Eilean Shona

Eilean Shona (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Seòna) is a tidal island in Loch Moidart, Scotland. The modern name may be from the Old Norse for "sea island". The pre-Norse Gaelic name, as recorded by Adomnán was Airthrago or Arthràigh, meaning 'foreshore island', similar to the derivation of Erraid.

It was leased to writer J. M. Barrie in the 1920s, who used it as a summer holiday retreat for himself, his foster sons Michael and Nicholas Llewelyn Davies, and a few of their friends. It was here he wrote a screenplay for the 1924 film adaptation of Peter Pan.

It is currently owned by Vanessa Branson and Robert Devereux who purchased the island in 1995 for a sum believed to be in the region of £1.3 million. In 1856 the sales price was just £6,500.

The current population is 2, but in 1851 there were reports of evacuations and emigrations of 37 families from the island and the nearby settlement of Dorlinn in the wake of potato blight.

There are several small attendant isles include Riska Island, Eilean an Fhèidh and Eilean Tioram. Eilean Shona House overlooks Riska and Castle Tioram. There are 5 cottages for rent on the island, and the main house is also available for hire. The old Schoolhouse (on the North Shore track between Sawmill and Baramore) is not available for let. It is in an isolated position, some two miles down a track, reputedly because when it was built in the nineteenth century the wife of the island's owner did not wish to be disturbed by children.

The peninsula of Shona Beag is accessible from the mainland by a short causeway at low tide. Eilean Shona is one of 43 tidal islands that can be walked to from the mainland of Great Britain and one of 17 that can be walked to from the Scottish mainland.

Pronunciation
Scots Gaelic: Arthraigh
Pronunciation:
Scots Gaelic: Beinn a’ Bhàillidh
Pronunciation:
Scots Gaelic: Eilean an Fhèidh
Pronunciation:
Scots Gaelic: Eilean Seòna
Pronunciation: