Hebrides

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Inner Hebrides (red) and Outer Hebrides (ocher)

The Hebrides (English: Hebrides [ ˈhebrɪdiːz ], Scottish Gaelic na h-Innse Gall , Old Norse Suðreyjar ) are an archipelago up to 50 kilometers off the northwest coast of Scotland . The archipelago is morphologically and politically divided into the Outer Hebrides (also known as Western Isles) and the Inner Hebrides , separated by the Little Minch and North Minch and the Barrapassage.

etymology

The earliest written references that have survived regarding the islands come from Pliny the Elder's natural history around AD 77, where he states that there are 30 Hebuds who, according to Watson, are clearly the Outer Hebrides. About 80 years later, 140–150 AD, Ptolemy , relying on the earlier marine expeditions from Agricola , writes that there are five Ebuden (possibly the Inner Hebrides). Later texts in Classical Latin by writers such as Solinus use the forms Hebuden and Hæbuden. The name (H) ebudes recorded by Ptolemy may be Pre-Celtic.

geography

The Hebrides stretch for more than 200 km from about 59 ° N 6 ° W to 56 ° N 8 ° W and form a wall in front of the Atlantic Ocean for the coast of the Scottish mainland . Of the around 500 islands with a total of 7,285 km², only the larger around 70 to 80 islands are populated, according to other information only around 50. Many of these islands have only a small population.

geology

The islands are made up of different, but mainly old (from the Precambrian ) crystalline rock types such as granite , including the site-specific Lewis granite, gneiss or slate. In the inner island area, besides gneisses and granites, tertiary volcanic rocks ( basalt ) predominate.

The ice age reshaping left behind, despite the low altitude above sea level, a diverse treasure trove of shapes, to which the more than 100  lakes can also be assigned. The highest point of the group is the Sgurr Alasdair (993 meters above sea level) in the Black Cuillins on the Isle of Skye , the second highest mountain range is the Ben More (966 meters) on the Isle of Mull . There are a total of 13  Munros in the Hebrides, twelve of them on Skye and one on Mull.

climate

The Hebrides are under the influence of almost constant moist, cool westerly winds. Nevertheless, there is a mild climate with no particular temperature fluctuations, as the foothills of the Gulf Stream reach here. The temperature fluctuates between 4 or 5 ° C in January and 12 to 16 ° C in summer, with frequent rain , a total of over 1,000 mm to 1,200 mm per year. Hard frost is rarer and less intense than, for example, in London . Snowfall usually only occurs around 30 days a year. The most striking element of the weather is the constant wind. Average daily wind speeds of over 20 km / h and daily highs of 50 to 85 km / h in every season are the rule. Eastern, dry spring winds, when stable high pressure areas form over Scandinavia , as well as arctic air masses, ensure rare cold spells.

Soil and vegetation

If the bare rock does not come to light, the rather bare landscape has a predominantly thin cover of peat and seemingly endless moors or is covered by green, lush meadows and heather . On the coastline, too, white sandy beaches alternate with rocky areas. Larger forest areas only exist on isolated islands, as the soil is extremely thin. The glacial glacier cover caused a complete loss of topsoil , and the formation of ground will be very slow place and under difficult conditions. In addition, the two main types of soil are either very acidic or strongly alkaline and therefore require fertilizer and require liming. This is why only around 100,000 hectares are used as arable land.

Administrative division

While the Outer Hebrides form a separate administrative district as Western Isles , the Inner Hebrides are divided into two parts and belong to two Scottish Council Areas . The northern part with Skye, the Small Isles and some smaller islands near Skye such as Oronsay , Raasay and Scalpay are in the Council Area Highland . The southern group includes Mull , Islay , Jura , the Slate Islands and the Treshnish Isles, along with a few other islands around Mull. You belong to the Argyll and Bute Council.

story

The prehistory and history of the Hebrides are closely related to the Northern Highlands of Scotland for most of the time (see History of Scotland ). Only at the time of the Kingdom of Dalriada , the Earl of Orkney and the Kingdom of the Islands , the islands belonged to Ireland (until 572) and Norway (until the Peace of Perth in 1266). A Gaelic-Nordic mixed culture, the Gall-Ghaedil , formed there in the 10th and 11th centuries . Scandinavian supremacy ended in the 13th century. In the 15th century, the Hebrides formed the central part of the Clan MacDonald- controlled Lordship of the Isles . This was a Gaelic sub-kingdom that at its heyday encompassed most of the west coast of Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland. The small Hebridean island of Iona was the main seat, and Saint Columban was the patron saint. Dalriada was linked again.

From 563 Iona was the center of Christianization that started in Ireland. On Skye, the main island of the Inner Hebrides, the Museum of the Isles shows the history of the Hebrides from the arrival of the Celts to the present day. The museum is located in the park of Armadale Castle, the ancestral seat of the MacDonald clan.

Economy and Transport

economy

Local raw material deposits for regional and supraregional trade are made up of peat, sand, stone, partly as split and some minerals. Kelp is also marketed. Few agricultural products are of major importance to the economy. The production of whiskey and cattle breeding ( cattle , sheep ) with the woolen fabrics woven from them , including the well-known Harris Tweed, are important . There is also a notable catch of fish , and tourism has experienced a strong boom in recent decades.

traffic

There are regular ferry and airline lines between the main islands and the mainland, but they are quite expensive and subject to weather conditions. After car ferries were introduced in 1946, increased investments were made in the road network of the individual islands. Regular buses operate on the main traffic arteries, while small post buses are used for secondary traffic. Some islands close by were connected with bridges and / or dams. The island of Skye has also had a direct road connection to the Scottish mainland with the Skye Bridge since 1996.

population

On some islands of the Hebrides, especially on Skye and Lewis , some of the almost 60,000 inhabitants still speak Scottish Gaelic . After the number of Gaelic speakers had declined for a long time, it has remained almost constant for several years; In many places in the Outer Hebrides, more than 70% of the population speak Gaelic.

Lillian Beckwith depicts her quirks and habits in her novel Die See zum Frühstück .

Attractions

Old Man of Storr

other

The New Hebrides is a chain of islands in the South Pacific, which was administered as a condominium by Great Britain and France from 1906 to 1980 and which today forms the island state of Vanuatu .

Musically, both Granville Bantock ( Hebridean Symphony ) and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (concert overture The Hebrides ) make direct reference to the Hebrides archipelago.

literature

  • Michael Newton: A Handbook of the Scottish Gaelic World . Four Courts Press, Dublin 2000.
  • Pat Rogers (Ed.): Journey to the Hebrides. Yale University Press, New Haven 1993, ISBN 0-300-05210-3 .
    contains:
  • Maria-Claudia Tomany: Destination Viking and Orkneyinga saga. Historiography and Regional Identity Problems in Orkney . Utz, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8316-0417-3 .
  • The Island Spirit. Living with the Tides on the Western Isles. Black and white photographs by Jörg Waste, poems by Peter Kerr, Isle of Harris, guest contribution by John Randall, Isles of Lewis, 2017.

Web links

Commons : Hebrides  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Hebrides  Travel Guide
Wiktionary: Hebrides  - explanations of meanings, origins of words, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Watson, William J .: The Celtic Place Names of Scotland . Birlinn, Edinburgh 1994, ISBN 1-84158-323-5 , pp. 37-41 (English).
  2. Tomany p. 41 f.
  3. ^ Original title The Sea for Breakfast, translated by Isabella Nadolny, dtv, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-423-08460-X

Coordinates: 57 ° 50 ′  N , 7 ° 0 ′  W