Ensay, Outer Hebrides

Ensay
Scottish Gaelic nameEasaigh
Meaning of nameOld Norse: Ewe Island
Location
Ensay is located in Outer Hebrides
Ensay
Ensay
Ensay shown within the Outer Hebrides
OS grid referenceNF977862
Coordinates57°46′N 7°05′W / 57.76°N 7.08°W / 57.76; -7.08
Physical geography
Island groupOuter Hebrides
Area186 ha (3⁄4 sq mi)
Area rank113 [1]
Highest elevation49 m (161 ft)
Administration
Council areaNa h-Eileanan Siar
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Demographics
Population0
Lymphad
References[2][3][4]

Ensay (Gaelic Easaigh) is a currently unpopulated and privately owned island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The island lies in the Sound of Harris, between the islands of Harris and Berneray. The name originates from the Old Norse for Ewe Island.[4] It has nothing to do with the Gaelic for Jesus, "Iosa," as sometimes stated.

Although the island has had no permanent population since the 1930s, it is still used for summer grazing. The small chapel of Christ Church is maintained, and services are held biannually.[5] The island is classified by the National Records of Scotland as an inhabited island that "had no usual residents at the time of either the 2001 or 2011 censuses."[6]

The town of Ensay in Victoria, Australia, was named after this island by one of the early settlers, a Scotsman named Archibald Macleod: "This same Macleod named "Ensay" after the home of his aunt, who was married to Campbell of Ensay, with whom, I believe, Archibald Macleod, who named both Orbost and Ensay in Gippsland, frequently stayed when a lad, and probably had happy memories of the little island." [7]

History

The island shows signs of Stone Age habitation, with a prominent standing stone. It has a share of the general history of Harris, though it is not covered in the standard work by Bill Lawson.[8] In 1549 Sir Donald Monro, High Dean of the Isles,visited the island and wrote of "ane Ile callit Enisay, quhairin Mccloyd of Harey hes a dwelling place, ane fair mayne land, weill inhabite and manurit [= cultivated] ane mile lang, half mile braid"[9] cited in Miles 1989.[10] It was also described by Martin Martin in 1716: "BETWEEN Bernera and the main Land of Harries lies the Iſland of Enʃay, which is above two miles in Circumference, and for the moſt part arable Ground, which is fruitful in Corn and Graſs: there is an old Chappel here, for the uſe of the Natives; and there was lately diſcover'd a Grave in the Weſt end of the Iſland, in which was found a pair of Scales made of Braſs and a little Hammer, both which were finely poliſh'd." [11]

The MacLeod chiefs of Dunvegan in Skye held Ensay and other islands as part of the lands of the Estate of Harris until 1779, when the Harris lands, together with the islands of St. Kilda and Berneray, were sold to a near relative, Captain Alexander MacLeod. In 1790 they were inherited by his son Alexander Hume (MacLeod) and in 1811 by his grandson Alexander Norman MacLeod. In 1834 the bankrupt Estate of Harris was sold to The Earl of Dunmore, and in 1856 Ensay, Pabbay and some small islets were sold to Archibald Stewart (1789-1880), tacksman of Eilanreach in Skye. Archibald died on Ensay and left his Estate to his nephew John Stewart (1826-1899) who was described as "JOHN STEWART, Scorrybreck, formerly at Duntulm, Proprietor of Ensay" when he was examined at the Napier Commission Hearings in Portree on May 23, 1883.

John Stewart left the estate to his son William (1852-1907), who was a military officer[12] and Secretary of the Piobaireachd Society.[13] John's younger son Donald Alexander Stewart (1856-1935) of Lochdhu, was already the tenant for the grazings, and continued so after his brother's death in 1907.

