Calvay

The small island of Calbhaigh - geograph

Calvay ( gd, Calbhaigh), is a currently uninhabited

island An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...

situated in the Sound of

Eriskay Eriskay ( gd, Èirisgeigh), from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland with a population of 143, as of the 2011 census. It lies between South Uist and Barra and is c ...

in the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coas ...

, at . It is one of ten islands in the

Sound of Barra The Sound of Barra is a large ocean inlet or sound situated to the north of the isle of Barra and to the south of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Since 2014 it has been designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). The Sound o ...

, a

Site of Community Importance A Site of Community Importance (SCI) is defined in the European Commission Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) as a site which, in the biogeographical region or regions to which it belongs, contributes significantly to the maintenance or restoration at ...

for

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

. It was here that the ship ''

SS Politician SS ''Politician'' was a cargo ship that ran aground off the coast of the Hebridean island of Eriskay in 1941. Her cargo included 22,000 cases of malt whisky and £3 million worth of Jamaican banknotes. Much of the whisky was recovered by is ...

'' ran aground with a cargo of whisky in 1941 and inadvertently provided the inspiration for

Compton MacKenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist. He was one of th ...

's 1947 novel '' Whisky Galore''. Islands of the Sound of Barra Uninhabited islands of the Outer Hebrides {{WesternIsles-geo-stub