Eriska is a relatively flat tidal island at the entrance to Loch Creran on the west coast of Scotland.
Privately owned by the Buchanan-Smiths from 1973 until August 2016, Eriska is now owned by Creation Gem, a family-owned business from Hong Kong." Isle of Eriska to be operated by Inverlochy Castle Management Company". The Caterer. Retrieved 6 February 2018. The island is run as a hotel with wooded grounds. The island is evidently populated although no record for the total was provided by the census in 2001 or 2011. In 2022 the resident population was recorded by the census as 21.
Geography
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 Island". Isle of Eriska Hotel. Retrieved 16 September 2013. It is part of the Lynn of Lorn National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland."National Scenic Areas" . SNH. Retrieved 30 Mar 2011.
The estate as a whole includes about on the mainland with a Site of Special Scientific Interest."Estate". Isle of Eriska Hotel/Wayback Internet Archive. Originally retrieved 18 Dec 2011. This site states that the estate comprises " of which the majority is on the island but also on the mainland", suggesting that they estimate the islands area at circa 120 ha. The island itself has been measured at in total.
Eriska House
Eriska House was built in 1884 by the Stewarts of Appin. It was 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. They left in 1930. Capt. A.D.S. Barr bought the island in 1945 and ran the house as a hotel from c. 1948 until 1957.Oban Times and Argyllshire Advertiser - Saturday 03 August 1957. After that 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.
Sculpture Public sculptures near the shoreline include the carved stone horse by Ronald Rae and Otter by Kenneth Robertson at Otter Point overlooking Loch Linnhe.
Footnotes