Taransay has had no permanent residents since 1974, when the last family, the MacRaes, left the village of Paible; two other villages, Raa and Uidh, had emptied earlier. It is the largest uninhabited island in Scotland, made up of two halves joined by a narrow neck of land with a beach of white sand on each side. The BBC series Castaway 2000 brought a group of 36 volunteers, including Ben Fogle, to live here for a year; most stayed the full twelve months.
Ruined blackhouses, traditional stone cottages with turf roofs, stand above the beach at Paible, and the remains of an Iron Age crannog, an artificial island built out into a loch, lie near the middle of Taransay. The island is privately owned; boat trips run from Horgabost on Harris between April and September, landing near Paible for several hours before returning.
