Oronsay

Oronsay is a small tidal island south of Colonsay in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. It covers 543 hectares and rises to 93 metres at Beinn Orasaigh. A narrow causeway called An Tràigh links it to Colonsay when the tide is out. The island has only seven residents, living near the ruins of Oronsay Priory. It is privately owned and farmed by the RSPB for an American owner. A grass airstrip near the priory struggles to stay clear of rabbits. The island’s past reaches back to the Mesolithic period. Archaeologists found middens dating from 4600 BC and 3065 BC on Oronsay. Remains of saithe bones show people lived there year-round, eating mainly seafood. By the Iron Age the islands belonged to the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata. A fort on Colonsay, Dùn Eibhinn, overlooks Oronsay from this time. The name may come from St Oran, founder of an early monastery in 563, or from Old Norse meaning ‘island of the ebb tide’. Visitors find the ruins of the 14th-century Augustinian priory still standing. Two Celtic crosses and carved grave slabs remain outside and inside the buildings. Grey seals breed on nearby Eilean nan Ròn, where barnacle geese also feed in winter. The islands hold about fifty colonies of the protected European dark bee. A ruined house on Eilean nan Ròn may once have sheltered kelp gatherers or summer shepherds. The whole area is now a Special Protection Area for birds.