Inhabited, west coast Scottish islands - Soay

Continuing south to north then east to west, the next island on my tour is the small island of Soay (I understand it’s pronounced SOY). It is located to the south of Skye and only reached by boat from the hamlet of Elgol (unless you have your own sea going vessel or a helicopter). For those who don’t ‘see’ Soay as south of Skye, I will briefly explain. Skye, like Mull and many other west coast Scottish islands, has what can only be described as a torturous, twisting coast line with very little actually aligned with any of the cardinal compass points. It therefore comes down to accepting an approximation and my approximate view is that Portree is on Skye’s north coast (despite large lengths of it facing almost due east), Uig on the west coast with Neist Point and Glenbrittle on the south coast. This results in Soay lying off Skye’s south coast. Feel free to disagree but that is how I view Skye’s coastline.

So, Soay lies, for me, off Skye’s south coast (close to both the Cuillin mountains/hills and Glenbrittle) and north of the Small Isles. As already mentioned, it is small at four square miles (1036 hectares) and pretty flat with a high point, Beinn Bhreac, of only 463 feet (or 141 meters). It is also nearly cut in two by deep inlets biting into it’s north west facing and south east facing coasts (let’s just say north and south). It therefore looks a bit like a dumbbell (although the more westerly ‘half’ is a good bit larger than the eastern section). The inlet to the south, called Camas nan Gall, is both longer and substantially wider than the inlet to the north (called Soay Harbour). Soay’s main population centre (before the island was just about abandoned - see below) was called Mol-chlach and was on the western side of Camas nan Gall. Soay’s population reached around 158 way back around 1850 but is currently only between two and four (I think) - but I’m not certain about this due to conflicting Internet articles (see below). To get to Soay you must first get to Skye and then get to Elgol to get a boat to take you across the mouth of Loch Scavaig. The road to Elgol is the B8083. It leaves the main road to Portree in the centre of Broadford and it is mainly a twisting single track road through some very fine scenery.
 
Although I did get to land on Soay, this was only for a very brief visit of a few minutes (but enough to tick it off my bucket list). As said, the most common way to get to Soay is by boat, of some sort, from Elgol. There are a couple of excursion boat trip companies which mainly take tourists over to the short track into Loch Coruisk, which is in the heart of the Cuillins and is located in a spectacular spot, surrounded by the black, jagged peaks of the mountains. There are at least two such boat tour businesses and I think both will help visitors achieve aims outside of simply joining a tour to Coruisk - by taking them to the likes of Soay. The business I first approached not only said they’d be happy to take me to Soay - but they said they’d do so in about an hour’s time. Anyway, I was put on a RIB with between four and six others who were going to Loch Coruisk but who also didn’t mind the detour to Soay. In fact, one of the other passengers also came ashore with me - so I think he was quite pleased about that wee bonus (as, unlike myself, he didn’t have to pay extra for this). We departed Elgol and headed round the north eastern corner of Soay, then headed west to the narrow entrance to Soay Harbour. There is no pier or jetty in evidence so it’s a case of scramble ashore safely, via the wet slippery rocks, or fall into the water. When we left Elgol, the tide had been going out for quite a while and that, along with there being no pier, was why a RIB was used for this trip, rather than their motor launch, The Bella Jane, as, hidden beneath the waves, is a natural ridge of rock which blocks the mouth of the inlet at low tide. The water depth was down to four feet when we went in - and under four feet when we departed about fifteen minutes later. Soay Harbour is where Gavin Maxwell (of later otter fame) operated a shark oil production business. The remains of the main building is still there along with some rusting equipment and low tumbled down walls, which were probably the remains of other structures used for storage or whatever. I (we) basically wandered around this area for about five minutes then headed back to the RIB. It was vital that we got out of Soay Harbour before the tide trapped us in there as we would then have had to wait there until the tide rose sufficiently for us to get out again. Note that, although there is currently no pier in Soay Harbour, there might well have been one when Maxwell’s shark oil business was in operation: I just don’t know.
Before continuing with describing Soay, I would mention that I had never been on a RIB before this trip - so that was a wee added bonus for me.

