This is a list of islands of Scotland, the mainland of which is part of the island of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
. Also included are various other related tables and lists. The definition of an offshore
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 ...
used in this list is "land that is surrounded by seawater on a daily basis, but not necessarily at all stages of the tide, excluding human devices such as bridges and causeways".
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 ...
has over 790 offshore islands, most of which are to be found in four main groups:
Shetland
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
,
Orkney
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
, and the
Hebrides
The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrid ...
, sub-divided into 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 ...
and
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 ...
.
There are also clusters of islands 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 ...
,
Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south.
Name
''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...
, and
Solway Firth
The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in ...
, and numerous small islands within the many bodies of
fresh water
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...
in Scotland including
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond (; gd, Loch Laomainn - 'Lake of the Elms'Richens, R. J. (1984) ''Elm'', Cambridge University Press.) is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Ce ...
and
Loch Maree
Loch Maree ( gd, Loch Ma-ruibhe) is a loch in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. At long and with a maximum width of , it is the fourth-largest freshwater loch in Scotland; it is the largest north of Loch Ness. Its surface area ...
. The largest island is
Lewis and Harris
Lewis and Harris ( gd, Leòdhas agus na Hearadh, sco, Lewis an Harris), or Lewis with Harris, is a single Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides, divided by mountains. It is the largest island in Scotland and the third largest in the British ...
which extends to 2,179 square kilometres, and there are a further 200 islands which are greater than 40 hectares in area. Of the remainder, several such as
Staffa
Staffa ( gd, Stafa, , from the Old Norse for stave or pillar island) is an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Vikings gave it this name as its columnar basalt reminded them of their houses, which were built from ver ...
and the
Flannan Isles
The Flannan Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Flannach) or alternatively, the Seven Hunters are a small island group in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, approximately west of the Isle of Lewis. They may take their name from Saint Flannan, the 7th centu ...
are well known despite their small size.
[ Some 94 Scottish islands are permanently inhabited, of which 89 are offshore islands. Between 2001 and 2011 Scottish island populations as a whole grew by 4% to 103,702.]["Scotland's 2011 census: Island living on the rise"]
BBC News. Retrieved 18 August 2013.
The geology and geomorphology of the islands is varied. Some, such as Skye
The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated b ...
and Mull
Mull may refer to:
Places
*Isle of Mull, a Scottish island in the Inner Hebrides
** Sound of Mull, between the Isle of Mull and the rest of Scotland
* Mount Mull, Antarctica
*Mull Hill, Isle of Man
* Mull, Arkansas, a place along Arkansas Highway ...
, are mountainous, while others like Tiree
Tiree (; gd, Tiriodh, ) is the most westerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The low-lying island, southwest of Coll, has an area of and a population of around 650.
The land is highly fertile, and crofting, alongside tourism, and ...
and Sanday are relatively low lying. Many have bedrock made from ancient Archaean 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 ...
which was formed 3 billion years ago; Shapinsay
Shapinsay (, sco, Shapinsee) is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. There is one village on the island, Balfour, from which roll-on/roll-off car ferries sail to Kirkwall on the Orkney Mainland. Balfour Castle, ...
and other Orkney islands are formed from Old Red Sandstone
The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...
, which is 400 million years old; and others such as Rùm
Rùm (), a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum (), is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, in the district of Lochaber, Scotland. For much of the 20th century the name became Rhum, a spelling invented by the former owner, Sir ...
from more recent Tertiary
Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.
The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
volcanoes
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...
. Many of the islands are swept by strong tides, and the Corryvreckan tide race between 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 Jura is one of the largest whirlpools in the world. Other strong tides are to be found in the Pentland Firth
The Pentland Firth ( gd, An Caol Arcach, meaning the Orcadian Strait) is a strait which separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland. Despite the name, it is not a firth.
Etymology
The name is presumed to be a corruption ...
between mainland Scotland and Orkney
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
, and another example is the "Grey Dog" between Scarba and Lunga.[
The culture of the islands has been affected by the successive influences of ]Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
, Norse and English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
speaking peoples and this is reflected in names given to the islands. Many of the Hebrides
The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrid ...
have names with Scots Gaelic derivations, whilst those of the Northern Isles
The Northern Isles ( sco, Northren Isles; gd, Na h-Eileanan a Tuath; non, Norðreyjar; nrn, Nordøjar) are a pair of archipelagos off the north coast of mainland Scotland, comprising Orkney and Shetland. They are part of Scotland, as are th ...
tend to be derived from the 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 ...
names. A few have Brythonic, Scots and even perhaps pre-Celtic roots.[
A feature of modern island life is the low crime rate and they are considered to be amongst the safest places to live in ]Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
. Orkney was rated as the best place to live in Scotland in both 2013 and 2014 according to the Halifax Quality of Life survey.
Rockall
Rockall () is an uninhabitable granite islet situated in the North Atlantic Ocean. The United Kingdom claims that Rockall lies within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and is part of its territory, but this claim is not recognised by Ireland. ...
is a small rocky islet in the North Atlantic which was declared part of Scotland by the Island of Rockall Act 1972
The Island of Rockall Act 1972 (c. 2) is a British Act of Parliament formally incorporating the island of Rockall into the United Kingdom to protect it from Irish and Icelandic claims. The Act as originally passed declared that the Island of Roc ...
. However, despite no possession by any other state and other precedents, the legality of the claim is disputed by the Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...
, Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
and Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
and some say, it may be unenforceable in international law.
Demographics
The 2011 census records 94 Scottish islands as having a usually resident population of which 89 are offshore islands. There are however various complications with both the definitions of an "island" and occasional habitation and the National Records of Scotland
National Records of Scotland ( gd, Clàran Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is a non-ministerial department of the Scottish Government. It is responsible for Civil registry, civil registration, the census in Scotland, demography and statistics, family histor ...
also list a further 17 islands that were inhabited in 2001 but not 2011, or are "included in the NRS statistical geography for inhabited islands but had no usual residents at the time of either the 2001 or 2011 censuses".[National Records of Scotland (2013) pp. 11-13] There are a small number of other islands that are evidently inhabited but which are not recorded in this list.
The local government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
council areas
For local government purposes, Scotland is divided into 32 areas designated as "council areas" ( gd, comhairlean), which are all governed by single-tier authorities designated as "councils". They have the option under the Local Government (Ga ...
with the most inhabited islands are 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) ...
with 23, Orkney with 20, Shetland with 16 and Highland
Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...
and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (, for, , Scottish Gaelic, Council of the Western Isles) is the local government council for ''Na h-Eileanan Siar'' (the Outer Hebrides) council area of Scotland. with 14 each. There are also three in North Ayrshire
North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and so ...
and one each in Fife
Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...
, Perth and Kinross
Perth and Kinross ( sco, Pairth an Kinross; gd, Peairt agus Ceann Rois) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Fife, Highland and S ...
, Stirling
Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...
and West Dunbartonshire
West Dunbartonshire ( sco, Wast Dunbairtonshire; gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Breatann an Iar, ) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. The area lies to the west of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's commuter town ...
. The last three named plus two islands in Argyll and Bute are freshwater rather than offshore.[
]
In the past many smaller islands that are uninhabited today had permanent populations. Losses were severe in many areas during the 19th century when islands such as Pabbay and Fuaigh Mòr
Fuaigh Mòr (sometimes anglicised as Vuia Mor) is an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It is off the west coast of Lewis near Great Bernera in Loch Roag. It is and at its highest point.
History
In 1841, Fuaigh Mòr was the scene o ...
were subject to forcible evictions during the Highland Clearances
The Highland Clearances ( gd, Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860.
The first phase resulte ...
