Scalpay, Outer Hebrides
| Scalpay Gaelic: Sgalpaigh | |
 Scalpay Harbour and the Village | |
|---|---|
| Main settlement: | Am Baile |
| Location | |
|
| |
| Location: | 57°51’54"N, 6°40’39"W |
| Grid reference: | NG214965 |
| Area: | 1,614 acres |
| Highest point: | Beinn Scorabhaig; 341 feet |
| Data | |
| Population: | 282 |
Scalpay is a little island in the Outer Hebrides, in Inverness-shire.
The name in Gaelic is Sgalpaigh or Sgalpaigh na Hearadh (which is to say "Scalpay of Harris" to distinguish it from Scalpay off Skye). Mac an Tàilleir (2003) suggests the name derives from "ship island" from the Norse.[1] However, Haswell-Smith states that the Old Norse name was Skalprøy, meaning "scallop island".[2]
Eilean Glas, a tiny peninsula on Scalpay's eastern shore, is home to the first lighthouse to be built in the Outer Hebrides.
Geology and geography
Scalpay is around two and a half miles long and rises to a height of 341 feet at Beinn Scorabhaig. The area of Scalpay is 1,614 acres. Its main settlement is at the north, near the bridge, clustered around An Acairseid a Tuath (North Harbour).
The bedrock of northwest and of southeast Scalpay is Archaean gneiss belonging to the Lewisian Complex. Across the centre of the island is a band of mylonite and protocataclasite associated with the Outer Hebrides Thrust Zone. Some restricted occurrences of amphibolite and ultramafic rocks are also present. A number of tholeiitic dykes of Tertiary age cross the island with a NW-SE alignment.
Scalpay is largely free from superficial deposits apart from an area of peat in the north-east.[3][4]
Small lochans pepper the island. The largest of these, Loch an Duin ('Loch of the Fort'), has a tiny island in it, with the remains of the fort still visible.
Scalpay's nearest neighbour, Harris, is just 300 yards away across the narrows of Caolas Scalpaigh. In 1997, a bridge from Harris to Scalpay was built,[5] replacing a ferry service.
History
In 1746, Charles Edward Stuart fled to Scalpay after his forces were defeated at the Battle of Culloden.
Scalpay is home to many Gaelic singers and psalm precentors. The island used to have more than 10 shops over 30 years ago but due to lack of people and work, the last shop closed in 2007. There also used to be a salmon factory, which was a major local employer from 2001 until its closure in 2005. In the spring of 2009, local newspapers reported that the factory was to reopen as a net washing facility to support the local fish farming industry. In 2012, the Scalpay community bought and opened a community shop/café, Buth Scalpaigh.[6]
Photographer Marco Secchi lived on Scalpay for few years between 2002–2008 and documented life and landscape of the Outer Hebrides.
In 2011 the island's owner, Fred Taylor, announced that he proposed handing over the land to the local population. One proposal was that the island would be owned by a local development trust; under another proposal it would form part of the larger North Harris Trust, itself community owned.[7] Islanders voted to accept the gift and assume community ownership of the island. They will go into partnership with the North Harris Community Trust to run the island.[8]
People and culture
In 2001, the island had 322 people, whose main employment was fish farming and prawn fishing. By 2011 the population had declined by 9% to 291[9] whilst during the same period Hebridean island populations as a whole grew by 4% to 103,702.[10] In 2022 the population was recorded as 282.
The island has two Presbyterian churches; of the Free Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing).
Ailein duinn, a traditional Gaelic lament, has its origins in Scalpay. It was written by Annag Chaimbeul ("Annie Campbell") in memory of her fiancé, Ailean Moireasdan ("Alan Morrison"), a sea captain from the Isle of Lewis. In the spring of 1788, he left Stornoway to sail for Scalpay, to Annie Campbell, but a storm hit and and the boat sank with all hands off the coast of the Shiant Islands. Annie wasted away through grief and died a few months afterwards, having composed the lament. Her own coffin was lost overboard on the voyage to Harris, and washed up on the same island where her fiancé's body had been found.
References
- ↑ Mac an Tàilleir p. 103
- ↑ Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 1841954543.
- ↑ "Onshore Geoindex". British Geological Survey. https://mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk/geoindex/home.html.
- ↑ "Lewis and Harris (south), 1:100,000 Solid Geology". British Geological Survey. http://www.largeimages.bgs.ac.uk/iip/mapsportal.html?id=1002539.
- ↑ "Scalpay Bridge". Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. https://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/roads-travel-and-parking/bridges-causeways-and-ferries/scalpay-bridge/.
- ↑ "Scalpay community shop opening". Stornoway Gazette. 9 May 2012. http://www.stornowaygazette.co.uk/community/scalpay-community-shop-opening-1-2284270.
- ↑ "Islanders offered home as a ‘free gift’ from London owner". Senscot, quoting the Press and Journal. 18 Feb 2011. http://www.senscot.net/view_art.php?viewid=10790.
- ↑ "Scalpay islanders vote in favour of takeover". BBC News. 6 November 2012. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-20219187.
- ↑ National Records of Scotland (15 August 2013) (pdf) Statistical Bulletin: 2011 Census: First Results on Population and Household Estimates for Scotland - Release 1C (Part Two). "Appendix 2: Population and households on Scotland’s inhabited islands". Retrieved 17 August 2013.
- ↑ "Scotland's 2011 census: Island living on the rise". BBC News. Retrieved 18 August 2013.