Ensay

The island shows signs of Stone Age habitation, with a prominent standing stone. Human bone from a burial in a midden site near the Manish Strand has been dated to the range 1000-820 BCE. It has a share of the general history of Harris, though it is not covered in the standard work by Bill Lawson. In 1549 Sir Donald Monro, High Dean of the Isles,visited the island and wrote of "ane Ile callit Enisay, quhairin M^ccloyd of Harey hes a dwelling place, ane fair mayne land, weill inhabite and manurit [= cultivated] ane mile lang, half mile braid". It was also described by Martin Martin in 1716: "BETWEEN Bernera and the main Land of Harries lies the Iſland of Enʃay, which is above two…

In 1870 Alexander Carmichael had noted that the island had no burial ground although it used to be at Trai Mhanuis [Tràigh Mhanuis]. The exhaustive rescue investigation of this burial ground conducted by Professor A E W Miles and his colleagues from 1966 and published in 1989 The writer Ken Duxbury describes an unexpected encounter with some of the documented and wrapped remains in storage at Ensay House during his six month stay on the island in 1975, noting that "they were ready for reinternment when opportunity offered, hence the careful parcelling of bone with fellow bone, all meticulously marked". It is unclear what happened after the 1989 publication, which concluded with two…