There is a very good book written by the Buchanan Smith family on the history of the island and buildings
There is much yet to learn
Erik’s-ay (Old Norse) Erik’s island, place of adoration, gravel bank.
the island is not included in R Angus Smith Sons of Uisneach
Nor is it included in the Lorn RCAMHS book
not to be confused with outer hebrides Eriskay
The waters at the narrows created by the island with the north shore of Loch Creran are a mixture of the salt and fresh waters that are stirred up in the loch basins by tides which race at up to 4 knots through these narrows.
Creran is a haven for underwater life, and near the shores of Eriska lies one of the beds of Horse Mussels
The island is now a luxury hotel, with a Michelin star restaurant, spa, pool golf course and a very elite clientele.
[https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/argyll/eriska.shtml walking the island[
The island is largely of schist and slate with the lower ground to the west as a raised beach. To the east of the bridge, there is a partly submerged crannog, or fortified dwelling, dating from the Bronze Age around 200 B.C.
Eriska House
Eriska House was built in 1884 by the Stewarts of Appin. Built in the Scottish Baronial style by architect Hippolyte Blanc, who was highly acclaimed for his meticulous attention to detail and for a very high degree of specification in materials.
Eriska was occupied by the Blairs and Clark Hutchisons, who built the bridge over the drying channel, connecting the island to the mainland at all states of the tide. When they left in 1930 little upkeep was done until the island was purchased by the Buchanan-Smith family in 1973. The house remains essentially the same with the surrounding buildings converted to become part of the hotel.
ERISKA, APPIN, October 3, 1884.There is an old story current here that a man who stole cattle off the islandwas shot on the spot (site of cairn) by the owner of the island while standingon the hill towards the Ferry, or rather east from the cairn, which must havebeen quite 500 yards distant. It is not said whether the cairn was there atthe time or not. It is said the name of the robber was Thick Sandy, andpeople thought he was buried in the mound. There was a road or ford about20 yards east of the cairn, and this was the only safe place for horses to pass atlow water. My impression is that at one time the cairn was not surroundedby water, but that there was a narrow channel between the mound and themainland, and that it was of late date the bay on the island side was formed bystrong currents.
The first crannog to be excavated in Argyll was the marine crannog of An Dòirlinn, Eriska (CANMORE ID 23328) (Munro 1885), though no artefacts were recovered and no other type of dating was possible at this early stage of archaeology. This site is unusual as it lies outside the two known concentrations of marine crannogs in the upper Clyde estuary and the Beauly Firth (Hale 2004), and it may be that others remain to be discovered on the Argyll coastline.
- name variants :
: map location :
: NRS records :
: Sasines :: 1687 - Eriskea - valuation roll of Lochnell
- 1745
- Roy map https://maps.nls.uk/geo/roy/#zoom=14&lat=56.5330&lon=-5.3977&layers=0&point=0,0
- 1841
- census
- 1851
- census
- 1855
- valuation roll
- 1861
- census
- 1865
- valuation roll
- 1871
- census
- 1871
- Ordnance survey
- 1871
- Map https://maps.nls.uk/view/74480876
- 1871
- Map https://maps.nls.uk/view/228775957
- 1875
- valuation roll
- 1881
- census
- 1883
- While the discovery of the Culzean bronze hatchets (Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., llth June 1883) beneath a bed of littoral gravel, in a position 100 yards removed from the present limits of the tides, and 25 feet above the level of high-water mark, suggests a rise of land on the Ayrshire coasts, the Eriska mound seems to me to indicate a reverse operation. The only instance in Scotland, so far as I remember, of an artificial structure, analogous to that at Eriska, is in the- Beauly Firth near Inverness,
…and set out at near the half tide so as to get through the narrow passage on the south side of Eriska Island, before the ebbing waters should leave the whole passage dry. “If you can get the boat through inside of Sgeir-na-Caillach, it will get down the Doirlinn” says one authority, but we shake our heads dubiously as we look at the racing waters and the narrow passage…..we hurry down the shallowing stream of water with an uncomfortable feeling. A warning bump……every moment increases the difficulty, for no ordinary tide is on us today, and we will be left high and dry in a quarter of an hour. There is no help for it….and the first out of the boat up to the knees is the first to jump in again with a peculiarly unheroic dexterity…..We drag the boat seawards; and only after half-an-hour at the galley do we thrust our craft on the outer waters, and hop on board shivering for a dram…’ Smith, March 1883
- 1884
- 1884(?) Mansion House of Eriska Ledaig Argyll Scotland George Woulfe Brenan Claims to have designed this house http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=200432
- 1885
- valuation roll
- 1891
- census
- 1895
- valuation roll
- 1895
- - April - London Times advert for the sale of isle of Eriska
- 1901
- census
- 1905
- valuation roll
- 1911
- census
- 1915
- valuation roll
- 1920
- valuation roll
- 1921
- census
- 1925
- valuation roll
- 1930
- valuation roll
- 1935
- valuation roll
