Sgìre an Rubha

The ward was created following the Fourth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2007 Scottish local elections. As a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, local elections in Scotland would use the single transferable vote electoral system from 2007 onwards so Sgìre an Rubha was formed from an amalgamation of several previous first-past-the-post wards. It contained all of the former Knock and Bayble and Tiumpan wards as well as part of the former Braighe ward. The ward centres around the Eye Peninsula – also known as Point – in the northeast of the Isle of Lewis and includes the uninhabited Bayble Island.^[2] Proposals in the Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2017 Scottish local elections would have seen the ward's western boundary extended west to include the village of Sandwick and the ward renamed Sgìre an Rubha agus Sanndabhaig.^[3] However, these were not adopted by Scottish ministers as plans for the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 would bring forward an interim review following the 2017 elections.^[4]

The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 allowed for the creation of single- and dual-member wards to allow for better representation of island areas. The ward's western boundary was brought east to the causeway which joins the Eye Peninsula to the Isle of Lewis so that an area including Stornoway Airport and the village of Melbost were transferred to Steòrnabhagh a Deas. As a result, it was reduced from a three-member ward to a dual-member ward.^[5]