. Mass emigration from the Hebridean islands was at its height in the mid-19th century but it commenced as early as the 1770s in some areas. The crofting counties
A croft is a Agricultural fencing, fenced or Enclosure, enclosed area of land, usually small and arable land, arable, and usually, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has Land tenure, tenure and use of the lan ...
held 20% of Scotland's population in 1755 but by 1961 this figure had declined to 5%. Other examples include Mingulay
Mingulay ( gd, Miughalaigh) is the second largest of the Bishop's Isles in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Located south of Barra, it is known for its important seabird populations, including puffins, black-legged kittiwakes, and razorbills, ...
, Noss and the St Kilda archipelago, which were abandoned during the course of the 20th century. Declines have been particularly significant in the more remote outlying islands, some of which remain vulnerable to ongoing losses.
The following table shows population trends for the ten most populous islands as of the last census. The overall trends are typically growth in populations in the early part of the modern period, followed by declines from the mid 19th century onwards. In every case except Orkney the highest population was recorded prior to 1932 and the lowest post-industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
figure after 1960. Subsequently, there has been modest growth overall, although some islands are continuing to show a decline. Between 1991 and 2001, the population of the islands as a whole fell by 3% to 99,739, although there were 35 islands whose population increased.[General Register Office for Scotland (2003)] By contrast, between 2001 and 2011 Scottish island populations as a whole grew by 4% to 103,702.[ The Scottish Community Alliance noted that "the largest rate of increase has been in the Western Isles (6%) where local people now own approximately 60% of the landmass. Where populations have fallen (Bute, Arran and Islay) community ownership is virtually non-existent."
]
Largest Scottish islands by population
The following table compares the populations of the main Scottish archipelagos with that of the Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
for a similar time frame to the above.
Legislation
In July 2013, the Scottish Government made the Lerwick Declaration
The Lerwick Declaration refers to an announcement made by First Minister Alex Salmond on behalf of the Scottish Government on 25 July 2013, which revealed that a ministerial working group would examine the prospect of decentralising power to Sh ...
, indicating an intention to decentralise power to the three island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles and later that year made a commitment to do so. In 2017 an Islands bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
was introduced to make "island proofing" (including for uninhabited islands) a statutory requirement for public bodies. The Bill completed Stage 1 on 8 February 2018.
Larger islands
This is a list of Scottish islands that either have an area greater than 40 hectares (approximately 100 acres) and/or are inhabited. The main groups, from Haswell-Smith (2004), in many cases provide a more useful guide to location than local authority areas. These groups are: 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 ...
, Islay
Islay ( ; gd, Ìle, sco, Ila) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll just south west of Jura, Scotland, Jura and around north of the Northern Irish coast. The isl ...
, Firth of Lorn
The Firth of Lorn or Lorne ( gd, An Linne Latharnach) is the inlet of the sea between the south-east coast of the Isle of Mull and the mainland of Scotland. It includes a number of islands, and is noted for the variety of wildlife habitats that ...
, Mull
Mull may refer to:
Places
*Isle of Mull, a Scottish island in the Inner Hebrides
** Sound of Mull, between the Isle of Mull and the rest of Scotland
* Mount Mull, Antarctica
*Mull Hill, Isle of Man
* Mull, Arkansas, a place along Arkansas Highway ...
, Small Isles
The Small Isles ('' gd, Na h-Eileanan Tarsainn'') are a small archipelago of islands in the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland. They lie south of Skye and north of Mull and Ardnamurchan – the most westerly point of mainla ...
, Skye
The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated b ...
, Lewis and Harris
Lewis and Harris ( gd, Leòdhas agus na Hearadh, sco, Lewis an Harris), or Lewis with Harris, is a single Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides, divided by mountains. It is the largest island in Scotland and the third largest in the British ...
, Uist
"Uist" is a group of six islands and are part of the Outer Hebridean Archipelago, part of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
North Uist and South Uist ( or ; gd, Uibhist ) are two of the islands and are linked by causeways running via the isles ...
s and Barra
Barra (; gd, Barraigh or ; sco, Barra) is an island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and the second southernmost inhabited island there, after the adjacent island of Vatersay to which it is connected by a short causeway. The island is na ...
, St Kilda, Orkney
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
, Shetland
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
and Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south.
Name
''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...
. In a few cases where the island is part of either a recognisable smaller group or an archipelago, or is located away from the main groups, an archipelago, local authority or other descriptive name is used instead. "F" designates a freshwater island.
Scotland's islands include thirteen Munro
A Munro () is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevis ...
s (mountains with a height over 3,000 feet or 914.4 metres), twelve of them found on Skye, and a total of 227 Marilyns (hills with a relative height
In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...
of at least 150 metres, regardless of absolute height).
Four islands were recorded as inhabited in 2011 that were not mentioned in the 2001 census: , , Holm of Grimbister and Inner Holm.[
These following are listed by the National Records of Scotland as "included in the NRS statistical geography for inhabited islands but had no usual residents at the time of either the 2001 or 2011 censuses."][ None except Lamb Holm are greater than 40 ha in area.
]
Freshwater islands
There are numerous other freshwater islands, of which the more notable include Lochindorb Castle Island, Loch Leven Castle Island, St Serf's Inch
St Serf's Inch or St Serf's Island is an island in Loch Leven, in south-eastern Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It was the home of a Culdee and then an Augustinian monastic community, St Serf's Inch Priory.
History
There was a monastic community on ...
, and Inchmahome
Inchmahome, an anglicisation of Innis Mo Cholmaig ("my-Colmac's island"), is the largest of three islands in the Lake of Menteith, in Stirlingshire.
History
Inchmahome is best known as the location of Inchmahome Priory and for the attendant p ...
, each of which have played an important part in Scottish history.
Inchmurrin
Inchmurrin ( gd, Innis Mhearain) is an island in Loch Lomond in Scotland. It is the largest fresh water island in the British Isles.
Geography and geology
Inchmurrin is the largest and most southerly of the islands in Loch Lomond. It reache ...
is the largest freshwater island in the British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
.[Dow, Jim (2005) ''Islands Galore. A Scottish Islands Handbook''. Edinburgh. Black & White Publishing.] It is in Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond (; gd, Loch Laomainn - 'Lake of the Elms'Richens, R. J. (1984) ''Elm'', Cambridge University Press.) is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Ce ...
, which contains over sixty other islands.[ ]Loch Maree
Loch Maree ( gd, Loch Ma-ruibhe) is a loch in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. At long and with a maximum width of , it is the fourth-largest freshwater loch in Scotland; it is the largest north of Loch Ness. Its surface area ...
also contains several islands, the largest of which are Eilean Sùbhainn
Eilean Sùbhainn is the largest of several small islands in Loch Maree, Wester Ross, Scotland. It is the second largest freshwater island in Scotland after Inchmurrin
Inchmurrin ( gd, Innis Mhearain) is an island in Loch Lomond in Scotland. It ...
, Garbh Eilean and Eilean Ruairidh Mòr
Eilean Ruairidh Mòr is a forested island in Loch Maree, Wester Ross, Scotland. Its name was formerly anglicised as "Ellan-Rorymore".Wilson, Rev. John ''The Gazetteer of Scotland'' (Edinburgh, 1882) Published by W. & A.K. Johnstone
The island is ...
but aren't as big as others.
Smaller offshore islands
This is a continuing list of uninhabited Scottish islands smaller than 40 hectares in size.
Small archipelagos
There are various small archipelagos which may be better known than the larger islands they contain. These include:
Former islands
The following is a list of places which were formerly islands, but which are no longer so due to silting up, harbour building etc.
*Bodinbo Island
Bodinbo Island is an islet in the estuarine waters of the River Clyde close to the old ferry slipway at Erskine. Before the dyke or training wall was built the rocky Bodinbo Island was a prominent feature in the river hereabouts and a hazard to s ...
near to Erskine on the River Clyde is now partly joined to the river bank.
