Local Blacksmith Calum 'Steallag' Macleod has this year been busy with requests for tarasgeirs, as he said: "They really dwindled down to me making only about half a dozen about three years ago, but this year I've made around 30 odd already."

Although each tarasgeir is hand made, or 'bashed out at the forge' as Steallag puts it, the increase is still a far cry from the days when the smithy and his father made around 100 new tarasgeirs a year.

He continued: "We used to make about 100 or so a year back then. I remember the most I ever made was over 150 one year – it was a year when there was a crisis with the oil and the prices really went up. That was the most I've ever made in one year."

And the rising cost of fuel once again is what Steallag believes has caused a rise in the tarasgeir trade.

"With the price of oil and of coal going up, I think people who have a peat bank or an open fire are going back to the peats. With the price of things the way they are, it helps to have a peat stack at the end of the house," he commented.

"A lot of people threw their tarasgeirs away as they thought they'd never cut peat again, and now they're back again wanting new ones.

"There's nothing like an open fire and if you've a peat bank then what better way to get some fresh air."

Iain MacIver, The Stornoway Trust Factor, also revealed that there has been an increase in interest in applying for peat bank permits.

"Last year there was more interest than the year before and this year there is more interest than last," he said.

"It's not as straight forward as there being an increase meaning more people are cutting more peat though. Some of the banks haven't been cut, or some just turfed and then left.

"So there is an interest, but I'm not sure if that's relayed into the actual number of people cutting peats."

And Iain also commented that a mass resurgence in peat-cutting could cause problems as many of the viable peat banks left on the island are situated within specially designated zones.

"A lot of people stopped cutting simply because the banks ran out, but when the designated zones came in, they skirted around the banks. Now, if we went back to what was cut before then there is nowhere left unless you start to go into those designated zones," he warned.