Qualla: Gigha https://qualla.com/gigha en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/u/gigha-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Gigha https://qualla.com/gigha Gigha: Introduction https://qualla.com/gigha/ Photo credit Chris Downer, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 15 March 2002 the islanders of Gigha bought their own island for four million pounds and threw a party. They still celebrate the anniversary as Independence Day. The purchase, made through the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust and funded by the National Lottery, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and the islanders themselves, ended several centuries of single-owner ownership during which the island had been sold and resold like a piece of furniture. The population at the moment of the buyout was 98 people. By 2022 it had recovered to 187. The trick was the same trick every Scottish island faces: how to stay alive when the markets tell you not to.

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Image: Chris Downer | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/u/gigha-wp/gcgu-gigha-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Gigha: What and Where https://qualla.com/gigha/ Photo credit Chris Downer, CC BY-SA 2.0. Gigha is six miles long and a mile and a half wide at its widest, lying four miles west of the Kintyre coast. The highest point, Creag Bhan, reaches only 330 feet, which by Hebridean standards is more a hill than a mountain. Geologically the island is mostly amphibolite, a metamo...

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Image: Chris Downer | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/u/gigha-wp/gcgu-gigha-what-and-where.mp3 0:06 2 full Gigha: Names https://qualla.com/gigha/ Photo credit The Carlisle Kid, CC BY-SA 2.0. The island's name has resisted all attempts at clean etymology. The Norse saga Hakonar Saga Hakonarsonar calls it Gudey, suggesting an Old Norse origin meaning either the god's island or Gydha's island. Other readings reach further back to a pre-Norse Gaelic origin - possibly the...

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Image: The Carlisle Kid | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/u/gigha-wp/gcgu-gigha-names.mp3 0:06 3 full Gigha: The MacNeills and the Wars https://qualla.com/gigha/ Photo credit DeFacto, CC BY-SA 4.0. Gigha is the ancestral home of Clan MacNeill - distinct from, though sharing a chief with, the better-known Clan MacNeil of Barra. The MacNeills of Taynish, Gigha, and Colonsay served as hereditary keepers of Castle Sween under the Lords of the Isles in the fifteenth and sixteent...

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Image: DeFacto | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/u/gigha-wp/gcgu-gigha-the-macneills-and-the-wars.mp3 0:06 4 full Gigha: Faith, Hope, and Charity https://qualla.com/gigha/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Three Vestas V27 wind turbines stand on a low ridge near the centre of Gigha. Commissioned on 21 January 2005 by the islanders themselves through Gigha Renewable Energy Ltd, they have a combined capacity of 675 kilowatts. The locals call them The Dancing Ladies, or in Gaelic Crei...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/u/gigha-wp/gcgu-gigha-faith-hope-and-charity.mp3 0:06 5 full