is the only partially sheltered anchorage in the area. There are a number of Mesolithic shell mounds near the shore as it was the site of a Stone Age settlement. A small
