Isay

Isay is an uninhabited island in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, lying one kilometre off the Isle of Skye in Loch Dunvegan. Two smaller isles, Mingay and Clett, sit nearby, and Lampay lies to the south. The name comes from Old Norse, meaning ‘porpoise island’. The island covers sixty hectares and is surrounded by calm waters. Its quiet shores face the rugged hills of Skye across the loch. The island has a dark past. In the 16th century, Roderick Macleod of Lewis invited rival families to a feast at Isay House. Once outside, each guest was murdered to secure lands for his grandson. A small fishing community lived here in the 1830s, with a store and fishing station supporting fifteen families. By 1841 about ninety people lived on Isay until the Highland clearances drove them away. The ruins of their cottages can still be seen from the Waternish peninsula. Today Isay is wild and empty, with no buildings left standing. The remains of the old cottages and the site of Isay House are the only signs of past life. The island’s grassy slopes rise gently to low cliffs on the shore. Seals often rest on the rocks, and porpoises swim in the surrounding waters. Visitors find a place of stillness, where history lingers in the wind and the light.