SUE WILSON joins the birling throng as the people of Eigg celebrate more landmarks.

The Chair

EVERY YEAR, when boatloads of revellers converge on Eigg over the middle weekend in June, another chapter or two has been added to the island’s inspirational story of community ownership. This time, on the twelfth anniversary of the buyout, there was a veritable array of achievements to celebrate – including the arrival of at least one new baby, nudging the population steadily towards the 90 mark, up from around 65 in 1997.

Then there was the small matter of an MBE for Maggie Fyffe, secretary of Eigg’s Heritage Trust, announced in the New Year’s Honours List, “for voluntary service to the community”. (Given her usually practical sartorial tastes, speculation is currently rife over what she’ll wear to meet the Queen at Holyrood next month.)

Eigg is also the only Scottish contender among ten finalists in the £1 million Big Green Challenge competition, for projects that devise and demonstrate transferable methods of reducing carbon emissions, with the winner to be announced in November. Hence the new solar panels adorning the roof of An Laimhrig, the pierside building housing a cafè, grocery, craft shop and shower block that was the Trust’s first big capital project, opened at the inaugural anniversary ceilidh in 1998.

Hence also the fundraising compilation CD, Recycled Folk, now on sale there, featuring the likes of Shooglenifty, Dàimh, Box Club and many more who’ve played on the island over the years; also the new passing places along its sole six-mile road, to encourage walking and cycling, and a host of other ongoing initiatives from forestry schemes to domestic draughtproofing.

And as if all that weren’t enough, this year’s anniversary festivities also included the opening of Tigh Iain Donnachaidh, formerly Croft No.6 in Eigg’s main township of Cleadale, over on the north-west coast facing Rum. After being occupied by the same family for nearly a century, from 1902, the one-time blackhouse has now been lovingly restored by the Eigg History Society into a crofting museum, housing a wonderfully evocative time-capsule of artefacts and documents illustrating island life during those generations.

A crowd of 30 or so gathered in the garden, graced by the sunshine that confounded the forecast all weekend, to witness MSP Rob Gibson cutting the ribbon, before the venture was traditionally handselled with tea, drams and home-made clootie dumpling.

Given the scheduling clash this time with RockNess – not to mention the pesky recession – the turnout for Eigg’s party was slightly down on previous years, but still must have totalled 200-odd by Saturday night, when the actual ceilidh took place. Opening the proceedings in traditional style were Highland stalwarts the JaMaTha Ceilidh Band, including the likes of Andy Thorburn on piano (and on typically sparky form, despite his own RockNess gig the night before), mandolinist Dagger Gordon and Eigg-based Irish percussionist Eddie “Spoons” Scott.

Setting an expertly lively but not breakneck pace – given the length of the night to come – they soon filled the dancefloor with birling couples and sets, and full it remained for the next several hours. Local acts have increasingly featured on the anniversary bill over the years, with the home team this year comprising Donna the Piper (aka Donna MacCulloch, who runs musical day-workshops for visitors, as well as piping in the ferries as they arrive) and the Laig Bay Boys, her backing band on guitar, bass and drums, performing a punchy, vibrant set of all-original tunes plus the odd country song.

Headliners were Orcadian eight-piece The Chair, winners of the Best Band title at last year’s Scots Trad Music Award, and currently among the fastest-rising stars of the Scottish folk scene. With Shooglenifty and The Treacherous Orchestra having topped the bill the last two years, they had sizeable shoes to fill – but did so with consummate ease and authority, despite arriving as an unknown quantity for many in the crowd.

After all, given where they’re from, they know all about entertaining up-for-it island audiences in remote local halls, and sure enough sounded entirely at home, even though they had to make a last-minute substitution for one of their two fiddlers, with Jeana Leslie – more often seen in her duo with Siobhan Miller – deserving especially honourable mention for mastering the set in double-quick time.

Besides the sheer power inherent in a line-up that also includes accordion, banjo, guitar, bass, drums, percussion and vocals, their impact once again derived equally from the multi-layered inventiveness and finesse of their arrangements (a repertoire rooted in excellent self-penned material), and the cunning diversity of styles within their sound, from heady Celtic reels to raw-boned blues via stormy, spiky east European-style numbers.

The presence of Edinburgh’s DJ Dolphin Boy to round off the night – and see in the morning – has become as traditional an element of Eigg’s summer spree as the opening ceilidh band, and as usual his mix of killer grooves and joyously potent melodies ensured some truly marathon stints of dancing as the sun once more climbed in the sky.

As well as Saturday’s main event, the weekend featured plenty of informal music, from some fine solo piping outside the tearoom on Sunday afternoon, to a late-night campfire session involving cellist Su-a Lee – of the SCO and Mr McFall’s Chamber fame – on musical saw.

Between times, the blessedly clement weather encouraged visitors to explore Eigg’s wealth of natural beauties and historic sites, like the Singing Sands beach at Cleadale or the spooky Massacre Cave, where almost the island’s entire 400-strong population was killed in an inter-clan feud in 1577.

A good many hardier souls also braved the 1300-foot climb up An Sgurr, the imposing pitchstone ridge that gives Eigg its distinctive skyline, from where the eastward prospect offered the pleasure of watching it rain on the mainland, while clear blue skies to the west magically extended the view all the way to Lewis.

© Sue Wilson, 2009

Links

• Isle of Eigg Trust