*Broch of Clickimin
The Broch of Clickimin (also Clickimin or Clickhimin Broch) is a large, well-preserved but restored broch in Lerwick in Shetland, Scotland (). Originally built on an island in Clickimin Loch, it was approached by a stone causeway. The broch is s ...
is a former island in Loch of Clickimin, Lerwick
Lerwick (; non, Leirvik; nrn, Larvik) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010.
Centred off the north coast of the Scottish mainland ...
, in Shetland. Originally an offshore island, the loch became cut off from the sea around 200 BC and the island is now connected to dry land by a permanent causeway.
* Bunglan was once a separate island, but is now connected to Samphrey
Samphrey ( sco, Samphrey; non, Sandfriðarey) is an uninhabited island in the Shetland Islands, Scotland. One of Fair Isle's old names is "Friðarey" which is of similar origin.
It is situated in the southern end of Yell Sound, between the ...
by two tombolo
A tombolo is a sandy or shingle isthmus. A tombolo, from the Italian ', meaning 'pillow' or 'cushion', and sometimes translated incorrectly as ''ayre'' (an ayre is a shingle beach of any kind), is a deposition landform by which an island become ...
s.
* Eilean-a-beithich
Eilean-a-beithich or Eilean nam Beitheach ("island of the birches") was once one of the Slate Islands, located in Easdale Sound between Easdale and Seil, in the Inner Hebrides.
In 1549, Dean Monro wrote: "''Narrest Seunay layes ther a litle iyl ...
was once one of the Slate Islands
The Slate Islands are an island group in the Inner Hebrides, lying immediately off the west coast of Scotland, north of Jura and southwest of Oban. The main islands are Seil, Easdale, Luing, Shuna, Torsa and Belnahua. Scarba and Kerrera, which ...
and located in Easdale Sound. However, it was quarried to a depth of below sea level leaving only the outer rim of the island. This was eventually breached by the sea and little visible sign of the island now remains.
* Eilean Chaluim Chille is a former island near Kilmuir on Skye in a now drained loch that was associated with the 13th century Hebridean lord Páll, son of Bálki.
* Inchbroach, also known as Rossie Island, is now part of Montrose harbour.
* Inch of Culter is a former island in the River Dee near Maryculter
Maryculter () or Kirkton of Maryculter is a village in the Lower Deeside area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The River Dee separates it from the town of Peterculter, and the B979 road runs through Maryculter. Maryculter House Hotel lies slightly ...
.
* Innis Bheag or Paterson Island near Portmahomack
Portmahomack ( gd, Port Mo Chalmaig; 'Haven of My .e. 'Saint'Colmóc') is a small fishing village in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is situated in the Tarbat Peninsula in the parish of Tarbat. Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is about from the village at t ...
in Easter Ross is now permanently attached to the Morrich More
Morrich More is an extensive area of dune grassland with wetland communities, on the southern shore of the Dornoch Firth, Scotland.
Morrich More lies east of Tain, on the southern shore of the Dornoch Firth, Scotland. Offshore lie extensive areas ...
due to shifting sands.
* Keith Inch
Keith Inch (originally ''Keith Insche'', ''Keithinche'' or ''Caikinche'') is the easternmost point of mainland Scotland, having formerly been an island. It is located in Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, forming the north point of Peterhead Bay at . I ...
(not to be confused with Inchkeith
Inchkeith (from the gd, Innis Cheith) is an island in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, administratively part of the Fife council area.
Inchkeith has had a colourful history as a result of its proximity to Edinburgh and strategic location for u ...
), is now part of Peterhead Harbour, and is the easternmost point of mainland 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 ...
.
* King's Inch
King's Inch and the much smaller Sand Inch were islands lying in the estuarine waters of the River Clyde close to Renfrew in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Due to dredging and a change of the course of the main current of the River Clyde, silting, ...
on which stood Inch Castle.
* Milton Island
Milton Island or Green Inch was an island in the Clyde's estuarine waters close to the old ford across the river at Dumbuck near Dumbarton. The island was once part of the tidal ford supposedly built by the Romans. Industrial activity has chang ...
or Green Inch was an island in the Clyde's estuarine waters close to the old ford across the river at Dumbuck near Dumbarton.
* Newshot Island
Newshot Island or Newshot Isle was an island of circa 50 acres or 20 hectares lying in the estuary, estuarine waters of the River Clyde close to Park Quay in the Parish of Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, Scotland. Due to silting, etc. it has become part ...
or Newshot Isle was an island of circa 50 acres or 20 hectares lying in the River Clyde close to Park Quay, Renfrewshire, Scotland. It is now partly joined to the river bank.
* North Inch
North Inch is a large public park in Perth, Scotland. About 54 hectares in size, it is one of two "Inches" in Perth, the other being the smaller, 31-hectare South Inch, located half a mile across the city. The inches were granted to the city, whe ...
, one of the "Inches" in Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
, formerly an island in the River Tay
The River Tay ( gd, Tatha, ; probably from the conjectured Brythonic ''Tausa'', possibly meaning 'silent one' or 'strong one' or, simply, 'flowing') is the longest river in Scotland and the seventh-longest in Great Britain. The Tay originates ...
.
* Preston Island
Preston Island is a former artificial island in the Firth of Forth, Scotland. The reclaimed land was once used for salt production, using local coal. It is part of Fife.
History
Preston Island, south of Low Valleyfield in the Firth of Forth, w ...
, an artificial construction south of Low Valleyfield, has now been fully reclaimed, using ash slurry from Longannet power station
Longannet power station was a large coal-fired power station in Fife, and the last coal-fired power station in Scotland. It was capable of co-firing biomass, natural gas and sludge. The station stood on the north bank of the Firth of Forth, nea ...
.
* Rosyth Castle
Rosyth Castle is a fifteenth-century ruined tower house on the perimeter of Rosyth Naval Dockyard, Fife, Scotland.
It originally stood on a small island in the Firth of Forth accessible only at low tide, and dates from around 1450, built as a s ...
also stands on what was once a tidal island in the Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south.
Name
''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...
, now surrounded by reclaimed land.
* Sand Inch was a small island in the River Clyde next to King's Inch
King's Inch and the much smaller Sand Inch were islands lying in the estuarine waters of the River Clyde close to Renfrew in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Due to dredging and a change of the course of the main current of the River Clyde, silting, ...
* Scalp na Caoraich, Cridhe An Uisge, Rònach and Scalp Phàdraig Mhòir - four small islands at the delta of the River Ness
The River Ness (Scottish Gaelic: ''Abhainn Nis'') is a river in Highland, Scotland, UK. It flows from Loch Dochfour, at the northern end of Loch Ness, north-east to the mouth of the Beauly Firth at Inverness, a distance of about , with a fall ...
in Inverness
Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...
which were removed in the 19th century.
* Scottle Holm was an islet north of Lerwick, Shetland. It has since become part of an industrial estate.[
* ]White Inch
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
, now an area of Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
.
Bridged islands
Many of Scotland's islands are connected to the mainland and/or other islands by bridge or causeway. Although some people consider them no longer to be islands, they are generally treated as such.
Outer Hebrides
Many of the islands of the southern Outer Hebrides have been joined to other islands by causeways and bridges. These include:
* Baleshare
Baleshare ( gd, Baile Sear) is a flat tidal island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Baleshare lies to the south-west of North Uist. Its economics and community were boosted by the building of a causeway in 1962. The causeway was built by Wil ...
* Benbecula
Benbecula (; gd, Beinn nam Fadhla or ) is an island of the Outer Hebrides in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Scotland. In the 2011 census, it had a resident population of 1,283 with a sizable percentage of Roman Catholics. It is in a ...
* Berneray
* Eriskay
Eriskay ( gd, Èirisgeigh), from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland with a population of 143, as of the 2011 census. It lies between South Uist and Barra and is ...
* Grimsay
Grimsay ( gd, Griomasaigh) is a tidal island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
Geography
Grimsay is the largest of the low-lying stepping-stones which convey the Oitir Mhòr (North Ford) causeway, a arc of single track road linking North Uis ...
