The Holy Island or Holy Isle ( gd, Eilean MoLaise) is an island in the

Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles (it is 164 metres deep at its deepest). The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic ...

, off the west coast of central Scotland, inside

Lamlash Lamlash ( gd, An t-Eilean Àrd) is a village on the Isle of Arran, in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. It lies south of the island's main settlement and ferry port Brodick, in a sheltered bay on the island's east coast, facing the Holy Isle. L ...

Bay on the larger

Isle of Arran The Isle of Arran (; sco, Isle o Arran; gd, Eilean Arainn) or simply Arran is an island off the west coast of Scotland. It is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde and the seventh-largest Scottish island, at . Historically part of Buteshi ...

. The island is around long and around wide. Its highest point is the hill Mullach Mòr.

History

The island has a long history as a sacred site, with a spring or

holy well A holy well or sacred spring is a well, spring or small pool of water revered either in a Christian or pagan context, sometimes both. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualities, through the numinous presence of its guar ...

held to have healing properties, the

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite ( adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a C ...

cave of 6th century monk St Molaise, and evidence of a 13th-century

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

. An old

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, an ...

name for the island was ''Eilean MoLaise'', Molaise's Island; this is the origin (via ''Elmolaise'' and ''Limolas'') of "

", the name of the village on Arran that faces Holy Island. Some

runic Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

writing is to be found on the roof of St Molaise's cave and a

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

fleet sheltered between Arran and Holy Isle before the

Battle of Largs The Battle of Largs (2 October 1263) was a battle between the kingdoms of Norway and Scotland, on the Firth of Clyde near Largs, Scotland. Through it, Scotland achieved the end of 500 years of Norse Viking depredations and invasions despite bei ...

. In 1549,

Dean Monro Donald Monro (or Munro) ( fl. 1526–1574) was a Scottish clergyman, who wrote an early and historically valuable description of the Hebrides and other Scottish islands and enjoyed the honorific title of "Dean of the Isles". Origins Donald Monro ...

wrote of the "little ile callit the yle of Molass, quherin there was foundit by Johne, Lord of the iles, ane monastry of friars, which is decayit."

Present day

In 1992, the island was in the possession of Kay Morris, a devout Catholic who reportedly had a dream in which the Virgin Mary instructed her to give ownership of the island to the Samyé Ling Buddhist Community, who belong to the

Kagyu The ''Kagyu'' school, also transliterated as ''Kagyü'', or ''Kagyud'' (), which translates to "Oral Lineage" or "Whispered Transmission" school, is one of the main schools (''chos lugs'') of Tibetan (or Himalayan) Buddhism. The Kagyu lineag ...

school of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

. The settlements on the island include the ''Centre for World Peace and Health'', founded by Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche, on the north of the island. This is an environmentally designed residential centre for courses and retreats which extends the former farm house. It has solar water heating and a reed-bed sewage treatment system. The approach from the ferry jetty is decorated with

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

an flags and

stupa A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circumamb ...

s. On the southern end of the island lives a community of nuns who are undertaking three year retreats. The remainder of the island is treated as a nature reserve with wild Eriskay ponies,

Saanen goat The Saanen is a Swiss breed of domestic goat. It takes its name from the Saanental in the Bernese Oberland, in the southern part of the Canton of Bern, in western Switzerland. It is a highly productive dairy goat and is distributed in more than ...

Soay sheep The Soay sheep is a breed of domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') descended from a population of feral sheep on the island of Soay in the St Kilda Archipelago, about from the Western Isles of Scotland. It is one of the Northern European short-t ...

and the replanting of native trees. The rare

Rock Whitebeam ''Aria rupicola'', commonly known as rock whitebeam, is a rare species of shrub or small tree best known from the British Isles but also reported from Norway, Sweden and Russia. Reaching heights of 10 m,''New Flora of the British Isles''; Clive ...

tree is found on the island, an essential link in the

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

of the Arran Whitebeam species, ''

Sorbus arranensis ''Sorbus arranensis'', sometimes referred to as the Scottish or Arran whitebeam is a species of plant in the family Rosaceae. It is endemic to the island of Arran in Scotland. Range and habitat The species is threatened by habitat loss and on ...

'', ''

Sorbus pseudofennica ''Sorbus pseudofennica'' (also called Arran service-tree or Arran cut-leaved whitebeam) is a species of plant in the family Rosaceae. Endemic to the Isle of Arran in Scotland, it is threatened by habitat loss Habitat destruction (also te ...

'' and '' Sorbus pseudomeinichii''. These are indigenous and unique to Arran. There is a regular ferry service from Lamlash, and the island is popular with holiday makers staying on Arran. The usually resident population was recorded as 31 in 2011, an increase from 13 in 2001.

Gallery

File:Centre_for_world_peace_on_holy_isle_with_flags.jpg, The ''Centre for World Peace and Health'', with Tibetan flags and

s File:SaanenGoat_HolyIsle.jpg, One of the Saanen goats File:Pony_on_holy_isle.jpg, One of the wild Eriskay ponies File:Holy Isle Firth of Clyde OS OpenData map.png, Map of the island

References

External links

*
The Holy Island Project web site

Movie of images taken on the island

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holy Island, Firth Of Clyde Islands of the Clyde Marilyns of Scotland Mountains and hills of the Scottish islands Islands of North Ayrshire Mountains and hills of North Ayrshire