The Internet articles on Soay’s fauna and flora are rather light on information (and that includes the famous online encyclopedia), but taking what I saw myself, along with what articles I could find and a video posted by a couple who lived on the island (when the video was posted - about 2016), I have concluded the following. The island supports small areas of low bushes and trees (including, just for example, birch, rowan and oak). Apart from that the coverage is mainly of bracken and ferns (a type of bracken), course grass and heather. I cannot find any mention of anything considered rare or unusual. The island’s name derives from the old Norse for ‘sheep island’ so one assumes there are sheep on it. The video (mentioned above) shows sheep and horses but I cannot guarantee that is still the case (as domesticated animals might have been removed to Skye or the mainland if their owner’s moved away). I could not see any mention of cattle or a sign of any in the video. The video did show an otter and I would presume they can still be found on Soay. Avian life shown in the video included; a herron, shag and an eagle. I’d assume that many wild animals and birds are to be found on Soay (or flying above it) but I have very little information about which ones apart from those mentioned above.. The video also showed dolphins and I’d be pretty certain that all the usual marine life (for Scotland’s west coast) can be found or seen around Soay’s shores.
As said above, the Internet video was posted around 2016 by a couple that lived on Soay at the time but I do not know if they still do as there is some degree of confusion around who the current inhabitants of Soay are (but see below).

As mentioned above, I cannot say for certain what the population of Soay is. All I can say is that there are very few people currently living on the island. My lack of clarity about this has been made worse by a couple of Internet articles which say different things. One article provides the names of a couple who live(d) there while a different article also says a couple live on the island, but this article provides totally different names (first names and surname). One of the issues here is being able to date the articles in question as there is a good chance at least one of them is very old and the couple named have long since departed to a more civilised location. Note that sometimes an Internet article will include a publication date (like the video does) but in this case I could not find such a date on the second article which left me unable to say if it was newer or older. Given this information, it is not possible to advise how the residents earn a living - although fishing was mentioned in a couple of the articles and some degree of crofting might be undertaken, as well. The only form of tourism that might exist would be holiday accommodation and it’s possible that some of the abandoned homes, in what was the main habitation centre of Mol-Chlach (on the western side of Camus nan Gall), might have been renovated to provide for this - but if so, I can find nothing which suggests that anyone has put such a holiday accommodation venture into operation.
If the Internet articles do not fully advise of the current habitation situation then the history of the population is more extensively covered. It would appear that Soay, from a peak of around 158 around 1850, was emptied during the Highland Clearances but re-populated after that. However, in the early fifties, and as mentioned above, most of the inhabitants requested evacuation, due to the lack of ferry service and the difficulties of living on an island with so few amenities, not to mention the lack of employment following the collapse of Maxwell’s shark oil enterprise. The Westminster government eventually agreed to do this in 1953 and almost everyone was moved to near Craignuire on Mull (the government buying them land in order to achieve this). I’m not sure what the people of Mull thought about this but that’s what happened, anyway.
For those interested, there are several articles about Soay (Skye) to be found on the Internet - although, as mentioned, they all seem rather ‘light’ on the islands flora and fauna.

Before including some photographs (very few in this post) I would advise that, when I started this blog, I thought the next island on my list would be Scalpay (Skye). However, that is not the case. On my last visit to Skye (September 2024) I managed to confirm that Scalpay is currently uninhabited and it looks likely it will remain so for the foreseeable future. It seems it has been bought by a wealthy foreigner who plans to visit seasonally rather than live on it. It is currently been cleared of old machinery and equipment and the house is being renovated. I got this from the wife of the chap doing this work for the new owner (the chap in question being out on Scalpay while I was talking to his wife about what was happening to the island). My next island will, therefore be Raasay.

A few photographs follow.

 

The photo above is centered on Soay, although the south coast of Skye, behind Soay, rather hides Soay. To left is a tip of Rum showing, then Canna then Soay to the right of Canna.

The above shot is of the old, ruined shark oil station run by Gavin Maxwell. I think it might have had a previous life as a fishery station - but I'm not sure.

The photo above is of a piece of old, rusting equipement at the shark oil station (maybe used for processing the oil)?

The above photo is of the old, shark oil staion building with the RIB (used to get there) sitting in Soay Harbour.

 

The photo above was taken heading out of Soay Harbour, with the narrows directly ahead and Skye beyond that.