Vatersay
Location
Vatersay
Vatersay shown within the Outer Hebrides
OS grid reference	NL635955
Names
Gaelic name	Bhatarsaigh (help·info)
Meaning of name	Water island
Area and summit
Area	960 hectares (3.7 sq mi)
Area rank	51
Highest elevation	Theiseabhal Mòr 190 metres (623 ft)
Population
Population	94
Population rank	46 out of 100
Main settlement	Baile Bhatarsaigh
Groupings
Island group	Uist and Barra
Local Authority	Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
References	[1][2][3][4]
If shown, area and population ranks are for all Scottish islands and all inhabited Scottish islands respectively. Population data is from 2001 census.

Vatersay (Scottish Gaelic: Bhatarsaigh, pronounced [vaʰt̪əɾs̪aj]) is an inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Vatersay is also the name of the only village on the island.

  Location

  Vatersay Bay, Vatersay.

  Monument to the wreck of the Annie Jane

The westernmost permanently inhabited place in Scotland, Vatersay is linked to Barra by a causeway completed in 1991.^[5] At low tide, the island is also linked to the islet of Uineasan to the east.

  Wildlife

Wildlife on the island includes otters, seals and herons. Bonnie Prince Charlie's flower (Calystegia soldanella), reputedly originating from French seeds dropped by Bonnie Prince Charlie is, in Scotland, found only on Vatersay and Eriskay.

  Archaeology

The island has remains of an Iron Age broch at Dun a' Chaolais overlooking the Sound of Vatersay and nearby is a passage grave dated to the 3rd millennium BC.^[6] There is also a Bronze Age cemetery at Treasabhaig south of the heights of Theiseabhal Mòr^[7] and a cairn built circa 1000 BC west of the village of Vatersay.^[8]The offshore islet of Biruaslum has a walled fort that may be of Neolithic provenance.^[9]

  Wrecks

One of the saddest events to befall the island happened when the Annie Jane, a three-masted immigrant ship out of Liverpool bound for Montreal, Canada, struck rocks off West Beach during a storm in September 1853. Within ten minutes the ship began to founder and break up casting 450 people into the raging sea. In spite of the conditions, islanders tried to rescue the passengers and crew.^[10]

There were only a few survivors rescued. A small cairn and monument marks the site. The inscription reads: "On 28th September 1853 the ship Annie Jane with emigrants from Liverpool to Quebec was totally wrecked in this bay and threefourths of the crew and passengers numbering about 350 men women and children were drowned and their bodies interred here."

Two Chinese seamen from the SS Idomeneus which sank on 28th September 1917 are also buried somewhere near the monument. There is a commemorative headstone in Cuier Churchyard. ^[11]

The remains of a Catalina flying boat that crashed on the slopes of Heishival Beg in 1948 lie in a stream bed near the shore.^[12]

  Notes

  References

• Branigan, Keith (2007) Ancient Barra: exploring the Archaeology of the Outer Hebrides. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.

  External links

• Panorama of the West Bay on Vatersay (Annie Jane burial cairn and monument) (QuickTime required)

Inhabited islands of the Hebrides Inner Hebrides Canna Coll Colonsay Danna Eigg Eilean Bàn Eilean Donan Eilean Shona Erraid Gigha Gometra Iona Islay Isle of Ewe Jura Kerrera Lismore Lunga Muck Mull Oronsay Raasay Sanday Scalpay Rona Rùm Skye Slate Islands Soay Summer Isles Tiree Ulva Outer Hebrides Baleshare Barra Benbecula Berneray Eriskay Flodaigh Fraoch-eilean Great Bernera Grimsay (North) Grimsay (South) Lewis and Harris North Uist Scalpay South Uist Vatersay

Islands of Scotland Northern Isles Shetland List of Shetland islands Orkney List of Orkney islands Hebrides Outer Hebrides List of Outer Hebrides Inner Hebrides List of Inner Hebrides St Kilda Other Islands of the Clyde Islands of the Forth Outlying Islands Freshwater Islands

Coordinates: 56°55′41″N 7°32′01″W / 56.92805°N 7.53357°W / 56.92805; -7.53357

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