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Small tidal island south of Colonsay in the Scottish Inner Hebrides

Oronsay (Orasaigh), also sometimes spelt and pronounced Oransay by the local community, is a small tidal island south of Colonsay in the Scottish Inner Hebrides with an area of .|group=note

The island rises to a height of at Beinn Orasaigh and is linked to Colonsay by a tidal causeway called An Tràigh (The Strand) consisting of sands and mud flats. In the 2001 census Oronsay was recorded as having a population of five people, who lived at the farm adjacent to Oronsay Priory. In 2011 the population had risen to eight. It is dependent upon tidal access to and from Colonsay. There is a small grass air strip south of the priory that "fights a losing battle with the rabbits". (Murray (1966) states that the original Gaelic name was Eilean Orain) or it may be from the Old Norse Örfirisey meaning "island of the ebb tide".

Both Oronsay and neighbouring Colonsay have furnished archaeologists with invaluable information about the Mesolithic period of prehistory, particularly about the diet of human beings. Three middens on Oronsay were opened in the 1880s and have provided a piece of bone carbon dated to 4600 BC and an oyster shell to 3065 BC. Evidence provided from saithe bones in the middens suggest that the local population lived there all year round and were heavily reliant on marine protein. Site datings on Colonsay and Islay suggest an absence of human habitation in the area from 5250–4750 BC for unknown reasons. There is comparatively little evidence for life during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages although a picture emerges of "small farming communities and changes in technology occurring slowly over a long period of time" on Colonsay and environs. By the close of the Iron Age around 500 AD Colonsay and Oronsay were part of the Gaelic speaking Kingdom of Dál Riata although which of the main Dalriadan kindreds controlled them is unknown. The founding of the fort of Dùn Eibhinn on Colonsay that overlooks Oronsay dates from this period.

Watson (2004) mentions Oronsay as a possible candidate for the site of Hinba, an island in Scotland of uncertain location that was the site of a small monastery associated with the Columban church on Iona. The site of a Norse ship burial has been found on Oronsay and another on Colonsay dated to the mid 9th century at which point these islands were likely part of the far flung Kingdom of the Isles. Following the 1266 Treaty of Perth the Hebrides were yielded to the Kingdom of Scotland and the Gaelic language re asserted its dominant position in the southern Hebrides. Oronsay also had a medieval Augustinian priory, the ruins of which are still extant. It was built 1380, possibly on the site of an earlier church (for whose existence there is actually no surviving evidence), perhaps founded by John of Islay, Lord of the Isles. By the early 16th century a distinct 'school' of monumental sculpture flourished on Oronsay. Two substantial celtic crosses sit outside the perimeter of the buildings

The rocks and skerries of Eilean nan Ròn (Seal Island), to the south west, are an important grey seal breeding colony. The islet has a ruined house, possibly once used by a kelp gatherer and used for sheep grazing in the summer, the rocks being fertilised by the winter visiting barnacle geese. In order to conserve the population of resident choughs and breeding corncrakes Oronsay and southern Colonsay became a Special Protection Area in December 2007. Colonsay and Oronsay are home to about 50 colonies of the European dark bee the Apis mellifera mellifera. The Scottish Government introduced the Bee Keeping (Colonsay and Oronsay) Order 2013 to prevent cross breeding with other honeybees (Apis mellifera) and to protect it from diseases common on the mainland. From 1 January 2014 it has been an offence to keep any other honeybee on either island. The Environment and climate Change Minister Paul Wheelhouse MSP said: "The Bee Keeping Order illustrates how our non native species legislation can be used to protect our native wildlife. The order is a targeted measure to protect an important population of black bees on Colonsay from hybridisation with non native bees" (the "non native species legislation" was used because Apis mellifera are considered to be non native to Colonsay, but considered native to Scotland as it was the first honey bee to be introduced for use in beekeeping there). The bees on Colonsay are now referred to as the "Colonsay Dark Native Bee". They were collected from across Scotland in the previous thirty years, genetic analysis has shown Australian and New Zealand A. m. ligustica introgression.