Scarp
| Scarp | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Waters | North Atlantic | |
| Archipelago | Outer Hebrides | |
| Geographical location | 58 ° 1 '10 " N , 7 ° 7' 50" W | |
|
||
| length | 4.9 km | |
| width | 3.6 km | |
| surface | 10.45 km² | |
| Highest elevation |
Sron Romul 308 m above sea level NN |
|
| Residents | uninhabited | |
Scarp ( Scottish Gaelic An Sgarp ) is a Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides . It is located in the council area of the same name and was historically part of the traditional county of Inverness-shire .
geography
Scarp is located in the North Atlantic off the Isle of Harris , from which it is separated by the 400 meter wide Sound of Scarp . The island is a maximum of 4.9 kilometers long and 3.6 kilometers wide and consists of gneiss that towers from the coast to the 308 meter high Sron Romul . Only small fertile areas can be found on the shores of the 1045 hectare island. In the northeast, the small island of Fladday is around 600 meters away.
history
In 1810 there were eight families on Scarp. Under the Stewart-Mackenzie rulers, new fields and pastures were created on Lewis and Harris and crofting was implemented. These measures partly resulted in a resettlement of the population, some of which received crofts on Scarp, which increased the population of the island from 1823. At its peak, the island's population consisted of over 200 people involved in agriculture and fishing. In the course of the 20th century, Scarp's population fell rapidly. In 1961 there were 46 people on Scarp, in 1971 there were only twelve. After the island school was closed in 1967 and the post office in 1969, the last residents left the island on December 2, 1971. One of the reasons for this was the difficult loading on the flat coast, which became impossible, especially when the waves were strong, which made the connection to Scarps suffer.
Long before the Scarp post office was established in 1930, mail was already being organized from the island. For example, a wooden mailbox was installed on the Sound of Scarp on Harris, through which letters were exchanged weekly. Since there was no road to this remote region of Harris, the postman arriving from Tarbert had to cover the last few kilometers by horse. William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme , who had acquired Lewis and Harris in 1918 (see also Lews Castle ), had a road built in 1925 so that mail could be delivered completely motorized from then on.
The communication between Scarp and Harris took place through calls over the Scarp Sound, of which the Cape Clach na h-Eigheach ("rock of screams") still testifies today , or flag signals. Communication with Scarp improved with the establishment of a jetty on Scarp in the late 1930s and the laying of an undersea telephone cable in 1947. A jetty was built on Harris' side in the early 1950s. An island resident ran a café in Tarbert, where she also sold Scarps women's knitwear.
The German scientist Gerhard Zucker once lived on Scarp. He tried a rocket-propelled system for distributing mail there, without success. The envelopes used in these experiments are on display in the Museum nan Eilean in Stornoway .
The uninhabited island is privately owned. It has changed hands several times since the 1970s. Since 1995 it has been owned by the American musician Anderson Bakewell .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Information in the Gazetteer for Scotland
- ^ A b Scarp in: FH Groome (ed.): Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical , Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh, 1882–1885.
- ↑ a b c Information on the history of Scarp
