Eriskay (Scottish Gaelic: Èirisgeigh), from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland with a population of 143, as of the 2011 census.

On 2 August 1745 the privateer Du Teillay arrived there and temporarily put Prince Charles Edward Stuart and the Seven Men of Moidart ashore upon the island.

In 1995, a memorial cairn was erected at the site with an inscription that includes the first stanza of Scottish Gaelic national poet Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair's iconic song-poem Òran Eile don Phrionnsa:[8] An English translation by Hamish Henderson reads, According to the Napier Commission testimony of local resident John McCaskill, the islanders of Eriskay had consisted as recently as the 1830s and '40s of only three families and less than 30 people.

For the most part, however, the newly arrived islanders of Eriskay belonged overwhelmingly to the once strictly illegal Catholic Church in Scotland and had their family roots in South Uist.

"[12] The current St Michael's Roman Catholic Church stands atop Cnoc nan Sgrath, a hill overlooking the main village on Eriskay.

[13] Since the current church was consecrated by Bishop George Smith in 7 May 1903,[14] the site of the 1852 stone chapel has been marked by a Marian shrine with a statue of Our Lady of Fatima, overlooking the Sound of Barra.

MacDonald praises the beauty of Eriskay, its wildlife, and the fondness of its people for telling tales from the Fenian Cycle of Celtic mythology inside the ceilidh house.

[15][16] Eriskay: A Poem of Remote Lives, made in 1934 by important early German documentary filmmaker Werner Kissling, was filmed on the island and is comprised 15m 40s of silent, black-and-white footage.

The funds raised were used to build Eriskay’s first major road, running from the old pier at Na Hann in the north to the harbour at Acairseid in the south.

The previous landowners, a sporting syndicate, sold the assets of the 372-square-kilometre (144 sq mi) estate including Benbecula, South Uist and Eriskay for £4.5 million to a community-owned organisation known as Stòras Uibhist, which was set up to purchase the land and to manage it in perpetuity.

[19][20][21] Comann Eachdraidh Eirisgeidh ("The Eriskay Historical Society") was established in 2010 and, as of 2021, had recently purchased the island's schoolhouse, which had been closed down since 2013, to turn it into a local history and heritage museum.

In 2009 the previous primitive quay facilities at the excellent natural harbour of Acarsaid Mhòr were extended and modernised, with improved vehicular access.

Some smaller fishing boats continue—at least when the tides and weather are favourable—to use the shelving bay at Haun (from the Viking for 'harbour'—but scarcely with sufficient shelter to constitute a harbour in practice).

Following the establishment of the first Crofting Commission in the 1880s, the whole of the island, together with the small adjoining Stack Island, was incorporated into the crofting townships: The souming (a word originating in the Viking era) for each full share gives the right to put, on the common grazings (the high ground of Beinn Sgrithean and Beinn Stac), ten sheep, two cows and one Eriskay Pony (all plus their 'followers'—young up to one year old).

Since the completion in 2001 of the causeway to South Uist and the inauguration of the vehicle ferry to Barra, a number of properties have been professionally renovated or purpose-built as holiday accommodation.