Taransay

Taransay ( Scottish Gaelic Tarasaigh, Tarasaigh / i, Taransöy Old Norse, German: " Taran's island ", probably after an Irish saint) is an island belonging to Scotland Outer Hebrides.

Geography

Taransay lies about three kilometers west of the southern part of the island of Lewis and Harris ( Harris), separated from it by the Sound of Taransay. Its area is 14.8 km ². The island is about 6.5 kilometers long and up to 4.8 kilometers wide. The highest point is 267 meters above sea level, the Ben Raah ( Scottish Gaelic Beinn Ra). Taransay is the largest Scottish island that is not permanently inhabited.

Taransay resembles a double island, however, the south-western peninsula Aird Vanish ( Aird Mhànais ) with the 99 -meter-high Bualabhal less than one- third of the area of the northeastern part of the main. The two parts of the island consist of heather -covered hills, which are connected in the middle of the island through the sandy, flat isthmus Traigh a Siar. The coast is formed by sandy beach and machair dunes. The rock is mainly gneiss and granite.

The island is managed by the Western Isles Council.

History

In the past Taransay belonged to the county of Inverness -shire.

On Taransay there were the three villages Raa, Uidh and Paible ( Paibeil ), all on the main part of the island. Raa ( Raah ) was in the southeast, Uidh in the southwest near the isthmus, and Paible in the south. Rent increases in 1835 sold many residents of the island. In 1883, the possibilities to farm, further restricted by bans on cultivation, so that more people Taransay left. 1942, the island was completely deserted, but was later repopulated. In 1961 there were only a family of five in the village Paible. She left the island in 1974, so she was uninhabited again.

In Paible there were two churches. In a men were buried in the other women. The remains of Saint Keith 's Chapel are still visible, while Saint Taran 's Chapel was destroyed by coastal erosion in the 1970s.

The British television series Castaway 2000 ( German as: " Exposed 2000 " ) was filmed in the title year Taransay. 36 people lived from 1 January 2000 deposited on the island. They had access to electricity and drinking water. Were 29 of them, as planned, by the end of the island. The series was broadcast in numerous countries and was considered a " social experiment ". Since then, tourists can visit the island and live there. For Taransay Fiddle Camp on Taransay meet since 2001 every year musicians who play the fiddle.

Flora and Fauna

The species richness of plants is considerable. In addition to numerous bird species, there are red deer and mice on Taransay. 2003-2004 hunting was made on minks, the vulnerable populations of ground-nesting birds.

Others

• The film The Rocket Post, which is the establishment of a rocket mail on the fictional island of Scarp was filmed in 2001 Taransay, but not published until 2006.