Rhinns of Islay

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Topographic map of Islay with the Rhinns of Islay to the southwest

The Rhinns of Islay ( Gaelic : Na Roinn Ileach ), also written Rinns of Islay , is a peninsula on the Scottish island of Islay . Their name is derived from Gaelic Roinn for cape , projection . The highest point on the island is the 232 m high Beinn Tart a'Mhill . Along the west coast are the bays Lossit Bay , Kilchiaran Bay and Machir Bay .

geography

Panorama of the Rhinns of Islay. Beyond Loch Indaal, the Oa Peninsula can be seen.

location

Lighthouse of the Rhinns of Islay

The Rhinns of Islay occupies the southwest part of the Hebridean island of Islay. It extends about 17 km in north-south direction and a maximum of about seven kilometers in east-west direction. It is connected to the main part of the island via an isthmus between the sea bays Loch Indaal and Loch Gruinart in the northeast. From the sea side, the Atlantic Ocean delimits the peninsula to the west, while Loch Indaal delimits the peninsula to the east. The southern tip is called Rhinns Point . About 500 m off the coast near Portnahaven is the small island of Orsay , on which the Rhinns-of-Islay lighthouse stands, which the father of the writer Robert Louis Stevenson built in 1825.

Administratively, the Rhinns of Islay is part of Islay of the Council Area Argyll and Bute . Historically, it was part of what is now the traditional county of Argyllshire .

Settlements

The island of Islay is only sparsely populated with 3457 inhabitants (as of 2001) and an area of ​​615 km 2 , from which the Rhinns of Islay is no exception. For this reason there are no cities to be found there, but two important settlements with Port Charlotte and Portnahaven . There are also several smaller hamlets along the coast. Areas remote from the coast, however, are largely uninhabited.

The Clyde Tomb Giant’s Grave is at Nereabolls (also Nerabus).

traffic

With the A847 a road runs along the east coast from Bridgend to Portnahaven. As far as Port Charlotte, it has two lanes, while all other roads are only one lane. One of the most important is the continuation of the A847 north along the west coast to Kilchiaran , which from there leads back east to Port Charlotte and thus represents the only east-west connection on the peninsula. There are no railway lines.

Flora and fauna

The landscape shows changing episodes of bog , heather and dune landscapes , marshland and farmland . Parts of the Rhinns are used intensively for grazing sheep and cattle . Due to the abundance of birds, especially rare species in the United Kingdom , the Rhinns of Islay is designated as a European bird sanctuary . For example, 31 breeding pairs of the Choughs ( Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax ) were counted in 1998 , which is 9.1% of the total population in the United Kingdom; 62 pairs, which corresponds to 9% of the population in winter, spend the winter there. In addition, 1,600 specimens (11.4% of the total UK population in winter) of Greenland white-fronted geese ( Anser albifrons flavirostris ) overwinter in the Rhinns of Islay.

geology

From a geological point of view, a large part is assigned to the Rhinns complex . This consists of about 60% syenite with embedded gabbro (about 35%), which occurs in layers of up to almost ten kilometers in length with a thickness of up to one kilometer. The remaining five percent are essentially mafic and felsic minerals. Based on isotope studies , the age of the complex was determined to be around 1.8 billion years. The Rhinns Complex also occurs on parts of the islands of Colonsay and Inishtrahull and off the Northern Irish coast. Large parts are submarine .

economy

tourism

Tourism is a not insignificant economic factor on the Rhinns of Islay. There are various hotels and holiday homes, mainly in Port Charlotte and the surrounding area. There is also a youth hostel there, as well as the Museum of Islay Life , which shows the history of the island up to the present day.

whiskey

Bruichladdich distillery building

Whiskey production has been of great importance on Islay since the 19th century. Islay is even managed as its own whiskey region . Of the eight whiskey distilleries currently active on the island, two are in the Rhinns of Islay - the Bruichladdich distillery in Bruichladdich and the young Kilchoman distillery . Historically, there were two other nationally important distilleries, Lochindaal (also known as Port Charlotte ) and Octomore , which were closed in 1929 and 1860 respectively.

Power generation

Wave power plant

About 1.3 kilometers north-west of the village of Portnahaven, the Limpet 500 plant was the world's first wave power plant that is operated commercially and feeds into the public grid. It was completed in November 2000 and delivers up to 150  MW . However, the originally planned output of 500 MW could not be achieved. The operator is Voith Hydro Wavegen , a wholly owned subsidiary of the German Voith Hydro .

Web links

Commons : Rinns of Islay  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of Gaelic expressions
  2. ↑ a b Rhinns. In: Francis H. Groome: Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical. Volume 6: (Pet - Zet). Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh et al. 1885, p. 252 .
  3. ↑ Orsay. In: David Munro, Bruce Gittings: Scotland. An Encyclopedia of Places & Landscapes. Collins et al., Glasgow 2006, ISBN 0-00-472466-6 .
  4. ↑ 2001 Census ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.6 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gro-scotland.gov.uk
  5. ^ Official entry of the Joint Nature Conservative Committee
  6. ↑ RJ Muir, WW Fitches, AJ Maltman, MR Bentley: Precambrian rocks of the southern Inner Hebrides - Malin Sea region: Colonsay, West Islay, Inishtrahull and Iona. In: Wes Gibbons, Anthony L. Harris (Eds.): A revised correlation of Precambrian rocks in the British Isles (= Geological Society of London. Special Report. No. 22). Geological Society, Bath 1994, ISBN 1-897799-11-X , pp. 54-58.
  7. ↑ Nigel Woodcock, Rob Strachan (Ed.): Geological History of Britain and Ireland. Reprint with corrections. Blackwell Science, Oxford et al. 2002, ISBN 0-632-03656-7 , pp. 57-58.
  8. ^ Port Charlotte. Argyll and Bute. In: David Munro, Bruce Gittings: Scotland. An Encyclopedia of Places & Landscapes. Collins et al., Glasgow 2006, ISBN 0-00-472466-6 .
  9. ^ Website of the Museum of Islay Life
  10. ^ Entry on the Bruichladdich distillery at maltmadness.com
  11. ↑ Entry on Kilchoman distillery at maltmadness.com
  12. ^ Alfred Barnard : The Whiskey Distilleries of the United Kingdom. Proprietors of Harper's Weekly Gazette, London 1887, pp. 103-104.
  13. ^ Entry on the Octomore distillery at wormtub.com
  14. ↑ Robert Currie: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and the Optimization of the LIMPET 500 on Islay , Master's thesis, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, 2002, ( full text access ; PDF; 1.1 MB).
  15. ↑ Report of the BBC
  16. ↑ Information from Voith Hydro Wavegen ( Memento from June 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 55 ° 44 ′ 36 "  N , 6 ° 25 ′ 52"  W.