The Garvellachs (

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 ...

: Garbh Eileaich) or Isles of the Sea form a small

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

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Na h-Eileanan a-staigh'', "the inner isles") is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, whic ...

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 ...

. Part of the

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...

council area {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Act. ...

, they lie west of Lunga and northwest of

Scarba Scarba ( gd, Sgarba) is an island, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, just north of the much larger island of Jura. The island was owned by Richard Hill, 7th Baron Sandys, and has not been permanently inhabited since the 1960s. It is now covered in ...

and have been uninhabited since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The islands include

Garbh Eileach Garbh Eileach is an uninhabited island in the Inner Hebrides of the west coast of Scotland. It is the largest of the Garvellachs and lies in the Firth of Lorne between Mull and Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), s ...

Dùn Chonnuill Dùn Chonnuill is a small island in the Garvellachs in the Firth of Lorn, Scotland. Dùn Chonnuill lies north east of Garbh Eileach, the largest of the archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is ...

and

Eileach an Naoimh Eileach an Naoimh, also known as Holy Isle, is an uninhabited island in the Inner Hebrides of the west coast of Scotland. It is the southernmost of the Garvellachs archipelago and lies in the Firth of Lorne between Mull and Argyll. The name i ...

Overview

The waters surrounding the islands are extensively used for leisure sailing. A good knowledge of the area is required, with weather conditions likely to change very quickly. Due to the array of separate tidal races produced by the underwater

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

there are some treacherous stretches of water. These include the Grey Dogs between Scarba and Lunga and the

Gulf of Corryvreckan The Gulf of Corryvreckan (from the Gaelic ''Coire Bhreacain'', meaning 'cauldron of the speckled seas' or 'cauldron of the plaid'), also called the Strait of Corryvreckan, is a narrow strait between the islands of Jura and Scarba, in Argyll and ...

, between

and Jura in which is located the infamous Corryvreckan whirlpool, which is the third-largest

whirlpool A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( ). ''Vo ...

in the world. The area is part of the

Scarba, Lunga and the Garvellachs National Scenic Area Scarba, Lunga and the Garvellachs is the name of one of the 40 national scenic areas of Scotland. The designated area covers the islands of Scarba, Lunga, and the Garvellachs, all of which lie in the Firth of Lorn, along with much of the surroundi ...

, one of 40 such areas in Scotlands, which are defined so as to identify areas of exceptional scenery and to ensure its protection by restricting certain forms of development. The Scottish

plant collector Plant collecting is the acquisition of plant specimens for the purposes of research, cultivation, or as a hobby. Plant specimens may be kept alive, but are more commonly dried and pressed to preserve the quality of the specimen. Plant collecting i ...

Clara Winsome Muirhead Clara Winsome Muirhead (6 January 1916 – 7 March 1985) was a Scottish botanist and plant collector who spent most of her career at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and was an expert on mosses, cacti, and succulents. Life Clara Winsome M ...

surveyed the plant life of the islands and published ''The Flora of

Easdale Easdale ( gd, Eilean Èisdeal) is one of the Slate Islands, in the Firth of Lorn, Scotland. Once the centre of the Scottish slate industry, there has been some recent island regeneration by the owners. This is the smallest of the Inner Hebrides' i ...

and the Garvellachs'' in 1962.

Gallery

Image:Garvellachs (RLH).JPG, The Garvellachs Image:Garvellachs Grey Dogs (RLH).jpg, The Grey Dogs Image:Garvellachs Tidal Flow (RLH).JPG, Tidal flow at the Corryvreckan whirlpool

Notes

External links

Uninhabited islands of Argyll and Bute National scenic areas of Scotland Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Islay and Jura Protected areas of Argyll and Bute Archipelagoes of Scotland {{Argyll-geo-stub

Overview

Gallery

See also

Notes

External links