* 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 ...
* South Uist
South Uist ( gd, Uibhist a Deas, ; sco, Sooth Uist) is the second-largest island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. At the 2011 census, it had a usually resident population of 1,754: a decrease of 64 since 2001. The island, in common with the ...
* Vatersay
The island of Vatersay (; gd, Bhatarsaigh) is the southernmost and westernmost inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and the settlement of Caolas on the north coast of the island is the westernmost permanently inhabited place in ...
, which joined to Barra
Barra (; gd, Barraigh or ; sco, Barra) is an island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and the second southernmost inhabited island there, after the adjacent island of Vatersay to which it is connected by a short causeway. The island is na ...
, but not to the above islands.
To the north, Scalpay and Great Bernera
Great Bernera (; gd, Beàrnaraigh Mòr), often known just as Bernera ( gd, Beàrnaraigh), is an island and community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. With an area of just over , it is the thirty-fourth largest Scottish island.
Great Bernera l ...
are connected to Lewis and Harris
Lewis and Harris ( gd, Leòdhas agus na Hearadh, sco, Lewis an Harris), or Lewis with Harris, is a single Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides, divided by mountains. It is the largest island in Scotland and the third largest in the British ...
.
Inner Hebrides
* Skye
The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated b ...
is connected to the mainland by the Skye Bridge
The Skye Bridge ( gd, Drochaid an Eilein Sgitheanaich) is a road bridge over Loch Alsh, Scotland, connecting the Isle of Skye to the island of Eilean Bàn. The name is also used for the whole Skye Crossing, which further connects Eilean Bàn ...
which now incorporates Eilean Bàn.
* Eilean Donan
Eilean Donan ( gd, Eilean Donnain) is a small tidal island situated at the confluence of three sea lochs (Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh) in the western Highlands of Scotland, about from the village of Dornie. It is connected to the mainl ...
by causeway to the mainland
* Eriska
Eriska is a flat tidal island at the entrance to Loch Creran on the west coast of Scotland. Privately owned by the Buchanan-Smiths from 1973 until August 2016, Eriska is now owned by Creation Gem, a family-owned business from Hong Kong. by causeway to the mainland
* Seil
Seil (; gd, Saoil, ) is one of the Slate Islands, located on the east side of the Firth of Lorn, southwest of Oban, in Scotland. Seil has been linked to the mainland by bridge since the late 18th century.
The origins of the island's name are ...
(to mainland) via John Stevenson's 1792 "Bridge over The Atlantic
The Clachan Bridge is a simple, single-arched, hump-backed, masonry bridge spanning the Clachan Sound, southwest of Oban in Argyll, Scotland. It links the west coast of the Scottish mainland to the island of Seil.
The bridge was originally de ...
".
* Danna by causeway to the mainland
Orkney Islands
Similarly, four Orkney islands are joined to the Orkney Mainland
The Mainland, also known as Hrossey and Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections.
Seventy-five per cent of O ...
by a series of causeway
A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tra ...
s known as the Churchill Barriers
The Churchill Barriers are four causeways in the Orkney islands with a total length of . They link the Orkney Mainland in the north to the island of South Ronaldsay via Burray and the two smaller islands of Lamb Holm and Glimps Holm.
The ba ...
. They are:
* South Ronaldsay
South Ronaldsay (, also , sco, Sooth Ronalshee) is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland. It is linked to the Orkney Mainland by the Churchill Barriers, running via Burray, Glimps Holm and Lamb Holm.
Name
Along with North R ...
* Burray
Burray () is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland. It lies to the east of Scapa Flow and is one of a chain of islands linked by the Churchill Barriers.
Geography and geology
Burray lies between Mainland, Orkney and South Ronaldsay, and is ...
* Lamb Holm
Lamb Holm is a small uninhabited island in Orkney, Scotland. The Italian Chapel, constructed during the Second World War, is the island's main attraction.
Lamb Holm is classified by the National Records of Scotland as an uninhabited island tha ...
* Glimps Holm
Glimps Holm or Glims Holm ( non, Glums Holm) is a small uninhabited islet in Orkney, Scotland.
Geography
Glimps Holm lies in Holm Sound, one of the eastern entrances to Scapa Flow, between Mainland, Orkney and the island of Burray. The Churc ...
Hunda
Hunda is an uninhabited island in the Orkney archipelago in Scotland. It is in extent and rises to above sea level. It is situated in Scapa Flow and connected to the nearby island of Burray by a causeway built in 1941 to stop passage of s ...
is in turn connected to Burray via a causeway.
South Walls
South Walls ( sco, Sooth Waas), often referred to as Walls, is an inhabited island adjacent to Hoy in Orkney, Scotland. The name is a corruption of "Sooth Was", which means the "southern voes" – as with Kirkwall, it was assumed that it was a mi ...
and Hoy
Hoy ( sco, Hoy; from Norse , meaning "high island") is an island in Orkney, Scotland, measuring – the second largest in the archipelago, after Mainland. A natural causeway, ''the Ayre'', links the island to the smaller South Walls; the tw ...
are connected by a causeway called the Ayre. The islands are treated as one entity (Hoy) by the UK census.
An undersea tunnel between the archipelago and Caithness
Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland.
Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by ...
, at a length of about and a tunnel connecting Orkney Mainland to Shapinsay have been discussed, although little has come of it.
Shetland Islands
Several Shetland islands are joined to the Shetland Mainland
The Mainland is the main island of Shetland, Scotland. The island contains Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick, and is the centre of Shetland's ferry and air connections.
Geography
It has an area of , making it the third-largest Scottish island and ...
:
* West Burra
West Burra is one of the Scalloway Islands, a subgroup of the Shetland Islands in Scotland. It is connected by bridge to East Burra. With an area of , it is the eleventh-largest of the Shetland Islands.
Geography
The nearby south-facing s ...
and East Burra
East Burra ( sco, East Burra; Old Norse: "Barrey"Anderson, Joseph (Ed.) (1893) ''Orkneyinga Saga''. Translated by Jón A. Hjaltalin & Gilbert Goudie. Edinburgh. James Thin and Mercat Press (1990 reprint). ) is one of the Scalloway Islands, a ...
(via Trondra)
* Muckle Roe
Muckle Roe is an island in Shetland, Scotland, in St. Magnus Bay, to the west of Mainland. It has a population of around 130 people, who mainly croft and live in the south east of the island.Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 440
'Muckle' is Scots for 'bi ...
* Trondra
Trondra ( sco, Trondra) is one of the Scalloway Islands, a subgroup of the Shetland Islands in Scotland. It shelters the harbour of Scalloway and has an area of .
History
Trondra was becoming rapidly depopulated until 1970, when road bridges wer ...
* Broch of Clickimin
The Broch of Clickimin (also Clickimin or Clickhimin Broch) is a large, well-preserved but restored broch in Lerwick in Shetland, Scotland (). Originally built on an island in Clickimin Loch, it was approached by a stone causeway. The broch is s ...
is a freshwater islet joined to the mainland by a stone causeway.
* Holm of Mel was a tidal island linked to the west coast of Bressay at low tide but it is now linked permanently to its larger neighbour by a 75m stone causeway.
There is also a bridge from Housay to Bruray.
Others
Various other islands are also connected by bridges or causeways, to the mainland or other islands, including:
* Inchgarvie
Inchgarvie or Inch Garvie is a small, uninhabited island in the Firth of Forth. On the rocks around the island sit four caissons that make up the foundations of the Forth Bridge.
Inchgarvie's fortifications pre-date the modern period. In the day ...
(part of Forth Bridge
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder in ...
), thus joined to both Fife
Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...
and Lothian
Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sco ...
on the Mainland.
