Taransay became well known following the BBC show Castaway. The show, organised by Lion Television, featured a group of 36 people marooned on the island for a year starting January 1, 2000. Castaway was broadcast internationally, including to audiences in Germany, America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The show reached nine million viewers at its peak. The cast was made up of volunteers hand-picked from 4000 applicants. They lived in temporary accommodation built especially for the show, known as 'pods', which were based in the former village of Paible. Existing buildings on the island included a Farmhouse, also called the Mackay house and a School Chalet, which were renovated for the show. Since 2004 these have been available as self-catering holiday cottages for tourist use. According to the BBC website, the aim of the project was to "create a new society for the new millennium".
Unlike the original inhabitants of the island, the "castaways" had access to electricity and a water supply, as well as limited modern conveniences. Of the 36 who joined the show, 29 remained on the island for the whole year, including Ben Fogle who went on to be a presenter for a number of BBC shows, including Countryfile. The show was reported to be a social experiment, focusing on how this group would form a community.
The Pods where the "castaways" lived were inhabited for a year on Taransay and then de-constructed, flat packed and moved to number of locations around Scotland including the island of Muck and Cove Park Arts Centre on the Rosneath peninsula.
From 2001, when the Castaway show ended, Taransay has been a tourist resort, with the buildings being let as holiday accommodation, and boat trips to the island.
Castaway 2007 was a semi-related follow-up to Castaway 2000. However it was based on the considerably warmer Great Barrier Island, located 90 km north-east of central Auckland in New Zealand.
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