William's will was complicated. He gave the property to his nephew George Fraser(b. 1884), a son of his sister Isabella Fraser (1854-1904) on condition that he adopt the name "William Stewart". He also gave a life-rent of the property to his recently widowed sister Jessie Scott (1859-1930) and his unmarried sister Jane (1850-1933). About 1910 there was a minor change to the property when the medieval chapel near Ensay House was restored by Jessie Scott and made over in some fashion to the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles of the Episcopal Church of Scotland.

By 1937 the only survivor of these arrangements was William George Fraser Stewart, who sold the property to Simon McKenzie. By 1989 it had passed to Simon's son John.[14]

Ensay House

A gazetteer for Scotland states that Ensay House (Taigh Easaigh) was built in the Edwardian period.[15] It may be that some parts were modified at this time, but as noted earlier there was already a residence suitable for a chief on the island by 1549. There was certainly a substantial residence built by 1803, when the writer and shepherd James Hogg was visiting Harris with a view to sub-leasing a farm at Luskentyre [16] and stayed several days with the tacksman Alexander Campbell at his house on Ensay. Hogg writes: "You are still to suppose me in the house and island of Ensay; the former is large and commodious"[17] Hogg also notes that "... one day ...the Table was surrounded by a dozen of Gentlemen and four ladies ..." and later that Campbell went "up Stairs" to dress for breakfast, so the house at that time clearly had a commodious dining room and an upper storey. A "mansion house" is shown at the same location in the 1805 Estate map of the Harris Estate prepared for Alexander Hume (MacLeod) by the cartographer William Bald. The 1829 reprint of this map at the National Library of Scotland also shows "Sold to Stewart" or "Stewart" as pencilled annotations against Ensay, Pabbay and some islets, so presumably it had been used in the Dunmore Estate Office around 1856.[18][19]

Archibald Stewart had substantial additions made to Ensay House before he retired to the island in the 1870s. On 13 July 1870 the excise man Alexander Carmichael noted that Archibald "had made good additions to a fine house but that it was too close to the bay - 'This is its only fault'".[20] A Gaelic poem about the new house has been attributed to Neil Morrison, the Pabbay Bard (b. 1816) by the scholar George Henderson [21] and a slightly different version appears in Appendix B of [22] with an English translation by Simon Mackenzie:

1. It was upon New Year's day that I saw with my own eyes the mansion that won fame in the north; when I entered the dwelling and looked all around me I marvelled at what my eyes beheld.
2. So great was my amazement at the stonework and woodwork - I marvel at what man can achieve; lead and silver pipes drawing water from the flinty stone - a source (of water) that will prove everlasting.
3. He who spent the hundreds upon the hall of the beautiful stone whose like is unparallelled in the west of the sea-channels; situated by the rocky seaside and reflected upon the sea-waters - plentiful is the silvery salmon caught by its shores.
4. If I was familiar with all the land between Chicken Head in Lewis and Toe Head (in Harris) I doubt if you could find a finer house; from its windows, you can hunt the seals without rising from the table with a gun.
5. When you light the candles upstairs and downstairs, the mariners of the night will be full of gladness and joy; the shining lights in your windows like the great light(house) of Heisgeir and all marvelling at the sight and wondering "Who created this new marvel?"
6. Because of the radiance of your rooms, storm-tossed strangers who are in danger of drowning are guided to safety as they ply their course through the Kyles of Stromaidh and Bun-an-t-struth.
7. The island itself is most valuable; luxurious the growth of grass; starvation for either man or beast is unheard of and, despite the bitter bite of January, sheep and cattle retain their fat. Not a word of deprivation or affliction!
8. I wish that I was truly a bard who could elegantly compose. Maybe it's better to remain silent than for others to accuse me of impertinence in my effort to praise the great dwelling.

in his 1933 book of travels in the Hebrides[23] the writer Alasdair Alpin MacGregor provided a detailed account of his stay at Ensay House, when the proprietor was "Willie Stewart" (William George Fraser Stewart, b. 1884, whose older brother John Stewart Gordon Fraser, DSO was a grandfather of the BBC broadcaster and presenter Ed Stewart. Macgregor wrote his own prose poems about the house:

