Isle of Eigg

Cleadale

Eigg's crofting township, white houses and narrow fields under a wall of basalt cliffs above the Bay of Laig.

Welcome

Cleadale is the crofting township at the north end of Eigg, a scatter of white houses and small fields on a green shelf between the sea and a long wall of basalt cliffs.

The road from the pier climbs over the middle of the island and drops steeply into it, and the view opens across the Bay of Laig to the mountains of Rum.

The fields run in long narrow strips, laid out in the nineteenth century, when the rest of the island was given over to sheep. Croft number 6, John Campbell's house, is kept as the Cleadale Crofting Museum, open all year and free, and a trail of panels in Gaelic and English starts at the crossroads where crofters once met on summer evenings. There is food at Lageorna and home baking at Rest and be Thankful, and the Bay of Laig and the Singing Sands are a short walk away.

Before you go

Cleadale is at the north end of the island road, about four and a half miles from the pier: an hour and a half to two hours on foot, or hire a bike at the pier.

The Crofting Museum at croft number 6 is open all year for self-guided visits; entry is free, with donations welcome. Lageorna is a restaurant with rooms; Rest and be Thankful serves home baking.

Getting there: CalMac ferry from Mallaig; the Sheerwater from Arisaig, April to September. No visitor cars.
From the pier: The island road north, 1.5 to 2 hours on foot.
Museum: Croft no. 6, all year, free.
Food: Lageorna; Rest and be Thankful.

Did you know

A tarmac lane leading towards a row of white cottages beneath layered rocky cliffs

Did you know

Fields in strips.

Cleadale's long narrow crofts date from the nineteenth century, when the rest of Eigg was given over to sheep in the Clearances.

A row of white cottages set below layered rocky cliffs, a lane winding through the fields

Did you know

Soil left by the ice.

The ice left the crofting ground in long parallel ridges of debris, with boulder clay between them that makes good soil for tillage.

A white cottage set below layered rocky cliffs, a puddled track leading towards it

Did you know

A croft house kept as it was.

Tigh Iain Dhonnchaidh, John Campbell's house at croft number 6, is an improved blackhouse kept by the Eigg History Society as a time capsule of a crofting family's life.