Isle Ornsay, Sleat – beginners kayak adventure

The name ‘Eilean Iarmain’ is Gaelic for ‘Isle Ornsay’ and means ‘Ebb Island’ or ‘Tidal Island’.

The island provides good shelter to a natural harbour whilst the “Ornsay” lighthouse stands on the neighbouring islet. The lighthouse was built in 1857 by Thomas and David Stevenson. It is a masonry tower with a gallery, lantern and keeper’s house. The apparatus entered service in 1857. It was owned for a time by Gavin Maxwell. The lighthouse is equipped with a fourteen-day battery backup to keep the emergency light working. After the lighthouse was automated in 1962, the Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottage became privately owned and is now let as holiday accommodation. It was modernized again in 1988 when mains power was installed.

Eilean Iarmain hotel was built in the early 1800s. This was a herring port in 1820 so the buildings were most likely put to good industrial use. It became a stopping off point for steamers coming from Glasgow via the Crinan Canal. The steamer service combined with the beautiful setting and views led to it becoming a popular resort. Perhaps this is why 1820 was also the year in which Isleornsay became the proud owner of Skye’s first public toilet.

Emigration from the Highlands and Islands was endemic in the 19th century and the company that ran the Isleornsay store, MacDonald and Elder, acted as emigration agents from the early 1800s. In 1822 they advertised that they were able “to fit out transports for the conveyance of passengers from Inverness & the West Coast” of Scotland to the east coast of Canada. In the 1830s a programme of assisted passages to Australia from the Sleat peninsula was organised. The William Nicol sailed to Sydney from Isleornsay in July 1837 with 322 passengers including 70 families from Sleat. At the time it was reported that so many local people wished to emigrate that the ship could not accommodate all those who wanted to leave.

The building of railways to places like Oban, Mallaig and Kyle of Lochalsh in the latter half of the 1800s brought decline to more remote resorts that had been dependant on steamers for their custom, and Isleornsay was one of them. In 1898, the proposed Hebridean Light Railway Company was to have terminated at a new ferry port at Isleornsay, but the line was never constructed.

Looking back towards mainland Scotland it is easy to see why Isleornsay was so popular in the 1800s. The foreground view is occupied by the island of Ornsay, while in the background are the mountains of the mainland. The island of Ornsay is accessible on foot at low tide, or by boat at other times.

Ornsay was the principal location for the international bestseller, The Ice Twins, by S. K. Tremayne, published in 2015.

Join us for a beginners kayak trip around Isle Ornsay.

Hotel Eilean Iarmain