"The garden at Ensay! It is a riot of beauty - a sheer delight - a lovesone thing, Got wot!" ... "Ensay House is full of old and pretty things. Its walls are hung with innumerable water-colors by the Stewart who preceded the present proprietor. ... One of the most interesting relics belonging to the family is a spinet ... Among other relics ... are a small piece of china known as the Raasay Plate, and said to have been used by Prince Charlie during his sojourn on Raasay ...a charm used in olden times to restore ailing cattle to health, and a water-divining twig ..."

In about 1958 the house was purchased by Dr. John Brooke David (1912-1980),[24] for whom it was a holiday place, since he worked in Ghana. In 1975 he loaned the house to the writer Ken Duxbury, who lived there for six months and dedicated the resulting book to Dr. David.[25] Duxbury described the work of repairing the kind of dilapidation that might be expected after so many years out of regular use, but it seems the magic remained:

...if I had been asked to conjure up an idea of perfect bliss, why, I'd describe an isle covered in the greenest daisystrewn grass you can imagine, with sparkling bluffs of rock gneiss pushing up through the sward to offer warm sundrenched grottoes from the winds ... with a quarter of a mile of golden strand at one end, the dunes of which dropped sheer thirty feet and more to the edge of the surf-thundering beach. I'd have lambs frolicking all about, and fat contented cows drifting like ancient fleets of ships according to the weather. I'd have a rocky southern shore, with gullies and clefts to harbour the wild cormorants ans seabirds, and the constant cries of the gulls in one's ears, and the lapwings, oystercatchers and red-shanks. There would be a small semicircular sandy bay, with a house at its head so old and full of character that it breathed history, and ages of work and love of the land, success and disaster ... and the whole set in a sea so blue you'd think you were in the Ionian, with islands dotted all around for the exploring ... There would be no sound of cars, nor jet planes carving up the silence with their obtrusive hysterics. Put me there, and I'd be in Paradise. Put me there, and I'd be in Ensay. (pp. 88-89).

After Dr. David's death, his extended family continued to own, look after, and use the house, including re-slating, but by the time of the marvellous 2012 photo-essay by John Maher[26] the interior was in serious need of more attention, some of which was addressed via crowd funding in 2018.[27]

Ensay Highland cattle

In 1870 Alexander Carmichael also noted the "beautiful" black cattle on Ensay. Archibald Stewart and his brothers Alexander and Donald came from cattle country in Fortingall, and maintained folds of prize-winning West Highland cattle at all their tenancies from the early 1800s.[28] Most of those appearing in the list of winners at shows of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland pre-date the creation of a herd book for the breed in 1885[29] but a search for animal names that include "ENSAY" finds 15 beasts born between 1862 and 1892 where the Owner and Breeder is recorded as "DA Stewart of Lochdhu".[30] This Donald (1856-1935) was a grand-nephew of Archibald who lived mainly on his property in Nairn, but leased Ensay from about 1900 to 1935, during the ownership of other family members.

Ensay Chapels

Most modern accounts of Ensay only mention the restored chapel near Ensay House, which is probably the "old Chappel ... for the uſe of the Natives" mentioned by Martin in 1716, rather than the sand-buried chapel near the Manish burial ground, which is presumably where Martin's "...Grave in the Weſt end of the Iſland, in which was found a pair of Scales made of Braſs and a little Hammer" was located. It is best to treat them separately, and refer to the latter as the Manish Chapel, following the name given by AEW Miles (1989), its discoverer and so far its only investigator, while the former is most appropriately known by the name used by the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles of the Scottish Episcopal Church in the first available version of its website captured the Wayback Machine on 8 July 2008:[31] "Harris - Christ Church", and to preserve the essentials of that history here:

Christ Church Chapel

Unless otherwise notes, all quotations here are from.[32] "Little is known of the chapel's early history. In the early 1900's ... Mrs Jessie Scott, decided to renew the old chapel beside Ensay House and to restore it to its original purpose.

