T o the casual observer it would have appeared that some of the islanders on Gigha were behaving rather strangely. The board of the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust held a meeting knee deep in the sea; pensioners were shadow-boxing on the pier; and one man tried to poke a halibut into his friend's ear.

But there was purpose to this Hebridean horseplay. These scenes and others are to appear on a calendar that islanders are producing for sale later this year, as a reminder that the hard work continues to make the island viable and strong following the community buyout six years ago.

The internationally acclaimed photographer Simon McComb agreed to take the pictures. For recent commissions, he has photographed Russian chess legend Gary Kasparov and the Lebanese government chose him to produce a book of photographs about the rebuilding of Beirut.

Last week he was on Gigha working without payment. He was there at the time of the community buyout, and the island and its people stayed loyal to him.

The photographer has been impressed by the progress the island has made. In 2002, there were 98 people living there when its residents bought the land for £4m from Derek Holt, the last private owner, with £3.5m coming from lottery funding. The population has since increased to 157, reversing 300 years of decline. Almost 60% of islanders are now below the age of 45.

At the time of the buyout, there were just six pupils in the island's primary school. After the summer holidays, 23 will go back to school and six secondary pupils travel daily to Campbeltown.

Six years ago, 95% of the island's housing stock (45 houses) was deemed below tolerable standard. The national figure was 1% at the time. By the end of this year 18 will have been renovated by a consortium of tradesmen from Kintyre. In addition, 18 houses have been built for social rent.

A dozen new businesses have started since the buyout, including the award winning Renewable Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of the heritage trust. Its modest wind farm, the first community-owned project to be connected to the national grid, is known locally as the Three Dancing Ladies - Faith, Hope and Charity. It generated a £100,000 profit to reinvest in the community over its first full year of operation. Turnover has been increasing year on year since, but profits have been increasingly used to buy back shares in the company.

A fourth turbine is planned, along with new crofts and the conversion of a derelict farm steading into three four-star self-catering units. It is becoming a destination for island weddings with nine couples choosing to marry there in the past two years.

It is all a bit hard to believe since it is not that long since eviction notices were pinned to islanders' doors when a previous laird was bankrupt.

But the islanders are now having to pay a price for their hard work and ambition. A spokeswoman for Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) revealed yesterday: "A review of fragile areas was undertaken by HIE in February using updated demographic, geographic and economic indicators such as population change, average household income and population density. Given recent improvements to Gigha, HIE no longer classes it as a fragile area."

For as long as anyone can remember Gigha, was seen as a fragile area but now HIE will no longer give it priority when it comes to financial support for projects designed to grow the economy.

The decision has perplexed the islanders, who believe their community is indeed still fragile - the more so given that over the last winter there were weeks when their lifeline ferry service to Tayinloan on Kintyre was seriously disrupted at low tide because of a build-up of silt and weeds at the mainland slipway. As a result, instead of the regular 20-minute crossing, the 150 islanders had to endure a sail of up to two hours to Kennacraig in West Loch Tarbert.

This winter could be the same - Argyll and Bute Council has still to finalise improvement plans for Tayinloan.

Willie McSporran, 72, the chairman of Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust, which owns the island, still provides charismatic leadership to the community after six years in charge. Nobody is in his company long without laughing. But this highly-intelligent man (who was once thrown out of a Berlin bar for speaking Gaelic which the owners mistook for Russian), has more to him than just a reservoir of entertaining stories. His determination that his community will continue its revival is almost tangible.

He is proud of what has been achieved but knows full well that the biggest challenges may yet lie ahead.

"We are very aware of the general view that Gigha is a success story, but that creates its own difficulties. I think HIE have been a bit hasty in their reclassification and should at very least have waited till the work is done on Tayinloan slipway which we don't think will start till next year.

"We have achieved a lot since the buyout six years ago, and we are well on our way to washing our faces financially. But it is not easy. Nothing has been easy.

"We have had loans that we are having to pay off. One was for £1.2m. That has gone and we have already bought back something like £40,000 of shares in our wind turbines that HIE held, but there is another £40,000 to go.

"We have houses to do up and we also have the small matter of a botanic garden at Achamore House to restore. It is the jewel in our crown and we are taking the work seriously.

"That is in hand with two full-time gardeners, but we feel there is so much more we can do. Gigha has so much to offer and we would like more and more people to come see it."

Mr McSporran said that the calendar now being produced was "most importantly a piece of fun" but added that there was a serious element to the project. "It should help maintain the island's public profile in Scotland and hopefully it will make some money along the way," he added.

So as the hard slog on Gigha continues, has it all been worth it?

Mr McSporran is in no doubt. He said: "I remember speaking to Kenny Robison, the farmer at Ardlamy, the day after the buyout and he said it was the first day that he got up and whistled when he went out to the fields.

"It made a difference to him that his rent was no longer going to a private landlord but to help renovate a substandard house for somebody to live in, somebody that would contribute to the community. I think that's your answer."

Colourful history of a fragile' Scots area More than 56,000 people or 13% of the population of the Highlands and Islands live within designated fragile areas. These economically and socially disadvantaged parts of the Highlands and Islands account for 21% of the Scottish land mass. They have a population density of just three people per square kilometre. This compares to 16 people per sq km in the non-fragile parts of the Highlands and Islands and 130 people per sq km in the rest of Scotland. Glasgow City has 3493 people per sq km, the highest population density in Scotland. Gigha's owners, Clan McNeill - became the undisputed lairds in 1590 after a fierce power struggle with the MacDonalds. At the end of the 19th century Captain William Scarlett, the 3rd Lord Abinger purchased the estate and built the B-Listed Achamore House in 1884 to the design of John Honeyman. The main areas of woodland to the north and south of the house were planted by Captain Scarlett to provide shelter from the strong winds and salt spray and game cover. When Sir James Horlick (of the hot drinks family) acquired the estate in 1944, he wished to establish a garden to grow his more tender rhododendrons. He managed this by cutting small clearings and by 1970 the garden was full of an exotic spread of plants. On his death he left some of his collection to the National Trust for Scotland so that rare species could be propagated and shared with other great gardens.