Ensay (GaelicEasaigh) is a currently unpopulated and privately ownedisland 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 her will 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]
In 1958 there was another subdivision of the property when Ensay House was sold to Dr John David.
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 Angus 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. 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". Only key points from that history are presented here.
Christ Church Chapel
About 1909 Mrs Jessie Scott, one of the members of the Stewart family who owned Ensay, decided to have the old chapel beside Ensay House restored and returned to its original purpose. The first entry in the register is for 14 October 1910 and there were 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.
Part of this restoration was a stone plaque over the entry door, which was photographed during a RCAMHS field trip in 2012.[32]. The engraving of the image is hard to read but the Gaelic text and a translation into English may be found in Macgregor,[33].
In the early 1950s the chapel was again restored, as recorded in a plaque inside:
"THIS CHAPEL WAS RESTORED BY JOHN BROOKE DAVID FRCS, OF ENSAY HOUSE, LONDON AND ACCRA, BEFORE HE DIED 30TH SEPTEMBER 1979."[34]
In 1973 the chapel was re-dedicated by the Bishop of Argyll and the Isles.
Since 2018 "The Friends of Ensay" SCIO (Scottish Charity No SCO48647) has as its objectives:
"4.1 the advancement of the arts, heritage, unique history and culture of the island of Ensay in the Outer Hebrides in addition to the preservation, maintenance, restoration, upkeep and use of the historic Ensay Chapel and grounds. 4.2 the advancement of citizenship and greater community involvement through the promotion of volunteering to care for and celebrate the unique character and situation of Ensay Chapel, and to promote greater public understanding and pride in the local heritage of Ensay. and 4.3 the advancement of religion through the organising of an annual pilgrimage and worship services in the Ensay Chapel conducted by the Episcopal Church." [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.
Professor Miles died in 2008. His own view of the future for the site were:
"Much remains to be done. The immediate problem is the prevention of further deterioration of the chapel which, even though its date remains undetermined, is an unusually well-preserved and unrestored one of early date. A longer term aim is to excavate the chapel in order to establish its date: it is not too much to hope that some of its roof timbers, which could either be carbon-dated or dated by tree-ring chronology, lie beneath the sand that has protected them for 300 years. This aim is put second because, unless the chapel can be quickly protected against further deterioration, there could be little to base a date on. The level surrounding the chapel prior to the sandblows could be profitably explored especially on the south side where interments contemporary with the use of the chapel can be predicted. This report is preliminary in the sense that further study of the bones already rescued will show more light on the life of the islanders." (p.185)
The Railed Grave
The railings of a 19th century grave enclosure appear in most photos of the Manish Burial Ground. The grave is that of Donald Stewart (1816-1887), who was the son and heir of Donald Stewart (1774-1854), and since it is necessary to refer to both, it is simplest to refer to father and son as Donald (I) and Donald (II) respectively. Donald (I) was tenant of Luskentyre in Harris from 1811-12 and subsequently of other properties in Harris and some in Lewis. He was appointed as Factor to Alexander Norman MacLeod of Harris in 1816, was appointed by the Trustees of the bankrupt estate as Judicial Factor for the Ranking of creditors and Sale of the estate in 1830, which was achieved in 1834, after which he continued as the main tenant but was not Factor to the Earls of Dunmore. In 1848 he did not renew his tenancies in Harris and moved to the mainland.
There is a tradition or folk-tale in Harris about the two Donalds, which seems to have been first recorded by Alexander Carmichael [41]: "... he [Donald (I)] used fifty or sixty soldiers to clear people to the disgust of one of his sons who would have nothing to do with Stewart and became a missionary.". As re-told 110 years later in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, the story is longer, and leads into a kind of explanation for the burial on Ensay:
"According to Harris tradition, Donald, the young son of the "big ruddy haired Stewart" (An Stiùbhartach mór ruadh) asked his father why he was so desperately keen to get rid of his neighbours in the farm of Borve. He received the short answer. "Theagamh gu deanamh e tàc dhuit The Grianam fein" — surely it would make a tack for yourself. "Gu gleidheadh Dia thu" May God protect you replied the son and forthwith left Harris for Australia. Here, in partnership with another sheep farmer, he acquired an extensive sheep farm. One day he and his partner decided to tour the boundary of their farm. Night descends rapidly in Australia and young Donald Stewart and his partner found that they had to sleep in the open under the wide arch of an Australian sky. When Donald awakened next morning, he was horrified to discover that his partner was dead beside him. This caused him to reflect how he had miraculously been preserved from the poisonous fangs of a snake. He came to the conclusion that God had preserved him for some higher purpose. He sold his farm and returned to Harris, where he became a zealous and much loved missionary of the Gospel. When he died he was not buried in the family chapel in Luskintyre: his remains were interred in the lonely island of Ensay in the Sound of Harris."[42]
Troops were certainly called in during the clearance of the Borves in 1839, but it was the Dunmore Estate that chose to clear the smallholders from the Borves rather than lose Donald(I) as a tenant,[43]. Donald (II) certainly described himself as an Evangelist in the Dunoon Postal Directories in the 1880s, and his obituaries certainly refer to his work in this field [44][45][46][47], but none if them mention a sojourn in Australia or an encounter with a snake, while at the same time inventing the non-fact that he was "the nearest male representative of the ancient family of the Stewarts of Garth (the male line having terminated in the late General David Stewart of Garth, the well-known author of the History of the Highland Regiments &c)." Not only was that statement untrue, but Donald (II) never claimed any such thing.
What he did was to defend the reputation of his father in a statement made to the Napier Commission at its hearing in Glasgow, offering Estate books and other documents as proof. Unfortunately, Glasgow was one of the last hearings of the Commissioners, and thereis no recor that they accepted the offer.
Gallery
Standing Stone
Taigh Easaigh
Notes and references
↑Area and population ranks: there are c.300 islands over 20ha in extent. 93 permanently inhabited islands were listed in the 2011 census and 101 such islands in 2022.
↑Lawson, B. Harris in History and Legend. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2002-2017.
↑Munro, R.W. (1961). Monro's Western Isles of Scotland and Genealogies of the Clans 1549. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. p.79.
↑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).
↑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
↑"The Late Major Stewart of Ensay", Inverness Courier, 3 January 1908, p5.
↑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.
↑"Ensay". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 8 December 2007.
↑Hughes, Gillian. James Hogg: A Life. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007, pp. 52–57.
↑de Groot, H.B.ed.) (2002). "Hogg in the Hebrides in 1803". Studies in Hogg and his World (13): 143–180.
↑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
↑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.
12Miles, 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).
↑Macgregor, Alasdair Alpin, Searching the Hebrides with a Camera. London Bombay and Sydney: George Harrap & Co, 1933, pp. 100-133.
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