By 1909 it was repaired, the roof re-slated, the ceiling panelled in Californian redwood, a heavy oak door added and the floor cemented, and a new altar, altar rail, reredos and lectern made in mahogany. The first entry in the register is for 14 October 1910 and there were fairly regular services from then until 1914. There were no recorded services during the First World War, but the church re-opened and periodic services continued until 1935. When Jessie Scott died in 1931 her will made over the chapel and its contents to the Bishop of Argyll & The Isles, together with a small sum to endow the upkeep. The Harris congregation is now responsible for its maintenance. Among the conditions of the will was a clause stating that at least two services a year, including Holy Communion, were to be held there."

Part of this restoration was a stone plaque over the entry door, which was photographed during a RCAMHS field trip in 2012.[33] Unfortunately the mottled stone makes the engraving difficult to read, so the text below (and translation) is from Macgregor,[34] using slashes to mark new lines so as to save space.

"CHAIDH AN EAGLAIS SO ATH-THOGAIL / 'SA BHLIADHNA, 1910, / CHUM GLÒIR DHÉ AGUS / MAR CHUIMHNEACHAN / AIR NAOMH CALUM-CILLE / AGUS A' MHANAICH / A THUG AN SOISGEUL DO NA / H-EILEANEN SO, / AGUS A THOG AN EAGLAIS SO AIR TÙS"

"This church was rebuilt in the year 1910, to the Glory of God, in remembrance of the Holy St Columba and the monks, who brought the Gospel to these islands, and founded this church at the beginning."

"The church once again fell into disrepair, but in the early 1950's John David, a surgeon who practiced in Ghana, bought Ensay House, restored all that Jessie Scott had done to the chapel and added a distinctive oak door by Robert Thomson. In 1973 Richard Wimbush, the Bishop of Argyll and The Isles, led a pilgrimage of 45 people to Ensay and re-dedicated the church. Since then the annual pilgrimage has been continued by members of Lewis and Harris congregations."

"THIS CHAPEL WAS RESTORED BY JOHN BROOKE DAVID FRCS, OF ENSAY HOUSE, LONDON AND ACCRA, BEFORE HE DIED 30TH SEPTEMBER 1979."[35]

Manish Chapel

This building was found during the rescue archaeology on the Manish Burial Ground: "In 1971, a short length of drystone walling had become exposed, which on exploration was found to be the top of the east gable end of a building with external dimensions about 7.2 m x 4.6 m and with a closely east-west orientation."

The Manish Burial Ground

In 1870 Alexander Carmichael had noted that the island had no burial ground although it used to be at Trai Mhanuis [Tràigh Mhanuis]. The exhaustive rescue investigation of this burial ground conducted by Professor A E W Miles and his colleagues from 1966 and published in 1989[22] was triggered by the grass cover in the area being broken about 1963, followed by rapid wind erosion that exposed the graves. In what follows, page references are all to that publication.

Permission to rescue and study the human remains was given by the Rev. J. Smith of the Presbytery, Lochmaddy (p. 191). At the first visit in 1966, "the site was a more or less flat area of bare sand littered with human bones ... at the centre, there was a 3m high grass-topped hummock from the sandy sides of which projected bones at lower levels and coffins at higher levels." By the time of publication, the site had eroded about 5m below the level of the original grass cover (p. 9), and the remains of about 416 individuals had been rescued, and their burials approximately dated to the ranges:1800 AD to recent (111);1700-1800 AD (71); 1600-1700 AD (88); and 1500-1600 AD (146).(p. 26). The site "corresponds in position with the burial ground marked as a small circle on the earliest 6-inch to the mile Ordnance Survey map of 1878 (published 1882)." (p8). This can easily be viewed nowadays via the National Library of Scotland Georeferenced maps.[36]

