Читать книгу An Island Odyssey - Hamish Haswell-Smith - Страница 16

ORONSAY

. . . The natives of Colonsay are accustomed, after their arrival in Oronsay Isle, to make a tour sunways about the church, before they enter upon any kind of business.

. . . My landlord having one of his family sick of a fever asked my book, as a singular favour, for a few moments. I was not a little surprised at the honest man’s request, he being illiterate; and when he told me the reason of it I was no less amazed, for it was to fan the patient’s face with the leaves of the book, and this he did at night. He sought the book next morning, and again in the evening, and then thanked me for so great a favour; and told me the sick person was much better by it. . .

Oronsay is separated from Colonsay by a wide expanse of shell sand – The Strand – which can be crossed on foot when the tide is out. If a fugitive could reach the sanctuary cross, which is halfway across, before being caught by pursuers or the tide, he was granted immunity from punishment – or so it is said.

These linked islands have been inhabited for 7000 years. Many early Christian and pre-Christian relics have been discovered including the bones of primitive domestic animals and Neolithic flint tools. The pagan ship-burial of a Viking warrior in 855 complete with his weapons, horse and coins, had been given extra insurance cover for the hereafter by the incision of two Christian crosses on stone slabs. It was uncovered in the sand dunes in 1882.

Oronsay is a tidal island, and the name normally means just that in Gaelic, but in this particular case it refers to St Oran who founded a monastery here in 563. Later, about 1380, a fine Augustinian Priory was built on the site and the ruins today run a close second to those of Iona. Some human bones from the neighbouring graveyard are kept by the high altar in the chapel and beautifully sculpted medieval tombstones are protected in a roofed building. From an architectural point of view the delightfully proportioned miniature cloisters are particularly worth seeing and in front of the group of buildings there is a remarkable 3.7 metre (12 feet) high Celtic cross on a mound. The whole island is suffused with a feeling of tranquillity and it is easy to understand why St Oran chose it for a retreat, although Columba is reputed to have rejected it because it was too near Ireland.

MacNeil of Knapdale acquired both the islands from the Campbells in 1700 and sailed over with his cattle in an open boat to take possession. MacNeil’s wife is said to have given birth during the voyage and he slaughtered a cow so that mother and child could lie inside the carcass to keep warm. The MacNeils were good landlords but, unfortunately, in the manner of the time, raided the existing buildings for stone so the spacious farmhouse and outbuildings which they built next door to the Priory are part of the reason for the Priory’s ruined state today. Likewise, he is thought to have completely demolished an abbey and convent in order to build Colonsay House.

This was one of the few Hebridean islands which was fortunate enough to escape the 19th-century clearances thanks to the liberal approach of John MacNeil, the laird at the time. But this was partly because so many families had already been driven by poverty to emigrate to America and the Statistical Account lamented, ‘Pity it is that such numbers should bid farewell to their native country, when there is so great a demand for useful citizens’. By 1904 debt had forced the MacNeils to put the island up for sale and it was bought by Lord Strathcona in 1905. The Strathcona family still own Colonsay but sold Oronsay in the 1970s.

A reef of islets and some skerries lie parallel to the east coast of Oronsay, creating a channel, Caolas Mór, which is the only partially sheltered anchorage in the area. There are a number of Mesolithic shell mounds near the shore as it was the site of a Stone Age settlement. A small sandy beach and boat house face the kyle and it was here we anchored Jandara. Unfortunately there are no secure anchorages round Colonsay or Oronsay and we’ve spent uncomfortable nights on several different occasions off the ferry pier at Scalasaig.

Oronsay’s American owner runs a trim farm on the island and it is pleasant to see well-repaired dykes and fences. The flat area to the south is used as an airstrip but landing must be hazardous as ponies wander across it and thousands of excavating rabbits are hard at work. Beyond the airstrip is a long reef ending with the ruin of an old kelp-gatherer’s cottage on Eilean nan Ron – ‘seal island’ – which is well-named and a nature reserve. A thousand or more grey Atlantic seals converge here every autumn and the roar of battling bulls can be heard for miles.