solaseigethelightofeigg.org

SOLAS EIGE CENTRE FIRST ART EVENT

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 17:43:55 -0700

At Solas Eige, we believe that art can create spaces for reflection, conversation and new ways of seeing the world around us. In presenting From the Heart of a Mother by Sana Obaid from June 30 to July 5, we launch our exhibition programme with a work that engages directly with the pressing questions and realities of our time.

When this exhibition was conceived, images and reports from Gaza were part of our daily lives. For many people, the ongoing violence and human suffering unfolded through screens, creating a complex experience of witnessing suffering from a distance while feeling powerless to intervene. We invited Sana Obaid to exhibit at Solas Eige because her work speaks directly to this experience. Rather than documenting events, her practice explores the emotional and ethical dimensions of witnessing, memory, loss and empathy.

Through printmaking, sculpture and installation, Obaid creates works that encourage us to pause and consider what it means to remain attentive to the suffering of others. Her use of absence, repetition, labour and fragile materials offers a powerful response to questions that many have grappled with over recent months: How do we hold the realities of distant conflict in our minds and hearts? How do we resist becoming desensitised to images of violence? What responsibilities come with witnessing?

The exhibition allows us to see how the space within the Solas Eige centre is being reimagined not only as a heritage and cultural centre but also as a place where people can step outside the pressures of everyday life to reflect, contemplate and...Read More

MORE GOOD NEWS FOR SOLAS EIGE !

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 13:16:14 -0700

The Kuchcke concert was a great success on Sunday 14 June: beautiful Balkan harmonies soaring effortlessly, to a packed audience who thoughly enjoyed the rare treat of unaccompanied singers. The singers thoroughly enjoyed the amazing acoustics of the building: not only could they hear themselves and eachother perfectly but the great acoustics produced a natural reverberation allowing their voices to blend with amplyfying overtones! A real treat for this first event of St Columba's new incarnation at Ionad Solas Eige.

Still reeling from this lovely experience, the Solas Eige Trustees were overjoyed to hear the next day that their application to the Pilgrim trust was successful, matching the funds already awarded by the Architectural Heritage Trust. The development phase can now start in earnest and should reach completion this September... Another milestone reached!

READY FOR SOLAS EIGE CENTRE'S OPENING CONCERT!

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 08:41:26 -0700

Great news for Solas Eige SCIO: all the works is now completed: we have a beautiful access road, although not a gate yet, as planning permission is required to install one since our perimeter wall is listed. so this is planned for later in the year. The water is done and the "all singing all dancing" biorock septic tank is installed with all the necessary pipework. Our contractors have been very diligent and marvelous in dealing with any difficulties encountered!

So we are now ready to host our first of many events in this new community space: a lovely all female polyphonic choir singing Balkan traditional songs on Sunday 14 June! Kuchke's concert will be part of the island anniversary celebrations and we hope that many of the folks attending the week end will pay a visit to the Solas Eige Centre on this very special occasion... We can't wait to hear these fabulous hamonies soaring in the wonderful acoustic of the building....

EIGG CHURCH NOW IN COMMUNITY HANDS

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 04:15:32 -0700

AS FROM 27 FEBRUARY 2026, SOLAS EIGE SCIO IS NOW THE PROUD OWNER OF ST COLUMBA'S CHURCH! There was a week of anxious waiting for the updated deeds of servitude to arrive from Stornoway to Eigg for more signatures, but the paperwork was lodged in time for the Scottish Land Funds monies to arrive in our bank account and come out again to pay for the church and land by the due date of 27 February! A huge sigh of relief was had all around when the purchase was confirmed: reaching this milestone at the end of February gaves us just enough time to order all the necessary equipment, confirm the contractors and make a start on all the work which has to be concluded by Mid April. We are now delighted to report earth was broken on the vehicular access road on Monday 9 March. A wee celebration was had on Friday 13 March at Galmisdale Bay Cafe with the community to raise a glass to this momentous achievement!

WE ARE VERY CLOSE TO OWNERSHIP OF THE CHURCH!

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 17:51:53 -0800

Hi everyone!

Updating of Deeds of Servitude is now done, Insurance quote updated, supply of hard core for our vehicular access road granted by the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust, exact sites for water tank, biorock septic tank and pipe runs are identified. We just need to sign the acquisition papers on the dotted line, and we are ready to start of the final part of our preparotory phase!

We even managed to convince the historical environment officer in Highland Council to allow us to do our own archaeological watching brief during all that preparatory work. We are now calling to our Solas Eige members to come along and help take photographs : we might have to take turn about as the slow scraping of the ground commences, 10 cm by 10 cm! Just crossing our fingers we won't encounter any archaeology as this was a hay field for Sandaveg farm for the last few centuries (See map above, the green field above the word "close". ) and not much else than pasture ground since, but you never know....

The BIG DAY is expected to be sometime in mid February, so we re getting ready to pop the champagne cork and raise a dram!