The writer Ken Duxbury[37] describes an unexpected encounter with some of the documented and wrapped remains in storage at Ensay House during his six month stay on the island in 1975, noting that "they were ready for reinternment when opportunity offered, hence the careful parcelling of bone with fellow bone, all meticulously marked".[38]

It is, however, unclear what happened after the 1989 publication. As late as 1998 there was a hand-lettered sign on railings above the burial ground stating:

"This site is the ancient burial ground of the island, year by year more exposed by wind erosion. The area has been registered by the authorities in Edinburgh as an Ancient Monument of considerable importance and therefore may not be excavated without permission.

Every year human remains become exposed and, since 1966, are regularly rescued and cared for by Professor Miles of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. The building at the centre came to light in 1971 and is a chapel, thought to be of the 14th century, which became buried by sand blows in the 16th century.

Please do not move any bones or pottery that may be exposed and please only walk over the site with care."[39]

A comment on the blog post said that there was no sign in 2013. This is consistent with the absence of any sign on the railings shown in a photograph taken during a Field Visit to Ensay by the RCAMHS [Now HES] archaeologist Dr George F Geddes in Jun 2012.[40] The same photographs show grass cover over the area in 1998 and 2012, as do current (but undated) satellite images, so perhaps the risk of further wind erosion has been reduced.

