Parish of Small Isles

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

This edition is copyright © The Editors of the Gazetteer for Scotland, 2002-2022.

It has taken much time and money to make the six-volumes of Groome's text freely accessible. Please help us continue and develop by making a donation. If only one out of every ten people who view this page gave £5 or $10, the project would be self-sustaining. Sadly less than one in thirty-thousand contribute, so please give what you can.

Use the tabs on the right of this page to see other parts of this entry Arrow

Links to the Historical Statistical Accounts of Scotland are also available:
(Click on the link to the right, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Browse scanned pages")

1791-99: Small Isles
1834-45: Small Isles

Small Isles, a Hebridean parish of Argyll and Inverness shires, detached from Sleat parish in 1726, and successively known as Eigg, Short Isles, and Small Isles. Besides a few uninhabited islets, it comprises the islands of Canna, Muck, Rum, Sanday, and Eigg, the first four belonging to Argyllshire, the fifth to Inverness-shire, and all described in separate articles. Its total area is 62 2/5 square miles or 39,945¾ acres, of which 32, 039½ belong to Argyll and 7906 ¼ to Inverness shire whilst 2008½ are foreshore and 184½ water. The post-town is Oban. Small Isles parish is in the presbytery of Skye and the synod of Glenelg; the living is worth £208. Two public schools, Canna and Eigg, with respective accommodation for 25 and 60 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 17 and 24, and grants of £30, 16s. 1d. and £50, 5s. 3d. Valuation (1884) £3678, of which £2659 was for the Argyllshire islands. Pop- (1811) 1547, (1831) 1005, (1861) 567, (1871) 522, (1881) 550, of whom 482 were Gaelic-speaking, and 291 were in Eigg.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

If you have found this information useful please consider making
a donation to help maintain and improve this resource. More info...

By using our site you agree to accept cookies, which help us serve you better