Eilean an Taighe

It is joined to Garbh Eilean by an isthmus, so they each form part of what is actually a single island.

Before the 1820s, the island was called Eilean na Cille ("church island"),[1] and there is evidence of a church, possibly dedicated to the Virgin Mary, near the site of the present cottage.

The daughters, Mòr and Catriona, were apparently very beautiful, and attracted the attention of visiting fishermen and yachtsmen alike.

[1] In 1937, the islands were acquired by Nigel Nicolson, then an undergraduate at Oxford, who — like the former owner, Compton MacKenzie, was later a writer, publisher and politician.

The simple bothy restored by Nigel Nicolson on Eilean an Taighe is currently the only habitable structure on the islands.