Oronsay

Oronsay Review

The island of Oronsay, beside Colonsay, can be reached at low tide, at the expense of wet legs, in a 1½-mi wade across a sandy sound separating the two islands (after which an intake of reviving malt whisky never tastes better). Mesolithic shell mounds show the island was populated from before 4,000 BC, though only a handful of people live here now. The cloister ruins of a formerly rich and influential 14th-century Augustinian priory, including a stone cross, are well worth the paddle.