Our Lady of the Isles is a sculpture of the Virgin Mary

Mary (mother of Jesus)

Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...

, on South Uist

South Uist

South Uist is an island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. In the 2001 census it had a usually resident population of 1,818. There is a nature reserve and a number of sites of archaeological interest, including the only location in Great Britain where prehistoric mummies have been found. The...

 in the Outer Hebrides

Outer Hebrides

The Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland...

 of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

The statue is situated on the western slopes of Ruabhal, a hill near the northern end of South Uist. It is to the east of the A865 road, and a paved path runs from the road to the statue.

The statue was commissioned following proposals from the Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (1947–1964)

The Ministry of Defence was a department of the British Government responsible for defence and the British Armed Forces.-History:Prior to the Second World War defence policy was co-ordinated by the Committee of Imperial Defence...

 for a large missile testing range. This would have covered much of Uist, and involved construction of a military town as well as facilities for building missiles. This caused concern it would destroy much of the island's way of life, culture and language. Resistance to the proposals was led by Canon John Morrison, the local parish priest. He commissioned and raised funds for the construction of the statue. The statue was completed in 1957, and dedicated in 1958.

The statue was designed by Hew Lorimer

Hew Lorimer

Hew Martin Lorimer was a Scottish sculptor.He was born in Edinburgh, the second son of architect Sir Robert Lorimer. He was educated at Loretto School in Musselburgh, then at Magdalen College, Oxford University, but he left Oxford prematurely to study design and sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art...

, and sculpted from granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

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