Colonsay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Colonsay | |
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| Location | |
  Colonsay
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| Colonsay shown within Scotland. | |
| OS grid reference: | NR382938 |
| Names | |
| Gaelic name: | Colbhasa |
| Norse name: | Colonsey |
| Meaning of name: | Old Norse for 'Columba's isle' |
| Area and Summit | |
| Area: | 4,074 ha |
| Area rank (Scottish islands): | 26 |
| Highest elevation: | 143 m (469 feet) |
| Population | |
| Population (2001): | 108 |
| Population rank (inhabited Scottish islands): | 44 out of 97 |
| Main settlement: | Scalasaig |
| Groupings | |
| Island Group: | Islay |
| Local Authority: | Argyll and Bute |
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| References: | [1][2] |
Colonsay (Gaelic: Colbhasa) is an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, located north of Islay and south of Mull and has an area of just over 4,000 hectares (16 sq. miles). It is the ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeill.
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[edit] Community
The island's total population is about 110 people. Colonsay's main settlement is Scalasaig (Gaelic: Sgalasaig) on the east coast, from where ferries sail to Oban and, between April and October, to Kennacraig via Port Askaig on Islay.
The island is known for Colonsay House, the eighth century Riasg Buidhe Cross, its wild goats, and for birds including Black-legged Kittiwakes, cormorants, guillemots, corncrakes and golden eagles. The island is linked by a tidal causeway (named 'The Strand') to Oronsay [Orasa].
Although Colonsay appears bare and somewhat forbidding on approach from the sea, its landscape is exceptionally beautiful and varied, with some of the finest sandy beaches in the Hebrides, and a sheltered and fertile interior. Hence the growth of tourism as the mainstay of the island's economy, with numerous holiday cottages, many of them owned and managed by the Isle of Colonsay Estate. The estate is owned by Donald Howard, 4th Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, whose eldest son and heir to the title, Alex Howard, lives on the island with his family and oversees the running of the Estate.
The island has a tiny bookshop specialising in books of local interest; it is also the home of the House of Lochar publishing company specialising in Scottish history.[4] There is a hotel overlooking the harbour[5], a cafe and bakery, and a shop and post office. In 2006 the former grass airstrip was upgraded and provided with a hard surface, in readiness for the introduction of a scheduled air service from Oban (Connel) airport, which was due to commence in 2007, but has been delayed until 2008. [6]
Colonsay Community Development Company, the local development trust is “engaged in a range of work which reflects a sustainable approach to the regeneration of our island”. Current projects include running the islands coal supply and only petrol pump, a major rhododendron ponticum eradication programme and a feasibility study into the possibility of improving the harbour and surrounding area.
The nature of island life was exemplified by a story reported in November 2006, when a construction worker from Glasgow was arrested and confessed to burglary. The man had entered an unlocked house and stolen £60 in cash. Media interest was stirred when it was reported that this was the first recorded crime since 2004, and the 'first ever theft from a house.'[7]
2007 saw the opening of the Colonsay Brewery, a micro-brewery offering three different products.[8]
[edit] Mesolithic Food Industry
In 1995 evidence of large-scale Mesolithic nut processing, some 9,000 years old, was found in a midden pit at Staosnaig on the island's sheltered east coast. The evidence consists of a large, shallow pit full of the remains of hundreds of thousands of burned hazelnut shells. Hazelnuts have been found on other Mesolithic sites, but rarely in such quantities or concentrated in one pit. The nuts were radiocarbon dated to 7720+/-110BP, which calibrates to circa 7000 BC. Similar sites in Britain are known only at Farnham in Surrey and Cass ny Hawin on the Isle of Man.[9][10]
This discovery gives an insight into communal activity and forward planning in the period. The nuts were harvested in a single year and pollen analysis suggests that the hazel trees were all cut down at the same time.[10] The scale of the activity, unparalleled elsewhere in Scotland, and the lack of large game on the island, suggests the possibility that Colonsay contained a community with a largely vegetarian diet for the time they spent on the island. The pit was originally on a beach close to the shore, and was associated with two smaller stone-lined pits, whose function remains obscure, a hearth, and a second cluster of pits.[9]
[edit] Gallery
 View of Scalasaig from the Port Askaig ferry |
 View over Colonsay and Oronsay to the right, the Paps of Jura in the distance |
 An Tràigh Bhàn, Kiloran Bay, Colonsay. |
 Clan badge of the MacNeills of Gigha & Colonsay. |
 8th-century Riasg Buidhe Cross in the gardens of Colonsay House. |
[edit] References
- ^ General Register Office for Scotland (28 Nov 2003) Occasional Paper No 10: Statistics for Inhabited Islands Retrieved 9 July 2007.
- ^ Haswell-Smith, Hamish. (2004) The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh. Canongate.
- ^ Harvie-Brown, J.A. and Buckley, T. E. (1892), A Vertebrate Fauna of Argyll and the Inner Hebrides. Pub. David Douglas., Edinburgh.
- ^ House of Lochar Publisher. Mission Statement. Retrieved on 2007-08-02.
- ^ Colonsay Hotel. Retrieved on 2007-08-02.
- ^ "Argyll Flying High." Argyll-bute.gov.uk. Retrieved 20 September 2007
- ^ Paterson. S.. "Colonsay’s first house thief is fined £400", The Herald newspaper, 10 November 2006. Retrieved on 2006-11-29.
- ^ Colosay Brewery. Retrieved on 2007-04-24.
- ^ a b "Mesolithic food industry on Colonsay" (June 1995) British Archaeology. No. 5. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
- ^ a b Moffat, Alistair (2005) Before Scotland: The Story of Scotland Before History. London. Thames & Hudson. p. 91–2.
[edit] External links
- Island web site
- Colonsay House and gardens
- The Corncrake, Colonsay's newsletter
- On The Edge, documentary about Colonsay
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