Day 33 – Egilsay – Part Two

There’s only one farm left on Egilsay, with dairy cattle and sheep, but sponsored by the RSPB to maintain the environment also.

By chance I got chatting with the young couple, who were letting their cows out after the longer winter than usual. We were subsequently chased by a crowd of these very cows, just making it to the beach fence in time..

We needed to seek an alternative exit, so followed the beach for a mile or so, then escaped through a derelict farm. On seeing the farmers again, they told me how this had been the last farm to finish up; the elderly couple who kept it both found, both several weeks dead at the end of a long winter, 4 years ago. The bodies have been removed, but not the old guy’s wheelchair..

It’s a tough life on these small islands. Cal Flyn, a young Highlands journalist, writes about the island of Stroma, in her excellent book, Islands of Abandonment (I’ll include a review later..). This island, between Orkney and the mainland, was abandoned twenty years or so ago, its herd of cattle left there. The cattle have adapted to live by themselves, and have a healthy survival rate. That may be what faces islands like Egilsay in future years, certainly if it wasn’t for the RSPB and the previous EU funding. This site has the name Onziebust. The farm also offers a couple of rooms for tourists, of which the island usually has many, mainly to visit the church. They are mostly from the cruise ships, but a few other visitors as well. Today, I was the only visitor to the island, it no wonder the ferries are struggling to keep going.

The photo below is of one of four dwellings that make up the only community, close to the ferry terminal.

The EU invested heavily in the Scottish Islands.

The ferry timetable meant I had 4 hours on Egilsay. Plenty of time, and a chance to read a Mackay Brown novel, this time Vinland, on the return sailing.