Shiant Islands

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Shiant Islands
View over Garbh Eilean, the largest of the Shiant Islands
View over Garbh Eilean , the largest of the Shiant Islands
Waters The Minch ( North Atlantic )
archipelago Outer Hebrides
Geographical location 57 ° 54 ′  N , 6 ° 22 ′  W Coordinates: 57 ° 54 ′  N , 6 ° 22 ′  W
Map of Shiant Islands
Number of islands 3 (+ numerous rocky cliffs)
Main island Garbh Eilean
Total land area 2.30 km²
Residents uninhabited
Map from 1889
Map from 1889

The Shiant Islands ( Scottish Gaelic : Na h-Eileanan Mòra or Na h-Eileanan Seunta ? / I ) are an uninhabited group of islands that belong to the Outer Hebrides in Scotland . Audio file / audio sample

geography

The archipelago is about 8 kilometers southeast of the Isle of Lewis in " The Minch ", which separates the Outer Hebrides from the Scottish mainland. The Shiant Islands consist of three large islands (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean ) and numerous Skerries ( Sgeir ), which extend from east to west over a length of over 5 kilometers and have a total area of ​​2.30 km². Largest island with 1.43 sq km area is Garbh Eilean (dt. "Rough Island"), over a Tombolo with Eilean at Taighe connected (Iceland of the cell) in the south and is only accessible at high tide. East of the double island is the third and smallest of the three islands, Eilean Mhuire .

The islands are known for their striking coastal cliffs , over 100 meters high , consisting of dolerite . The highest point of the Shiant Islands is the Mullach Buidhe on Garbh Eilean with 160 meters above sea level.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the now uninhabited islands had eight inhabitants. The Shaint Isles are privately owned: they belonged to the Scottish writer Compton Mackenzie from 1925 to 1937 and were acquired in 1937 by the British author, publisher and politician Nigel Nicolson , whose heirs still own the islands today but do not live there.

  • Shiant Isles

  • Panoramic view from Garbh Eilean to the tombolo and Eilean an Taighe (right) Eilean Mhuire (left)

  • The cliff coast

history

The trio of wing-shaped islands, with their basalt columns full of sea birds and grassy cliffs with flowers, was described in Adam Nicolson's elegiac book Sea Room (2001). The island has a history that goes back to the Neolithic Age. The first "Cursing Stone" ( curse stone ), also known as "Butterlump" was found on the Shiant Islands. In 2012 the second was discovered on the island of Canna . The stone has a diameter of 25 cm and fits exactly into a recess in a cuboid porthole on the early Christian cross of Canna. The stones have been dated to around 800 AD. From the 12th century, the MacLeods and the MacKenzies shared their property.

Animal world (fauna)

The Shiant Islands are home to larger colonies of seabirds , including puffins ( Fratercula arctica ), guillemots ( Uria aalge ), kittiwakes ( Rissa tridactyla ) and razorbills ( Alca torda ). The archipelago is also one of the few Scottish habitats of the black rat ( Rattus rattus ), whose population is estimated at around 3,000 and which has been shown to feed on seabirds.

Web links

Commons : Shiant Islands  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of July 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b 2001 UK Census (English)
  3. ^ J. Keay: Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland. HarperCollins , London 1994.
  4. ↑ Adam Nicholson: Sea Room: an island life. HarperCollins, 2001, ISBN 0-00-257164-1 .
  5. ↑ Birds of the Shiant Islands: 1970 & 1971 census . Shiant Islands. Archived from the original on July 2, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2011. (English)
  6. ↑ Developing a mammal monitoring program for the UK (PDF; 1.1 MB) Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved February 12, 2011. (English)
  7. ^ Paul Stapp: Stable isotopes reveal evidence of predation by ship rats on seabirds on the Shiant Islands. In: Scotland Journal of Applied Ecology. 39 (5), 2002, pp. 831-840.