The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Island hosts visitors as restoration progresses
The first paying visitors to Taransay came ashore yesterday to witness the early signs of a longterm ecological restoration vision for the island.
An initial 10-year plan has already begun on environmental, historical and social projects for the uninhabited island, the one-time setting for the Castaway TV series.
Owners Adam and Cathra Kelliher say when they bought Taransay in 2011 it had one standing tree, an aspen, which had escaped deer and sheep by growing out of a cliff.
Centuries of intensive grazing had created a monoculture. All flora and fauna had been eaten to the roots and there was little evidence of natural flowers, insect life or birdsong.
The couple want to have established woodlands, community tree planting and restored peatlands by 2032.
Blackhouses – once used by residents, the last of whom left the island in 1974 – will also be redeveloped.
In addition, geological and historical tours are planned as part of a sustainable tourism exercise which includes day trips from Harris.
Among the first people to visit was Donald John Ferguson, 85, whose family are from Taransay – his father, James, was born on the island in 1902.
He and his wife Hazel, along with cousin George McPherson, joined daytrippers on the landing craft, the Mary Jane. They planned to pay a visit to the grave of Donald John’s great-grandfather, Angus Ferguson.
The trip was organised by Donald John’s daughter, Shirley Buchan, as a diamond wedding gift for her parents.
“Dad always wanted to get back to Taransay,” she said. “It will bring back a lot of memories.”
The restoration work is the result of years of planning by the Kellihers, who bought the island amid strong competition
including, reportedly, from Castaway star Ben Fogle.
The couple, who own Borve Lodge Estate, once owned by Cathra’s father David Horrobin, have worked with experts on ecology, wildlife and the planting of native trees.
As stewards of Taransay, they wish to restore the island’s biodiversity to a pre-grazing state, last seen in the Bronze Age.
“Sheep and deer were dominating, and significant flora and fauna could not get a chance to take hold,” Cathra said.
The ecology-focused venture has seen the couple remove sheep, introduce a summer cattle herd and dismantle miles of fences.
The first deer-proof enclosure was built to protect 200 native trees, mainly ash and willow, and there are plans to gradually reduce the deer herd.
An environmental impact study last year showed the regeneration of willow, honeysuckle, rowan, ferns, heather and machair.
Habitat ecologist Stuart Adair said: “Taransay offers a rare chance to restore both nature and community to this iconic Western Isle and, in doing so, help play our part in tackling the ongoing global ecological and climate crisis.”
Cathra says the vision goes beyond the initial 10year plan, adding: “It’s very much about bringing together the human and the natural heritage... Although it’s a private island, it’s an island embedded in a very strong and local community.”
She is conscious of the recent debate over so-called green lairds, where individuals and companies buy land and use tax breaks and subsidies to cut carbon emissions.
“That is absolutely not what we are doing... We believe in involving the community in the actuality of the project as well as the decision-making,” she said.
As part of the community involvement, a group from the West Harris Trust’s Growing West Harris project recently visited Taransay to remove grasses inhibiting tree growth, old fences and plastic rubbish.
Iain Maciver, the trust’s community participation officer, said: “Adam and Cathra are very communityminded and it’s great to hear that the voices of the community will be taken into consideration.”