* Garbh Eilean at the entrance to Loch Glencoul is now joined to the mainland by both the Kylesku Bridge
The Kylesku Bridge (officially known since 2019 by its Gaelic name Drochaid a' Chaolais Chumhaing) is a distinctively curved concrete box girder bridge in north-west Scotland that crosses the Loch a' Chàirn Bhàin in Sutherland. It is listed a ...
to the south and its associated roadworks to the north.
* Innis Chonan
Innis Chonain or Innischonan is an island in Loch Awe, Scotland connected to the mainland by a bridge.
Architect, author and antiquarian Walter Douglas Campbell, a young brother of Archibald Campbell, 1st Baron Blythswood, purchased the island ...
, an inhabited island in Loch Awe
Loch Awe (Scottish Gaelic: ''Loch Obha'') is a large body of freshwater in Argyll and Bute, Scottish Highlands. It has also given its name to a village on its banks, variously known as Loch Awe or Lochawe. There are islands within the loch such ...
is connected to the mainland by a small road bridge.
* Moncreiffe Island
Moncreiffe Island, also known as Friarton Island, is an island in Perth, Scotland. It divides the River Tay into two channels as it flows through Perth, and is crossed by the single-track Tay Viaduct, carrying the Scottish Central Railway.
Lan ...
connected to the mainland by the Tay Viaduct
The Tay Viaduct, also known as the West Railway Bridge, is a single-track railway viaduct in Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is around long. It carries the Scottish Central Railway, via a pronounced curve, across the River Tay to and ...
Tidal islands and tombolos
There are a large number of small tidal islands
A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands, many of them have been sites of ...
in Scotland. The more notable ones include:
* Baleshare
Baleshare ( gd, Baile Sear) is a flat tidal island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Baleshare lies to the south-west of North Uist. Its economics and community were boosted by the building of a causeway in 1962. The causeway was built by Wil ...
* Bernera
* Calve Island
Calve Island is an uninhabited low-lying island off the east coast of the Isle of Mull in Argyll and Bute on the west coast of Scotland. A whitewashed farmhouse with substantial outbuildings stands on the western shore, used as a summer residence ...
* Castle Island
* Corn Holm
Corn Holm is a small tidal island in Orkney, near Copinsay to the west, off the north-eastern coast of Scotland. There was once a small chapel there,Haswell-Smith, Hamish. (2004) ''The Scottish Islands''. Edinburgh. Canongate. and it is covered ...
* Cramond Island
Cramond Island (Scottish Gaelic: ''Eilean Chathair Amain'') is one of several islands in the Firth of Forth in eastern Scotland, near Edinburgh. It lies off the foreshore at Cramond. It is long and covers .Wilson, Rev. John ''The Gazetteer o ...
* Island Davaar
Island Davaar or Davaar Island ( gd, Eilean Dà Bhàrr) is located at the mouth of Campbeltown Loch off the east coast of Kintyre, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is a tidal island, linked to the mainland by a natural Shingle beach, shingle cau ...
* Dunnicaer
Dunnicaer, or Dun-na-caer, is a precipitous sea stack just off the coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, between Dunnottar Castle and Stonehaven. Despite the unusual difficulty of access, in 1832 Pictish symbol stones were found on the summit and ...
* Eilean Mhic Chrion
Eilean Mhic Chrion is a tidal island sheltering Ardfern in Loch Craignish, Scotland.
Eilean Mhic Chrion is one of 43 tidal islands that can be walked to from the mainland of Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlan ...
* Eilean Shona
Eilean Shona ( gd, Eilean Seòna) is a tidal island in Loch Moidart, Scotland. The modern name may be from the Old Norse for "sea island". The pre-Norse Gaelic name, as recorded by Adomnán was or , meaning 'foreshore island', similar to the d ...
* Eriska
Eriska is a flat tidal island at the entrance to Loch Creran on the west coast of Scotland. Privately owned by the Buchanan-Smiths from 1973 until August 2016, Eriska is now owned by Creation Gem, a family-owned business from Hong Kong.
* Erraid
Erraid ( gd, Eilean Earraid) is a tidal island approximately square located in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It lies west of Mull (to which it is linked by a beach at low tide) and southeast of Iona. The island receives about of rainWalker, A ...
* Helliar Holm
Helliar Holm is an uninhabited island off the coast of Shapinsay in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. It is home to a lighthouse, which was built in 1893 and automated in 1967. It is a tidal island that used to be connected to Shapinsay. It is still ...
* Kili Holm
Kili Holm is a tidal island in the Orkney Islands, linked to Egilsay. Unusually, like its neighbour Egilsay, it may have a partly Gaelic etymology,Anderson, Joseph (Ed.) (1893) ''Orkneyinga Saga''. Translated by Jón A. Hjaltalin & Gilbert Goudi ...
* Isle Ristol
Isle Ristol, the innermost of the Summer Isles in Scotland, is a Scottish Wildlife Trust Reserve.
Lying roughly north of Ullapool in Wester Ross, it is a tidal island, in Loch an Alltain Duibh, that is separated by a narrow channel from Old ...
* Sanday
* Torsa
Torsa (occasionally Torsay) is one of the Slate Islands in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Lying east of Luing and south of Seil, this tidal island was inhabited until the 1960s. There is now only one house there, which is used for holiday lets. The ...
''Oronsay'' means "ebb island" and there are several tidal islands of this name.
The three main islands of the Monach Islands
The Monach Islands, also known as Heisker ( gd, Eilean Heisgeir / , ), are an island group west of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The islands are not to be confused with Hyskeir in the Inner Hebrides, or Haskeir which is also o ...
(Heisgeir), Ceann Iar, Ceann Ear and Shivinish are connected at low tides. It is said that at one time it was also possible to walk all the way to Baleshare
Baleshare ( gd, Baile Sear) is a flat tidal island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Baleshare lies to the south-west of North Uist. Its economics and community were boosted by the building of a causeway in 1962. The causeway was built by Wil ...
, and on to 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 ...
, away at low tide. In the 16th century, a large tidal wave was said to have washed the route away.[
St Ninian's Isle is connected to Mainland Shetland by a ]tombolo
A tombolo is a sandy or shingle isthmus. A tombolo, from the Italian ', meaning 'pillow' or 'cushion', and sometimes translated incorrectly as ''ayre'' (an ayre is a shingle beach of any kind), is a deposition landform by which an island become ...
. Although greater than 40 hectares in size it fails to meet the definition of an island used in this list as it is only surrounded by water during occasional spring tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide tables ca ...
s and storms.
Dùn in St Kilda is separated 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 ...
by a shallow strait about wide. This is normally impassable but is reputed to dry out on rare occasions.[
]
Complex islands
There are a number of offshore islands that defy easy classification.
* Ceallasaigh Mòr
Ceallasaigh Mòr (or Keallasay More) is a low-lying island in Loch Maddy off North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. This an area of shallow lagoons filled and drained by the tides each day. Ceallasaigh Beag lies to the south and these tw ...
and Ceallasaigh Beag
Ceallasaigh Beag (or Keallasay BegHaswell-Smith p. 244) is a low-lying island in Loch Maddy off North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. This an area of shallow lagoons filled and drained by the tides each day. Ceallasaigh Mòr lies to th ...
are islands in Loch Maddy, North Uist which are both c. in extent at high tide. At low tide they are connected to one another and several other small tidal islets in the shallow lagoon that surrounds them.
* Eileanan Iasgaich
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, Scotland. The individual islands are separated from one another at high tide, but connected t ...
in Loch Boisdale
''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch.
In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spelling ...
, South Uist comprises five small islands and several other islets at high tide but forms a single large one of at low tide.
* Eileanan Chearabhaigh
__NOTOC__
Eileanan Chearabhaigh is a collection of small uninhabited tidal islands off the south east coast of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The English language name Keiravagh Islands is sometimes used.Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 24 ...
