Eye Peninsula
The Eye Peninsula (Gaelic: An Rubha), also known locally as Point, is a peninsula of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, connected to the rest of the Isle of Lewis by a narrow isthmus, one mile in length and barely 100 yards wide. Eye, very close to the island's capital Stornoway, is home to around 2,600 people and is one of the few districts of the Outer Hebrides where the population is actually increasing. The school population of the peninsula though is decreasing as much as the rest of the Hebrides.
Schooling
Point now features a brand newly built school which opened in 2011 in Bayble, the first of a number of new schools being built in the Western Isles. The school was built more than ten years after plans were first made due to lots of debating. The school takes in the whole of Point. Originally Point had three schools Knock, Aird and Bayble, which all closed when the new school opened (the new school is on the same site as the original Bayble school and took one year to complete.
History
There are two historical sites of interest at the eastern end of the isthmus (Am Bràighe as it is known in Gaelic). The ruins of the Eye Church are all that remain of a building dedicated to St Columba. It is among the largest pre-Reformation Churches in the Outer Hebrides. Although the present buildings are probably mediæval, the Church is reputedly on the site of the cell of St Catan, a contemporary of St Columba. This is the burial ground of nineteen of the Chiefs of the MacLeods of Lewis. There are two old carved commemorative slabs on the walls of the larger building: one depicts a warrior and is believed to be Roderick, 7th Chief; while the other is for Margaret, daughter of Roderick MacLeod of Lewis, who died in 1503.
In recent years, the land reform struggle of the nineteenth century in the Highlands and Hebrides is being recognised and the Aignish Riots of 1888 are commemorated by a memorial adjacent to the Church.
Villages
Major villages on the Eye Peninsula include: