Inverarish (Raasay)

Mining Terraces and Community Stores

Two parallel terraces of brick and stone cottages face each other across what was once a drying green, at the centre of Inverarish. James G. Falconer laid them out between 1912 and 1915, with larger foremen's cottages set on the slope above, to house men working the island's iron mine.

At numbers 29 and 30 on Inverarish Terrace, the Raasay Community Stores is the village grocery and Post Office, owned by the community and a fifteen-to-twenty-minute walk up from the ferry. Alongside the ordinary shelves it carries Raasay venison, Dexter beef, honey, whisky and gin, bread from the island baker Kate of haven bread & wood, and sweet and savoury baking by Katherine of Thyme & Tide Bakes. There are cards by island artists and signed books by Roger Hutchinson, who lives here.

Island Dining and Raasay House

Beyond the village, Raasay House, about a mile away near the ferry, has a restaurant, café and bar serving wild Raasay venison, Sound of Raasay langoustines, Skye scallops, and vegetables and herbs from the Walled Garden. The restaurant at the Isle of Raasay Distillery in Borodale House looks across to Glamaig and the Cuillin; it serves light lunches and bar meals plus a changing three-course evening menu.

The MacLeod chiefs' house on the site was burned by government troops after Culloden in 1746, and the present building was begun the following year. Johnson and Boswell stayed in 1773. Johnson wrote that it was "such a seat of hospitality amidst the winds and the waves, fills the imagination with a delightful contrariety of images." A fire in January 2009 gutted all but the west wing during a refurbishment, and the hotel reopened in 2013.

Woodland Trails and Ironstone History

The woods above the village contain waymarked trails and linked community paths. The Burma Road and Miners’ Trail is a strenuous two-and-a-half-mile circuit over rough, muddy, narrow ground with a steep slope and rocky steps, following the dismantled mine railway. The Coastal Path and Orchard Wood circuit reaches North Bay, where seals and otters may be seen; it is strenuous, with rough and muddy sections, a long steep slope and rock steps. The Temptation Hill route passes Dun Borodale broch and returns along the shore, but the suggested shore return is not waymarked or on Forestry and Land Scotland land.

The mine largely explains why the village took the shape it did. From 1916 around 280 German prisoners of war lived in the terraces and worked the mine, railway, kilns and pier, the two halves of the settlement divided by barbed wire and watched from towers. Using prisoners in iron production tied to munitions broke the Hague Convention, and their use as strike-breakers drew press coverage and questions in the Commons. The mine's records were deliberately destroyed in 1920. Fourteen prisoners' graves were later moved to Cannock Chase in 1967. Production had stopped by Easter 1919, and the adits, kilns and railway remains still lie in the woods, unsafe to enter.

Churches and Island Access

Raasay Free Church, a plain harled building of about 1845, retains a bellcote and original brass oil lamps on wrought-iron stalks. Nearer the bay, the ruined chapel of St Maol-luag stands on a religious site with a church tradition dating to the sixth century; it was already roofless by 1773.

Getting here is part of it. There is no railway, no bus and no petrol station on Raasay, so fill up on Skye first. The CalMac ferry from Sconser takes about twenty-five minutes, runs all year and offers advance ticket purchase; you join the queue and wait your turn. The roads on the island are single-track.

Community Hall and Walled Garden

The community hall in Inverarish has a gym, a book exchange and Wi-Fi, and hosts ceilidhs, concerts and film nights. Behind the hotel, the community garden occupies a site dating back to the sixteenth century. After years of neglect, volunteers revived it with orchard picnic tables and allotments; dogs are welcome on leads.