Colonsay

Colonsay shown within Argyll

Colonsay [Colbhasa] is an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, located north of Islay and south of Mull.

The island's total population is about 130 people. Colonsay's main settlement is Scalasaig [Sgalasaig] on its east coast, from which ferries sail to Oban and, between April and October, to Kennacraig via Port Askaig on Islay. Colonsay is the ancestral home of the McNeill and MacFie (McPhee) Clan.

The island is known for Colonsay House, the eighth century Riasg Buidhe Cross, its wild goats, and for birds including 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. There is a hotel, 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 expected introduction of a scheduled air service in 2007.

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.'

External links

• Island web site
• Colonsay House and gardens
• MacFie Clan Homepage
• The Corncrake, Colonsay's newsletter

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.

56°4′N 6°13′W