Happy New Year

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 14:50:13 -0800

Happy New Year From Snowy Eigg! The island's overnight transformation into winter wonderland truly closed our Eigg festive period with a magical touch! Another magical touch were the carols and winter songs performed by the Eigg singing group and friends in St Columba's church on Saturday 20 December. Candles lit up the building, showing its beautiful architecture, and joyful voices made it ring with the happiness of the season. Mince pies and mulled wine concluded the evening which was enjoyed by the 30 or so people who came along under a starlit sky to take part in this atmospheric community singing. Meanwhile Solas Eige has received a great Christmas present: its plans for water access, vehicular access and waste water disposals have been passed! We are now awaiting the conclusion of the paper work for the acquitision to take place and we will be ready to go with road and water works!

COP30@Eigg: raising awareness of current climate challenges

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 10:46:03 -0800

As we at Solas Eige SCIO are getting on with all the paperwork dealing with the acquisition of the church by Solas Eige - a long and slow process, we took the opportunity to mount an exhibition on COP30 to respond to the plea of the Wampi nation representatives who visited Eigg last June. The visit of Pamuk (president) Teofilo Kukush Pati and director of Justice, Tsanim Evaristo Wajai Asamat, was to raise awareness of illegal logging of balsa wood by Chinese campanies supplying the windfarm industry throughout the UK. The extremely strong but light wood is used to manufacture wind turbine blades. The Wampi represenatives came to Eigg to discuss how the island community conducting its resistance dutring the years leading to the 1997 community buy-out and seek inspiration. Their plight touched the island community and as we heard Pamuk and Tsanim were involved in the COP 30 discussion in Belem, in the heart to the Amazon, it felt right to use the church space to raise awareness of Indigenous Rights at the COP30. The exhibition is taking place during the duration of the event and Solas Eige has endeavoured to send out regular briefings on the talks progress to the community and its followers. The island children who made COP 30 the topic of their assembly last week, will be jogging to the church from the school to add their message to the points already made about the urgent need to protect the Amazon forest as well as the Ocean.

In particular. the island of Eigg supports the Belem Action Mechanism for a Global Just Transition to address the current fragmentation and inadequacies of Just transition efforts to take a decisive step towards a coordinated action linking climate action with social justice, equity and sustainable development for all.

For more information:

https://www.forestpeoples.org/cop-30-delegation-of-the-autonomous-territorial-government-of-the-wampis-nation-peru/

PROJECT SUPPORT CONSULTANT FOR SOLAS EIGE

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 07:37:57 -0700

Hello! As part of our SLF funding package, we have been awarded £4,500 for project support to bring capacity to our board and ensure all the essential repairs to the church are completed by end of March 2026! If you are interested in the preservation of Scottish historic churches, this might be job for you!

See job description below and how to apply:

Solas Eige Project Support Consultant

Contract Duration: 4 months
Total contract value: £ 4,750
Day rate: £250
15 days and up to £1000 travel expenses
Reports to Solas Eige board

Background

Through Solas Eige SCIO, the community on Eigg wishes to purchase and repair St Columba’s church, a C-listed building, with the aim of making it fit for purpose as a centre where visitors will discover the multi-layered story of Eigg and enjoy a variety of cultural activities.
St Columba’s fabric repair is a challenging project which will involve making the building watertight and sustainable in its usage for years to come as a carbon neutral venue. Solas Eige SCIO has teamed up with Conservation architect BARD to provide a blue print for extensive fabric repairs, including insulation and re-slating of roof.
Following acquisition of the church...Read More

WE'VE DONE IT!

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 15:37:48 -0700

We are delighted to announce that Solas Eige SCIO has secured £92,703 funding from the Scottish Land Fund to bring St Columba’s Church into community ownership. This marks a major step in transforming the historic building into the Solas Eige Centre – a vibrant hub for heritage, culture, and community life on the island.
“We’re thrilled to have received this support—it’s a powerful endorsement of the vision and potential of Solas Eige,” said Catherine Davies, Chair of Solas Eige SCIO. “This is the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the building and for the island.”
“This is great news for Eigg, its community and visitors” said Ailsa Raeburn, chair of the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust. “The project will ensure a much loved island building will stay in public use as it is developed to tell the story of this beautiful place and its people. Solas Eige are to be congratulated for all their hard work in getting to this stage and I look forward to seeing St Columba’s reopen as a valuable asset for Eigg. “
"It's a step closer to building the island archive we so badly need" echoed Hilda Ibrahim, Chair of Comunn Eachdraidh Eige, the Eigg history society who has strongly supported the acquisition campaign.
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SOLAS EIGE STARTS ITS CLIMATE AWARENESS PROGRAMME WITH A MARINE LITTER UPCYCLING WORKSHOP

Sat, 20 Sep 2025 16:09:22 -0700

As part of its new business plan, Solas Eige is committed to climate awareness raising. Its membership of the Highlands and Islands climate is key to this aspect of our work. To start on the right footing, Solas Eige SCIO is organising a workshop to repurpose ropes collected through the regular beach cleans carried out on the isle of Eigg. To date, it is still really difficult to recycle ropes and these have to be sent to landfill. To divest some of these ropes from landfill, Solas Eige SCIO has teemed up with Rebecca Johnstone of Shore to Floor in neighbouring Skye to conduct a workshop as part of the Highlands and Islands Climate Festival 2025: on Sunday 28 September, Rebecca will show the islanders how to use the collected ropes to make door mats. Very much looking forward to this!
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