Na h-Eileanan Iasgaich comprise a small uninhabited archipelago in Loch Boisdale, in the south east of the island of South Uist, in the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The individual islands are separated from one another at high tide, but connected to one another at low tide, (although not to their much larger neighbour of South Uist). They are around 50 ha in extent and over 20m at their highest point. Their boundaries are ill-defined.

Geography and geology

The islands have a thin soil and a

Lewisian gneiss The Lewisian complex or Lewisian gneiss is a suite of Precambrian metamorphic rocks that outcrop in the northwestern part of Scotland, forming part of the Hebridean Terrane and the North Atlantic Craton. These rocks are of Archaean and Paleoprote ...

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

. Their name means "fishing islands" in

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

because they increase greatly in size at low tide, creating a number of fish traps and homes for edible

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s. There are five main islands in the group - * — Great fishing island * — Middling fishing island * — Little fishing island * * .

Notes and references

Uist islands Uninhabited islands of the Outer Hebrides Landforms of the Outer Hebrides Archipelagoes of Scotland {{WesternIsles-geo-stub