Stac to Armin

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Stac to Armin
Stac to Armin with Boreray on the left and Stac Lee on the right
Stac to Armin with Boreray on the left and Stac Lee on the right
Waters Atlantic Ocean
Geographical location 57 ° 53 '0 "  N , 8 ° 29' 0"  W Coordinates: 57 ° 53 '0 "  N , 8 ° 29' 0"  W.
Stac an Armin (Scotland)
Stac to Armin
surface 9.9 ha
Highest elevation 191  m
Residents uninhabited
Location of Stac to Armin
Location of Stac to Armin

Stac an Armin ( Scottish Gaelic : Stac an Àrmainn , German about "Stac the warrior") is a steep rocky island ( Stac ) in the St. Kilda archipelago off the west coast of Scotland .

The Stac rises 191 meters above the sea surface (the elevations vary somewhat in the literature), making it the highest Stac in Great Britain . It is located about 400 m north of Boreray and has a ground plan area of ​​9.9 hectares. Stac an Arnim was never permanently inhabited, but there are around 70 smaller depots and a small hut that was built by the residents of St. Kilda. They used the stac in the past to prey on birds or to collect their eggs. The rocky island is estimated more than 10,000  gannets pairs as a breeding ground. As part of the St. Kilda archipelago, the Stac is a UNESCO World Heritage Site .

Because of an outbreak of smallpox on the nearby island of Hirta , a total of eleven people were kept in quarantine on Stac an Armin for several months in 1727.

The last giant ack in the British Isles

On Stac an Arnim, the last giant aalk to live on the British Isles was killed by two locals in July 1840 . The reason for the killing is not known beyond doubt. Perhaps it was superstition, but perhaps it was also a commissioned work, since even then the natural history museums of Europe paid considerable sums to get a hide of the extremely rare bird. The world's last specimens of this great bird, which was once widespread throughout the North Atlantic as the “penguin of the north”, were killed a few years later on June 3, 1844 on Eldey near Iceland .

  • View from Hirta. From left to right: Stac to Armin, Stac Lee and Boreray

  • Stuffed giant alkali from a collection, Leipzig

literature

  • Hamish Haswell-Smith: The Scottish Islands. A comprehensive Guide to every Scottish Island. Fully revised 2nd edition. Canongate, Edinburgh et al. 2004, ISBN 1-84195-454-3 .

Web links

Commons : Stac an Armin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ National Trust for Scotland - St Kilda - accessed January 6, 2007.
  2. ↑ a b http://www.jameswarwick.co.uk ( Memento from August 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (private site)