Qualla: Colonsay https://qualla.com/colonsay en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Colonsay https://qualla.com/colonsay Colonsay: Introduction https://qualla.com/colonsay/ Underneath a tarpaulin at Staosnaig on Colonsay's east coast, in 1995, a team of archaeologists dug into a Mesolithic midden pit and found hundreds of thousands of burned hazelnut shells. Radiocarbon dating put them at about 8,000 years old. Pollen analysis showed that the hazel trees on the island had all been felled in a single year - not gradually, but all at once. Someone had organised this: dozens of people working through one autumn to harvest, roast, and store enough food to last through winter and probably several winters after. The pit at Staosnaig is one of the largest Mesolithic food caches ever found in Britain. The Mesolithic people who built it are gone. Colonsay still has hazel groves. It still feeds itself through winters when the ferry does not run.

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/w/colonsay-wp/gcgw-colonsay-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Colonsay: Eight Miles of Variety https://qualla.com/colonsay/ Colonsay is eight miles long and three miles across at its widest, oriented southwest to northeast, with the smaller tidal island of Oronsay attached at low water by a flat called The Strand. Approached from the sea the island looks bare and forbidding - bleached gold sand agains...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/w/colonsay-wp/gcgw-colonsay-eight-miles-of-variety.mp3 0:06 2 full Colonsay: Quiet to the Point of Comedy https://qualla.com/colonsay/ Reports of crime on Colonsay are infrequent enough to be national news. In 1993 a journalist asked the local policeman about island crime statistics and was told that the last recorded offence on Colonsay was treachery against the King in 1623. The figure was meant lightly - pape...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/w/colonsay-wp/gcgw-colonsay-quiet-to-the-point-of-comedy.mp3 0:06 3 full Colonsay: Beer, Bees, and Books https://qualla.com/colonsay/ Colonsay has a remarkable density of small industries for its size. The Colonsay Brewery opened in 2007 and is generally agreed to be the smallest island brewery in the world; it employs two people and produces three regular beers. The same business expanded into spirits in 2016 ...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/w/colonsay-wp/gcgw-colonsay-beer-bees-and-books.mp3 0:06 4 full Colonsay: Festivals and the McNeils https://qualla.com/colonsay/ Colonsay House was first built by the MacNeil family in 1722 - the McNeils of Colonsay being a Hebridean branch distinct from the better-known Barra line. In 1904 the estate was bought by Donald Smith, the first Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, the Scottish-born Canadian railway...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/w/colonsay-wp/gcgw-colonsay-festivals-and-the-mcneils.mp3 0:06 5 full