Point, Outer Hebrides

Point (Scottish Gaelic: "An Rubha"), also known as the Eye Peninsula, is a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, connected to the rest of the Isle of Lewis by a narrow isthmus, one mile in length and barely 100 metres wide. Point, situated very close to regional capital Stornoway, is home to around 2,600 people and is one of the few districts of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides of Scotland where the population is actually increasing. The school population of Point is decreasing as much as the rest of Scotland, indeed two of the three schools are due to close in the next decade. These patterns show signs of an increasingly elderly population.Fact|date=February 2007

There are two historical sites of interest at the eastern end of the isthmus ("Am Bràighe" as it is known in Gaelic). The ruins of the Eye Church are all that remain of a building dedicated to St. Columba. It is among the largest pre-Reformation Churches in the Western Isles. Although the present buildings are probably medieval, the Church is reputedly on the site of the cell of St. Catan, a contemporary of St. Columba. This is the burial ground of nineteen of the Chiefs of the MacLeods of Lewis. There are two old carved commemorative slabs on the walls of the larger building: one depicts a warrior and is believed to be Roderick, 7th Chief; while the other is for Margaret, daughter of Roderick MacLeod of Lewis, who died in 1503.

In recent years, the land reform struggle of the nineteenth century in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland is being recognised and the Aignish Riots of 1888 are commemorated by a memorial adjacent to the Eye Church.

Major villages in Point include Portvoller, Portnaguran, Aird, Bayble, Garrabost, Swordale and Knock, Isle of Lewis.

External links

* [http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/18508 Photo of the Aignish memorial]
* [http://www.pointonline.co.uk Community website]
* [http://www.eyechurch.org Urras Eaglais na h-Aoidhe (The Eye Church Trust)]