  • Standing Stone
    Standing Stone
  • Taigh Easaigh
    Taigh Easaigh

Notes and references

  1. ^ Area and population ranks: there are c. 300 islands over 20 ha in extent. 93 permanently inhabited islands were listed in the 2011 census and 101 such islands in 2022.
  2. ^ Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7.
  3. ^ Ordnance Survey. OS Maps Online (Map). 1:25,000. Leisure.
  4. ^ a b Mac an Tàilleir, Iain (2003) Goireasan Cànain / Language Resources - Tadhail is Ionnsaich :  Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. (pdf) Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  5. ^ "Diocese of Argyll & The Isles | Harris - Christ Church". Archived from the original on 8 July 2008.
  6. ^ National Records of Scotland (15 August 2013). "Appendix 2: Population and households on Scotland's Inhabited Islands" (PDF). Statistical Bulletin: 2011 Census: First Results on Population and Household Estimates for Scotland Release 1C (Part Two) (PDF) (Report). SG/2013/126. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
  7. ^ SHADES OF THE WHITE COCKADE. The Argus (Melbourne),29 February 1936, p.9 url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11886903.
  8. ^ Lawson, B. Harris in History and Legend. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2002-2017.
  9. ^ Munro, R.W. (1961). Monro's Western Isles of Scotland and Genealogies of the Clans 1549. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. p. 79.
  10. ^ Miles, A.E.W. (1989). An Early Christian Chapel and Burial Ground on the Isle of Ensay, Outer Hebrides, Scotland with a study of the skeletal remains. Oxford: BAR Publications (British Series 212).
  11. ^ M. Martin, Gent. A Description of the Weſtern Iſlands of Scotland. The second edition, very much corrected. London: A. Bell at the Croſs Keys and Bible in Cornhill; T. Varnam and J. Osborn in Lombard-street; W. Taylor at the Ship; and J. Baker and T. Warner at the Black Boy in Paternoster-row, M.DCC.XVI. https://dn721806.ca.archive.org/0/items/descriptionofwes00mart/descriptionofwes00mart.pdf
  12. ^ Army and Navy Gazette, 4 January 1908, p. 18
  13. ^ "The Late Major Stewart of Ensay", Inverness Courier, 3 January 1908, p5.
  14. ^ Miles, A.E.W. (1989). An Early Christian Chapel and Burial Ground on the Isle of Ensay, Outer Hebrides, Scotland with a study of the skeletal remains. Oxford: BAR Publications (British Series 212) at p191.
  15. ^ "Ensay". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 8 December 2007.
  16. ^ Hughes, Gillian. James Hogg: A Life. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007, pp. 52–57.
  17. ^ de Groot, H.B.ed.) (2002). "Hogg in the Hebrides in 1803". Studies in Hogg and his World (13): 143–180.
  18. ^ Map of Harris, the property of Alexander Hume, Esqr. Surveyed by William Bald, Assistant to Mr. Ainslie, in 1804-5. W. Ballentine's Lithography, Edinr., 1829. https://maps.nls.uk/view/74400301
  19. ^ Wilkes, Margaret. Missing, presumed lost, pp 42-48 and Caird, James B. Early 19th Century Estate Maps, pp 49-78 in Macleod, Finlay (ed.) Togail Tir: Marking Time The Map of the Western Isles. Stornoway Accair Limied and Ann Lantair, 1989.
  20. ^ Carmichael, Alexander. Notes on the island of Esaidh [Easaigh/Ensay], 13 July 1870. Carmichael-Watson Collection, University of Edinburgh. https://archives.collections.ed.ac.uk/repositories/2/archival_objects/143156
  21. ^ Henderson, George. Leahar Nan Gleann: The Book of the Glens, with Zimmer on Pictish Matriarchy, Edinburgh:Norman MacLeod The Mound, 1898, pp.65-67. https://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections/archive/76888492?&mode=transcription
  22. ^ a b Miles, A.E.W. (1989). An Early Christian Chapel and Burial Ground on the Isle of Ensay, Outer Hebrides, Scotland with a study of the skeletal remains. Oxford: BAR Publications (British Series 212).
  23. ^ Macgregor, Alasdair Alpin, Searching the Hebrides with a Camera. London Bombay and Sydney: George Harrap & Co, 1933, pp. 100-133.
  24. ^ Royal College of Surgeons of England. David, John Brooke (1912-1980). British Medical Journal 1980; 280, 489. URL: https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002fSD_ASSET:378582/one?qu=%22rcs%3A+E006399%22&rt=false%7C%7C%7CIDENTIFIER%7C%7C%7CResource+Identifier
  25. ^ Duxbury, Ken. Lugworm Island Hopping. London: Pelham Books, 1976 p.98.
  26. ^ https://johnmaher.co.uk/ensay-house/
  27. ^ https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ensayhouse
  28. ^ "The Lewis Cattle." Letter to the editor of The Inverness Courier September 28, 1854, from Archibald Stewart, Ellanreach, Glenelg, 25th Sept. 1854.
  29. ^ https://cruachan.com.au/about_them/history.htm
  30. ^ https://www.highlandcattleonline.co.uk/ResultsAnimal.aspx?Name=ENSAY
  31. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20080708213357/http://www.argyllandtheisles.org.uk/harris.html
  32. ^ "Diocese of Argyll & The Isles | Harris - Christ Church" – via Internet Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20080708213357/http://www.argyllandtheisles.org.uk/harris.html
  33. ^ DP 137977 at https://www.trove.scot/image/1302426
  34. ^ Macgregor, Alasdair Alpin, Searching the Hebrides with a Camera. London Bombay and Sydney: George Harrap & Co, 1933, pp. 103-104.
  35. ^ The memorial plaque within the chapel, taken from the E. DP 137957 at https://www.trove.scot/image/1302406
  36. ^ https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.8&lat=57.76947&lon=-7.09014&layers=6&b=ESRIWorld&o=60
  37. ^ https://lodestarbooks.com/that-unique-engagement/
  38. ^ Duxbury, Ken. Lugworm Island Hopping. London: Pelham Books, 1976 p.98.
  39. ^ https://marccalhoun.blogspot.com/2013/05/ensay-burial-ground.html
  40. ^ View of the chapel, and the ruinous burial enclosure beyond, taken from the W. https://www.trove.scot/image/1302397
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