. At low tide these islands form a peninsula with a total area of , which is connected to Benbecula by drying sands.[ At high tide the connection to Benbecula is lost and a number of small islets stretching for over from east to west appear, the largest of which is about in extent.
* The Crowlin Islands, located in the Inner Sound off Raasay are three separate islands at high tide and a single one of at low tide.
* Similarly, Lunga in the ]Firth of Lorn
The Firth of Lorn or Lorne ( gd, An Linne Latharnach) is the inlet of the sea between the south-east coast of the Isle of Mull and the mainland of Scotland. It includes a number of islands, and is noted for the variety of wildlife habitats that ...
is six or more separate islets at high tide but a single one of at low tide.
Castle islands
There are several small Scottish islands that are dominated by a castle or other fortification. The castle is often better known than the island, and the islands are often tidal or bridged. Due to their picturesque nature some of them are well known from postcards and films. Examples are:
* Bass Rock
The Bass Rock, or simply the Bass (), ( gd, Creag nam Bathais or gd, Am Bas) is an island in the outer part of the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland. Approximately offshore, and north-east of North Berwick, it is a steep-sided volcan ...
* Broch of West Burrafirth
* Castle Island
* Calvay
Calvay ( gd, Calbhaigh), is a currently uninhabited island situated in the Sound of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides, at . It is one of ten islands in the Sound of Barra, a Site of Community Importance for conservation.
It was here that the ship ...
* Castle Stalker
Castle Stalker ( gd, Caisteal an Stalcaire) is a four-storey tower house or keep. It is set on a tidal islet on Loch Laich, an inlet off Loch Linnhe. It is about north-east of Port Appin, Argyll, Scotland, and is visible from the A828 road a ...
* Castle Tioram
Castle Tioram () ( gd, Caisteal Tioram, meaning "dry castle") is a ruined castle that sits on the tidal island Eilean Tioram in Loch Moidart, Lochaber, Highland, Scotland. It is located west of Acharacle, approximately from Fort William. Thou ...
* Eilean Aigas
Eilean Aigas (NH4641) ( gd, Eilean Àigeis) is an island in the River Beauly, Scotland, in Kiltarlity parish in traditional Inverness-shire,Wilson, Rev. John ''The Gazetteer of Scotland'' (Edinburgh, 1882) Published by W. & A.K. Johnstone now Hig ...
(F)
* Eilean Dearg, Loch Riddon
* Eilean Donan
Eilean Donan ( gd, Eilean Donnain) is a small tidal island situated at the confluence of three sea lochs (Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh) in the western Highlands of Scotland, about from the village of Dornie. It is connected to the mainl ...
* Inchtalla
Inchtalla or Inch Talla is an island in the Loch or Lake of Menteith in central Scotland. Its name derives from the Gaelic words ''innis'' ("island") and "talla" ("hall").
The entire island is dominated by Talla Castle, which appears to have be ...
(F)
* Inveruglas Isle
Inveruglas Isle (Scottish Gaelic: "Innis Inbhir Dhughlais") is a small uninhabited island within Loch Lomond, and lies off the shore at Inveruglas opposite Inversnaid at the north end of the loch. It is opposite the Loch Sloy powerstation.Worsle ...
(F)
* Kilchurn Castle
Kilchurn Castle () is a ruined structure on a rocky peninsula at the northeastern end of Loch Awe, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It was first constructed in the mid-15th century as the base of the Campbells of Glenorchy, who extended both the ...
(F)
* Kisimul Castle
Kisimul Castle ( gd, Caisteal Chiosmuil) and also known as Kiessimul Castle, is a medieval castle located on a small island off Castlebay, Barra, in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. It gets its name from the Norse ''ciosamul'', meaning "castle i ...
* Lochindorb Castle
Lochindorb (from the gd, Loch nan Doirb meaning "loch of the minnows") is a freshwater loch north of Grantown on Spey in the Highland council area of Scotland. In the loch there is an island, which is now thought to have been artificially creat ...
(F)
* Loch Leven Castle
Lochleven Castle is a ruined castle on an island in Loch Leven, in the Perth and Kinross local authority area of Scotland. Possibly built around 1300, the castle was the site of military action during the Wars of Scottish Independence (1296 ...
(F)
* Mousa
Mousa ( non, Mosey "moss island") is a small island in Shetland, Scotland, uninhabited since the nineteenth century. The island is known for the Broch of Mousa, an Iron Age round tower, and is designated as a Special Protection Area for storm- ...
* Threave Castle
Threave Castle is situated on an island in the River Dee, west of Castle Douglas in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in the Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland.
Built in the 1370s by Archibald the Grim, it was a stronghold of ...
(F)
* Wyre
Many of the Islands of the Forth
The Islands of the Forth are a group of small islands located in the Firth of Forth and in the estuary of the River Forth on the east coast of Scotland. Most of the group lie in the open waters of the firth, between the Lothians and Fife, with ...
and southern Orkney Islands
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
have fortifications from the two world wars. Rosyth Castle
Rosyth Castle is a fifteenth-century ruined tower house on the perimeter of Rosyth Naval Dockyard, Fife, Scotland.
It originally stood on a small island in the Firth of Forth accessible only at low tide, and dates from around 1450, built as a s ...
stands on a former island.
Holy islands
A large number of the islands of Scotland have some kind of culdee
The Culdees ( ga, Céilí Dé, "Spouses of God") were members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England in the Middle Ages. Appearing first in Ireland and subsequently in Scotland, attac ...
/church connection, and/or are dominated by a church. The more notable include:
* Island Davaar
Island Davaar or Davaar Island ( gd, Eilean Dà Bhàrr) is located at the mouth of Campbeltown Loch off the east coast of Kintyre, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is a tidal island, linked to the mainland by a natural Shingle beach, shingle cau ...
* Egilsay
Egilsay (, sco, Egilsay) is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, lying east of Rousay. The island is largely farmland and is known for its corncrakes and St Magnus Church, dedicated or re-dedicated to Saint Magnus, who was killed on the is ...
* Eynhallow
Eynhallow ( sco, Eynhallow; non, Eyinhelga; nrn, Øjinhellig) is a small, presently uninhabited island, part of Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland.
Geography
Eynhallow lies in Eynhallow Sound between Mainland, Orkney and Rousa ...
* Holy Island
Sacred space, sacred ground, sacred place, sacred temple, holy ground, or holy place refers to a location which is deemed to be sacred or hallowed. The sacredness of a natural feature may accrue through tradition or be granted through a bless ...
* Inchcolm
Inchcolm (from the Scottish Gaelic "Innis Choluim", meaning Columba's Island) is an island in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. It was repeatedly attacked by English raiders during the Wars of Scottish Independence, and was fortified during both Wo ...
* Inch Kenneth
Inch Kenneth ( gd, Innis Choinnich) is a small grassy island off the west coast of the Isle of Mull, in Scotland. It is at the entrance of Loch na Keal, to the south of Ulva. It is part of the Loch na Keal National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scot ...
* Inchmahome
Inchmahome, an anglicisation of Innis Mo Cholmaig ("my-Colmac's island"), is the largest of three islands in the Lake of Menteith, in Stirlingshire.
History
Inchmahome is best known as the location of Inchmahome Priory and for the attendant p ...
(F)
* Iona
Iona (; gd, Ì Chaluim Chille (IPA: iːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə, sometimes simply ''Ì''; sco, Iona) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there ...
* Isle Maree
* North Rona
Rona ( gd, Rònaigh) is a remote, uninhabited Scottish island in the North Atlantic. Rona is often referred to as North Rona to distinguish it from South Rona (another small island, in the Inner Hebrides). It has an area of and a maximum elevat ...
* Oronsay
This is a list of islands called Oronsay (Scottish Gaelic: '), which provides an index for islands in Scotland with this and similar names. It is one of the more common names for Scottish islands. The names come from ''Örfirisey'' which transla ...
* Papa Stronsay
Papa Stronsay ( sco, Papa Stronsee; non, Papey Minni) is a small island in Orkney, Scotland, lying north east of Stronsay. It is in size, and above sea level at its highest point. After being largely abandoned, the island was bought at the end ...
(current Transalpine Redemptorist
The Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer ( la, Filii Sanctissimi Redemptoris; FSSR), commonly known as the Transalpine Redemptorists or The Sons, are a religious institute of the Catholic Church canonically erected in the Roman C ...
monastery. Islands called "Papa" or "Pabbay" tend to be former saints' islands)
* St Ninian's Isle
* St Serf's Inch
St Serf's Inch or St Serf's Island is an island in Loch Leven, in south-eastern Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It was the home of a Culdee and then an Augustinian monastic community, St Serf's Inch Priory.
History
There was a monastic community on ...
(F)
* Tiree
Tiree (; gd, Tiriodh, ) is the most westerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The low-lying island, southwest of Coll, has an area of and a population of around 650.
The land is highly fertile, and crofting, alongside tourism, and ...
("land of Iona")
Brother Isle's name is not ecclesiastical in origin as is sometimes stated.
Islands named after people
This is a list of islands, which are known to be named after someone. In some cases such as North Ronaldsay
North Ronaldsay (, also , sco, North Ronalshee) is the northernmost island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. With an area of , it is the fourteenth-largest.Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 334 It is mentioned in the '' Orkneyinga saga''; in modern ...
this status may not be obvious (it isn't named after a "Ronald", unlike South Ronaldsay
South Ronaldsay (, also , sco, Sooth Ronalshee) is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland. It is linked to the Orkney Mainland by the Churchill Barriers, running via Burray, Glimps Holm and Lamb Holm.
Name
Along with North R ...
). This list omits names such as Hildasay
Hildasay ( sco, Hildasay; non, Hildisey) (from the Old Norse masculine name ''Hildir'' with ''ey'' "island"), also known as Hildisay, is an uninhabited island off the west coast of the Shetland Mainland.
Geography and geology
Hildasay has a ...
, where the person in question is mythological, or Ailsa Craig
Ailsa Craig (; sco, Ailsae Craig; gd, Creag Ealasaid) is an island of in the outer Firth of Clyde, west of mainland Scotland, upon which microgranite has long been quarried to make curling stones. The now-uninhabited island comprises the r ...
, where the individual in question is not known, and also Colonsay
Colonsay (; gd, Colbhasa; sco, Colonsay) is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, located north of Islay and south of Mull. The ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeil, it is in the council area of Argyll ...
& Egilsay
Egilsay (, sco, Egilsay) is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, lying east of Rousay. The island is largely farmland and is known for its corncrakes and St Magnus Church, dedicated or re-dedicated to Saint Magnus, who was killed on the is ...
where the derivation is disputed.
* Eilean Chaluim Chille - Saint Columba
Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...
* Island Davaar
Island Davaar or Davaar Island ( gd, Eilean Dà Bhàrr) is located at the mouth of Campbeltown Loch off the east coast of Kintyre, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is a tidal island, linked to the mainland by a natural Shingle beach, shingle cau ...
- Saint Barr
* Eilean Donan
Eilean Donan ( gd, Eilean Donnain) is a small tidal island situated at the confluence of three sea lochs (Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh) in the western Highlands of Scotland, about from the village of Dornie. It is connected to the mainl ...
- Saint Donan
* Flannan Isles
The Flannan Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Flannach) or alternatively, the Seven Hunters are a small island group in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, approximately west of the Isle of Lewis. They may take their name from Saint Flannan, the 7th centu ...
- Saint Flannan
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...
* Frank Lockwood's Island (south of Lochbuie, Mull
Lochbuie ( gd, Locha Buidhe, meaning "yellow loch") is a settlement on the Isle of Mull in Scotland about west of Craignure.
Geography
Once known as the "Garden of Mull", the fertile land around the main village of seventeen houses is surround ...
)
* Inchcolm
Inchcolm (from the Scottish Gaelic "Innis Choluim", meaning Columba's Island) is an island in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. It was repeatedly attacked by English raiders during the Wars of Scottish Independence, and was fortified during both Wo ...
- Saint Columba
Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...
* Inch Kenneth
Inch Kenneth ( gd, Innis Choinnich) is a small grassy island off the west coast of the Isle of Mull, in Scotland. It is at the entrance of Loch na Keal, to the south of Ulva. It is part of the Loch na Keal National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scot ...
- Saint Kenneth
Cainnech of Aghaboe (515/16–600), also known as Saint Canice in Ireland, Saint Kenneth in Scotland, Saint Kenny and in Latin Sanctus Canicus, was an Irish abbot, monastic founder, priest and missionary during the early medieval period. Cainn ...
* Inchmarnock
Inchmarnock ( gd, Innis Mheàrnaig) is an island at the northern end of the Sound of Bute in the Firth of Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The island is privately owned.
Geography
Inchmarnock lies to the west of the Isle of Bute at the no ...
- Saint Mearnag
* Inchmahome
Inchmahome, an anglicisation of Innis Mo Cholmaig ("my-Colmac's island"), is the largest of three islands in the Lake of Menteith, in Stirlingshire.
History
Inchmahome is best known as the location of Inchmahome Priory and for the attendant p ...
(F) - Saint Colmag
* Inchmurrin
Inchmurrin ( gd, Innis Mhearain) is an island in Loch Lomond in Scotland. It is the largest fresh water island in the British Isles.
Geography and geology
Inchmurrin is the largest and most southerly of the islands in Loch Lomond. It reache ...
(F) - Saint Meadhran/Mirin
* Innis Chonan
Innis Chonain or Innischonan is an island in Loch Awe, Scotland connected to the mainland by a bridge.
Architect, author and antiquarian Walter Douglas Campbell, a young brother of Archibald Campbell, 1st Baron Blythswood, purchased the island ...
(F) - Saint Conan
Saint Conan (; 7th century – January 684) was a bishop of the Isle of Man and an Irish missionary.
Life
Conan is not to be confused with St Conindrius (died 17 November 560), who is said to have been a disciple of St Patrick, Saint Patrick, a ...
* Isle Maree (F) - Maelrubha
* Isle Martin
Isle Martin ( gd, Eilean Mhàrtainn) is an uninhabited island in Loch Broom, on the west coast of Scotland. It is the closest of the Summer Isles to Ullapool and has been the site of a monastery, a herring curing station and a flour mill. Now reco ...
- Saint Martin
* North Rona
Rona ( gd, Rònaigh) is a remote, uninhabited Scottish island in the North Atlantic. Rona is often referred to as North Rona to distinguish it from South Rona (another small island, in the Inner Hebrides). It has an area of and a maximum elevat ...
- Saint Ronan
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...
* St Serf's Inch
St Serf's Inch or St Serf's Island is an island in Loch Leven, in south-eastern Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It was the home of a Culdee and then an Augustinian monastic community, St Serf's Inch Priory.
History
There was a monastic community on ...
(F) - Saint Serf
Saint Serf or Serbán (''Servanus'') () is a saint of Scotland. Serf was venerated in western Fife. He is called the apostle of Orkney, with less historical plausibility. Saint Serf is connected with Saint Mungo's Church near Simonburn, Northumbe ...
* Sweyn Holm – Sweyn Asleifsson
Sweyn Asleifsson or Sveinn Ásleifarson ( 1115 – 1171) was a twelfth-century Viking who appears in the '' Orkneyinga Saga''.
Early career
Sweyn was born in Caithness in the early twelfth century, to Olaf Hrolfsson and his wife Åsleik. Accordin ...
* Taransay
Taransay ( gd, Tarasaigh, ) is an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It was the host of the British television series '' Castaway 2000''. Uninhabited since 1974, except for holidaymakers, Taransay is the largest Scottish island without a p ...
