Boreray ( gd, Boraraigh; sco, Boreray) is an uninhabited

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the St Kilda

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

in the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

Geography

Boreray lies about west-northwest of

North Uist North Uist ( gd, Uibhist a Tuath; sco, North Uise) is an island and community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Etymology In Donald Munro's ''A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland Called Hybrides'' of 1549, North Uist, Benbecula and ...

. It covers about , and reaches a height of at Mullach an Eilein. Boreray and the Stacs

Boreray is formed of a

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...

gabbro Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is che ...

and dolerites. There are two

sea stack A stack or sea stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion. Stacks are formed over time by wind and water, processes of coastal geomorphology. ...

s, vertical pillars of rock, just off Boreray.

Stac An Armin Stac an Armin ( gd, Stac an Àrmainn), based on the proper Scottish Gaelic spelling (formerly ''àrmuinn''), is a sea stack in the St Kilda archipelago. It is 196 metres (643 ft.) tall, qualifying it as a Marilyn. It is the highest sea st ...

, to the north, is the taller at 196 metres (643 ft) high, while Stac Lee, 600 m (660 yards) to the west, is 172 metres (564 ft) high. Boreray is the smallest of the

Scottish islands This is a list of islands of Scotland, the mainland of which is part of the island of Great Britain. Also included are various other related tables and lists. The definition of an offshore island used in this list is "land that is surrounded by ...

to have a summit over .

History

Boreray has the ''Cleitean MacPhàidein'', a "

cleit A cleit is a stone storage hut or bothy, uniquely found on the isles and stacs of St Kilda; whilst many are still to be found, they are slowly falling into disrepair. There are known to be 1,260 cleitean on Hirta and a further 170 on the other ...

village" of three small bothies used regularly during fowling expeditions from

Hirta Hirta ( gd, Hiort) is the largest island in the St Kilda archipelago, on the western edge of Scotland. The names (in Scottish Gaelic) and ''Hirta'' (historically in English) have also been applied to the entire archipelago. Now without a perman ...

.Maclean (1977) page 28. As a result of a smallpox outbreak on Hirta in 1727, three men and eight boys were marooned on Stac an Armin off the coast of Boreray until the following May. There are also ruins of ''Taigh Stallar'' (the steward's house). The local tradition was that it was built by the "Man of the Rocks", who led a rebellion against the landlord's steward. It may be an example of an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

wheelhouse and the associated remains of an agricultural field system and two additional possible settlement mounds were discovered in 2011."Evidence of Ancient Settlement Found on Boreray"
(16 June 2011) RCHAMS. Retrieved 19 June 2011.

RCAHMS The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) was an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government that was "sponsored" inanced and with oversightthrough Historic Scotland, an executive ...

surveyor Ian Parker said:

“This new discovery shows that a farming community actually lived on Boreray, perhaps as long ago as the prehistoric period. The agricultural remains and settlement mounds give us a tantalising glimpse into the lives of those early inhabitants. Farming what is probably one of the most remote – and inhospitable – islands in the North Atlantic would have been a hard and gruelling existence. And given the island’s unfeasibly steep slopes, it’s amazing that they even tried living there in the first place.”

Macauley (1764) reported the existence of five druidic altars in the islands including a large circle of stones fixed perpendicularly in the ground, by the Stallar House. The islands were bought in 1931 by the ornithologist

John Crichton-Stuart, 5th Marquess of Bute John Crichton-Stuart, 5th Marquess of Bute (4 August 1907 – 14 August 1956) was the son of John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute, and Augusta Bellingham. Marriage and children On 26 April 1932, he married Lady Eileen Beatrice Forbes (1912 ...

. In 1957, following his death, they were bequeathed to the

National Trust for Scotland The National Trust for Scotland for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, commonly known as the National Trust for Scotland ( gd, Urras Nàiseanta na h-Alba), is a Scottish conservation organisation. It is the largest membership organ ...

(NTS), the current owner. St Kilda was inscribed by UNESCO as a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

in 1986 in recognition of its Natural Heritage; for its exceptional natural beauty and for the significant natural habitats that it supports. In July 2004 this was extended to include the surrounding marine environment. In July 2005 further recognition for the islands cultural heritage was awarded making it one of only a few places in the world with Dual World Heritage Status for both its natural and cultural significance.

Gallery

File:Boreray Coastal View - geograph.org.uk - 1379935.jpg, The island of Sgarbhstac and the rocky point of Gob Scapanais File:Boreray from the south west - geograph.org.uk - 1264496.jpg, Boreray from the south west File:Cleitein McPhaidein, Boreray - geograph.org.uk - 1475975.jpg, Cleitein McPhaidein, Boreray File:Eastern side of Boreray - geograph.org.uk - 1440437.jpg, Eastern Boreray File:Mullach an Tuamail - geograph.org.uk - 1438687.jpg, Steep crag on the east side of Boreray File:Old Stac Lee.jpg, Stac Lee File:Pinnacle, Mullach an Eilean - geograph.org.uk - 1440007.jpg, Pinnacle, Mullach an Eilean File:Sea cave, Boreray - geograph.org.uk - 1438705.jpg, A sea cave off Boreray File:South slopes of Mullach an Eilean - geograph.org.uk - 1440023.jpg, South slopes of Mullach an Eilean File:Stac an Armin - geograph.org.uk - 1440434.jpg, Stac an Armin File:Stac an Armin and Boreray.jpg, The stacs Lee and an Armin File:Stack Lee from above - geograph.org.uk - 1440027.jpg, Stack Lee from above File:Unnamed stack beneath Boreray - geograph.org.uk - 1264517.jpg, Unnamed stack beneath Boreray

Wildlife

Boreray's

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

s are home for various

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s. In 1959, 45,000 pairs of

gannets Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus ''Morus'' in the family Sulidae, closely related to boobies. Gannets are large white birds with yellowish heads; black-tipped wings; and long bills. Northern gannets are the largest seabirds in the Nor ...

were counted on the island and the two stacks. There are also over 130 different varieties of flowering plant on the island. The island is also the home to an extremely rare breed of

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

, the Boreray, sometimes also called the Boreray Blackface or Hebridean Blackface. They are not to be confused with the Soay sheep, also originating from the St. Kilda archipelagos. They are small horned sheep and are the rarest breed of sheep in the UK.

Footnotes

References