Fàilte gu Eilean Eirisgeidh! - Welcome to the Isle of Eriskay!

‘Eriskay’ comes from Old Norse and means Eric's Isle. The Gaelic language is very much a fusion of Norse and Celtic ideas and vocabulary, along with later influences. Much the same can be said of the Hebridean people themselves: their appearance and character, even their present-day way of living, all these reflect 400 years of Viking rule (that ended about 1270) and the inevitable mixing of blood and genes that persists to this day. ^

Island life is still largely characterized by the people’s adherence to Catholicism, which here survived the Reformation (as also in neighbouring Barra and South Uist). With its religious shrines by the roadside, and full church car park on Sundays, the visitor can be forgiven for thinking he must have got on the wrong ferry and ended up in Ireland! ^

This rich historical legacy does not mean that the island is stuck in a time-warp; and certainly no-one now lives in a smoky damp thatched cottage! Island homes are either of modern build or modernized, with all the conveniences and luxuries that seem indispensable to modern life - including broadband and digital tv.  ^

The island is covered largely with rock, rough grass and rushes, with some heather - barely sufficient for grazing hardy mountain sheep, cattle and the famous Eriskay ponies (the mainstay of island transport even as late as the 1950s). Only the narrow strip of machair along the north-west coast is good enough for growing hay, barley and food for the kitchen, although inevitably a lot of this land has been built on. ^

For most of the twentieth century, the island was almost entirely dependant on the sea, whether fishing local waters, or with the merchant navy or the Royal Navy. A council-run vehicle ferry started in the 1970s, but was too small and too late to make much of a difference to the island economy. By the end of the twentieth century, the population had fallen from a peak of about 421 in 1931 to just 133 in 2001. ^

But now, since the causeway was opened in 2001, islanders have access to the schools, jobs, services of South Uist; and with the new ferry from Eriskay to Barra, Eriskay is fully integrated into the wider social and economic life of the Southern Isles. Nowadays, islanders work in schools, health, public utilities, fishing or sea-food industries, construction, tourism, ferries and buses ... with a few crofts still being worked part-time. ^

As with most rural communities - island or mainland - young people leave for the big towns and cities and those big first rungs on the ladder of life: higher education, establishing a career, a first home, a family ...  Here the generation gap is especially wide, as moving back to the islands is a far far bigger step than moving away, and few return permanently before retirement age. This is why there are so many houses standing empty - holiday or second homes, or derelict or even ruinous; and why the traditional crofts lie idle for want of the time energy and imagination required to make them relevant to the 21st century. ^

After the many decades of decline that followed the Great War and accelerated after WWII, the tide of fortune has at last turned. More and more people demand healthy, naturally-produced, great-tasting food, seek safe and neighbourly communities and a clean environment: Eriskay has all this in abundance and much more besides. So - notwithstanding the recession - more new houses are being built now than for many a year, as younger families are finding ways to stay here in Eriskay, or return, and others too sow the seeds of a new and better life in a place that seems to them so special. ^