- Saint Taran
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...
Iqbal Singh, the owner of Vacsay, has also expressed wishes to rename it after Robert Burns
Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...
.
Places called "island" etc. that are not islands
Some places in Scotland with names including "isle" or "island" are not islands. They include:
Lewis and Harris are separated by a range of hills but form one island, and are sometimes referred to as "Lewis and Harris
Lewis and Harris ( gd, Leòdhas agus na Hearadh, sco, Lewis an Harris), or Lewis with Harris, is a single Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides, divided by mountains. It is the largest island in Scotland and the third largest in the British ...
". Isle of Whithorn and the Black Isle are peninsulas, and Isleornsay is a village which looks out onto the island of Ornsay
Ornsay is a small tidal island to the east of the Sleat peninsula on the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.
Description
The island provides good shelter to a natural harbour which is overlooked by the village of Isleornsay. The " ...
. There is no commonly accepted derivation for "Burntisland" which had numerous other forms in the past, such as "Brintilun" and "Ye Brint Eland".
Gluss Isle at the western entrance to Sullom Voe
Sullom Voe is an inlet of the North Sea between the parishes of Delting and Northmavine in Shetland, Scotland. It is a location of the Sullom Voe oil terminal and Shetland Gas Plant. The word Voe is from the Old Norse ' and denotes a small ba ...
is one of the many promontories in Orkney and Shetland connected to a larger body of land by an ayre
Ayre ( ; gv, Inver Ayre) is one of the six sheadings of the Isle of Man.
It is located in the north of the island (part of the traditional ''North Side'' division) and consists of the three historic parishes of Andreas, Bride and (Kirk Chris ...
.
Other elements
The name "Inch" (''Innis'') can mean island (e.g. Inchkenneth
Inch Kenneth ( gd, Innis Choinnich) is a small grassy island off the west coast of the Isle of Mull, in Scotland. It is at the entrance of Loch na Keal, to the south of Ulva. It is part of the Loch na Keal National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scot ...
, Inchcolm
Inchcolm (from the Scottish Gaelic "Innis Choluim", meaning Columba's Island) is an island in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. It was repeatedly attacked by English raiders during the Wars of Scottish Independence, and was fortified during both Wo ...
), but is also used for ''terra firma'' surrounded by marsh e.g. Markinch
Markinch (, (Scottish Gaelic: Marc Innis) is both a village and a parish in the heart of Fife, Scotland. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the village
has a population of 2,420. The civil parish had a population of 16,530 (in 2011).Cens ...
, Insch
Insch ( gd, An Innis or Innis Mo Bheathain) is a village in the Garioch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located approximately from the city of Aberdeen.
Etymology
The name of the village may have come from the Scottish Gaelic ''innis'', me ...
.
''Eilean'' is 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, and Ca ...
for "island". However, Inistrynich, Eilean na Maodail, Eilean Dubh and Liever Island are all promontories
A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the sof ...
on Loch Awe
Loch Awe (Scottish Gaelic: ''Loch Obha'') is a large body of freshwater in Argyll and Bute, Scottish Highlands. It has also given its name to a village on its banks, variously known as Loch Awe or Lochawe. There are islands within the loch such ...
as opposed to islands, despite their names. Likewise Eilean Aoidhe on Loch Fyne
Loch Fyne ( gd, Loch Fìne, ; meaning "Loch of the Vine/Wine"), is a sea loch off the Firth of Clyde and forms part of the coast of the Cowal peninsula. Located on the west coast of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It extends inland from the Sound o ...
. The Black Isle is also ''An t-Eilean Dubh'' in Gaelic, while Eilean Glas is part of Scalpay.
"-holm" is also common as a suffix in various landlocked placenames, especially in the far south of mainland Scotland e.g. Langholm
Langholm , also known colloquially as the "Muckle Toon", is a burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland. Langholm lies between four hills in the valley of the River Esk in the Southern Uplands.
Location and geography
Langholm sits nort ...
, Kirk Yetholm
Kirk Yetholm ('kirk yet-ham') is a village in the Scottish Borders region of Scotland, southeast of Kelso and less than west of the border. The first mention is of its church in the 13th century. Its sister town is Town Yetholm which lies ...
, Holmhead (by Cumnock
Cumnock (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cumnag'') is a town and former civil parish located in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The town sits at the confluence of the Glaisnock Water and the Lugar Water. There are three neighbouring housing projects which lie just o ...
), Holmhill (next to Thornhill, Nithsdale). Some of these were river islands in their time, or dry land surrounded by marsh. "Holm" can be found in an element in Holmsgarth, now a suburb of Lerwick
Lerwick (; non, Leirvik; nrn, Larvik) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010.
Centred off the north coast of the Scottish mainland ...
and the Holm, Mainland Orkney, Parish of Holm on Mainland Shetland and Mainland, Orkney, Mainland Orkney respectively. Neither of these is an island in its own right.
Islands named after mainland areas
Likewise, occasionally an island may be named after a location on the nearby mainland, or a major neighbouring island - or vice versa. Examples of this include: Vementry, which was originally the name of an island, but whose name has been transferred to a nearby farm on Mainland Shetland; Oldany Island, whose name has been transferred to Oldany; Cramond Island
Cramond Island (Scottish Gaelic: ''Eilean Chathair Amain'') is one of several islands in the Firth of Forth in eastern Scotland, near Edinburgh. It lies off the foreshore at Cramond. It is long and covers .Wilson, Rev. John ''The Gazetteer o ...
which is named after neighbouring Cramond (a district of Edinburgh); and Eilean Mhealasta in the Outer Hebrides, which is named after Mealista on Lewis.
The name Easdale appears to be the combination of ''eas'', which is Gaelic for "waterfall" and ''dal'', the Old Norse, Norse for "valley". However, it is not clear why either description should apply to this tiny island which is low lying and has no waterfalls and the name may have come from the nearby Ellenabeich, village of the same name on Seil.
Crannogs
Crannogs are prehistory, prehistoric artificial islands created in lochs. There are several hundred sites in Scotland. Today, crannogs typically appear as small, circular islands, between 10 and 30 metres (30–100 feet) in diameter. Scottish crannogs include:
* Breachacha crannog, Breachacha on Coll
* Cherry Island (Loch Ness), Cherry Island in Loch Ness
* Dùn Anlaimh on Coll
* Eilean Dòmhnuill on North Uist
* Keppinch (or The Kitchen) in Loch Lomond
See also
* British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
* Geography of Scotland
* List of the British Isles by area
* List of lochs in Scotland#Lochs on islands, List of lochs on Scottish islands
* List of Marilyns on Scottish islands
* List of Munros#Section seventeen: Skye and Mull, List of Munros on Skye and Mull
* List of Orkney islands
* List of Outer Hebrides
* List of Shetland islands
* Scottish island names
References and footnotes
Notes
Specific references
General references
*
*
*
*
*
* W.H. Murray, Murray, W.H. (1973) ''The Islands of Western Scotland: the Inner and Outer Hebrides.'' London. Eyre Methuen.
*
*
* Nicolson, James R. (1972) ''Shetland''. Newton Abbot. David & Charles.
* Omand, Donald (ed.) (2003) ''The Orkney Book''. Edinburgh. Birlinn.
*Symonds, James (June 1999
"Toiling in the Vale of Tears: Everyday Life and Resistance in South Uist, Outer Hebrides, 1760—1860"
''International Journal of Historical Archaeology''/JSTOR. 3 No. 2, Archaeologies of Resistance in Britain and Ireland, Part II, pp. 101–122. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
*
External links
Scottish Islands Access Rights
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Islands Of Scotland
Islands of Scotland, *
Lists of islands by country, Scotland, List of islands of
Lists of islands of Scotland,
Lists of islands of the United Kingdom, Scotland