![Wfm lewis landsat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Wfm_lewis_landsat.jpg)
The Shiant Islands (; gd, Na h-Eileanan Mòra or ) or Shiant Isles are a privately owned
island group
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
Minch
The Minch ( gd, An Cuan Sgitheanach, ', ', '), also called North Minch, is a strait in north-west Scotland, separating the north-west Highlands and the northern Inner Hebrides from Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides. It was known as ("S ...
, east of
Harris
Harris may refer to:
Places Canada
* Harris, Ontario
* Northland Pyrite Mine (also known as Harris Mine)
* Harris, Saskatchewan
* Rural Municipality of Harris No. 316, Saskatchewan
Scotland
* Harris, Outer Hebrides (sometimes called the Isle o ...
in the
Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...
of Scotland. They are southeast of the
Isle of Lewis
The Isle of Lewis ( gd, Eilean Leòdhais) or simply Lewis ( gd, Leòdhas, ) is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides archipelago in Scotland. The two parts are frequently referred to as ...
.
[Keay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) ''Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland''. London. HarperCollins.]
Etymology
The name ''Shiant'' is from the Scottish Gaelic , which means the "charmed", "holy" or "enchanted isles". The group is also known as , "the big isles". The main islands are
Garbh Eilean ("rough island") and
Eilean an Taighe
:''"Eilean an Taighe", or "Eilean Taigh" is a fairly common island name''
Eilean an T(a)ighe, meaning "House Island" (lit. "Island of the House"), is one of the Shiant Islands. It is joined to Garbh Eilean by an isthmus, so they each form par ...
("house island"), which are joined by a narrow
isthmus
An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmu ...
, and
Eilean Mhuire
Eilean Mhuire (meaning "Virgin Mary's island") is the most easterly of the Shiant Islands in the Outer Hebrides.
Once populated, Eilean Mhuire is now used only for grazing sheep. There was an old local tradition that said there used to be a cha ...
("island of the Virgin Mary") to the east. Eilean an Taighe was called ''Eilean na Cille'' ("island of the church") prior to the 19th century.
[Haswell-Smith (2004) pp. 275-76]
A 17th-century chart by John Adair and several other 18th-century charts call Garbh Eilean ''Nunaltins Isle'', Eilean Mhuire ''St Marys Isle'' and Eilean an Taighe ''St Columbs Isle''. This last name suggests that the chapel on Eilean an Taighe might have been dedicated to St Columba. The meaning of ''Nunaltins'' remains unclear.
Geography and geology
![Shiant Isles](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Shiant_Isles.jpg)
The Shiant Islands lie east of the Sound of Shiant. Garbh Eilean and Eilean an Taighe together extend to ;
[ the much more fertile Eilean Mhuire extends to . In addition to these main islands, there is a line of Galtachan rocks that lie to the west: Galta Beag, Bodach, Stacan Laidir, Galta Mòr, Sgeir Mhic a' Ghobha and Damhag.][''Get-a-map'']
Ordnance Survey
, nativename_a =
, nativename_r =
, logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg
, logo_width = 240px
, logo_caption =
, seal =
, seal_width =
, seal_caption =
, picture =
, picture_width =
, picture_caption =
, formed =
, preceding1 =
, di ...
. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
Geologically, these islands are an extension of the Trotternish
Trotternish or Tròndairnis (Scottish Gaelic) is the northernmost peninsula of the Isle of Skye, in Scotland. Its most northerly point, Rubha Hùinis, is the most northerly point of Skye.
One of the peninsula's better-known features is the Trot ...
peninsula of 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 ...
. Their rocks are volcanic, and, at 60 million years old, very young compared with other Hebridean
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 Hebrides, Inner a ...
rocks. Dolerite
Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro,
is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grained ...
columns on the north side of Garbh Eilean are over tall and about in diameter. They are much higher in places than those at 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 Giant's Causeway
The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (5 km) northeast of ...
, but similar in that they were formed by the slow cooling of volcanic rocks deep underground. Intrusive sills exhibit a progression in their chemical compositions, from olivine
The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle, it is a common mineral in Earth's subsurface, but weathers quickl ...
-rich rocks at the base, to rocks with very little or no olivine at the top.
The sills are thought to have been formed by crystal settling. Recent study has suggested that at least one of the sills is an example of a multiple intrusion. In some places, the basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
is overlain by Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...
mudstone, which weathers to form much more fertile soil than is present elsewhere in the Western Isles
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 coas ...
.
The islands can be visited by means of various cruise ships that operate from other Hebridean Islands and from mainland Scotland.
History
In 1549, Donald Monro, Dean of the Isles wrote in Scots of:
"an isle called Ellan Senta, which means in English "fable island", an isle more than long, very profitable for grain, stock-rearing and fishing, pertaining to McLeod of Lewis. On the east side of this isle there is a bore
Bore or Bores often refer to:
*Boredom
* Drill
Relating to holes
* Boring (manufacturing), a machining process that enlarges a hole
** Bore (engine), the diameter of a cylinder in a piston engine or a steam locomotive
** Bore (wind instruments), ...
, made like a vault, longer(?) than the arrow shot of any man on earth, through which gulping vault we used to row our sail boats, for fear of the horrible break of the seas that is on the outward side, but no large ship can sail through it." Nicolson (2002) calls this "vault" on Toll a' Roimh at the north east end of Garbh Eilean the "Hole of the Seals" and describes rowing a dinghy through it.
A century and a half later, in 1703, Martin Martin
Martin Martin (Scottish Gaelic: Màrtainn MacGilleMhàrtainn) (-9 October 1718) was a Scottish writer best known for his work '' A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland'' (1703; second edition 1716). This book is particularly noted for ...
wrote that
the two southern islands are separated only by spring-tides, and are in circumference. Island-More hath a chapel in it dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and is fruitful in corn and grass; the island joining to it on the west is only for pasturage.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Shiant Islands were home to only eight people. The author and politician Compton MacKenzie
Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish independence, Scottish nation ...
owned the islands from 1925 until 1937. He was an island lover who, at different points in his life, also occasionally rented Herm
Herm (Guernésiais: , ultimately from Old Norse 'arm', due to the shape of the island, or Old French 'hermit') is one of the Channel Islands and part of the Parish of St Peter Port in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It is located in the English ...
in the Channel Islands
The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
. He never lived on the Shiants, but paid several brief visits there during his time as owner.
In 1937, the islands were purchased by Nigel Nicolson
Nigel Nicolson (19 January 1917 – 23 September 2004) was an English writer, publisher and politician.
Early life and education
Nicolson was the second son of writers Sir Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West; he had an elder brother Ben, ...
, then an undergraduate at Oxford, using money that had been left to him by his grandmother. Nicolson later became a writer, publisher and politician, as MacKenzie had been. Nicolson's son, the writer Adam Nicolson
Adam Nicolson, (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. He is also the 5th Baron Carnock, but does not use the title.
He is noted for his books ''Sea Room'' (about t ...
, published the definitive book on the islands, ''Sea Room'' (2001). Today, the Shiants belong to Adam's son, Tom Nicolson. Sheep continue to graze the islands, as they have done since the mid-19th century. The simple bothy
A bothy is a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge. It was also a term for basic accommodation, usually for gardeners or other workers on an estate. Bothies are found in remote mountainous areas of Sco ...
maintained by the Nicolson family on Eilean an Taighe is the only habitable structure on any of the islands.Nicolson, Adam
Adam Nicolson, (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. He is also the 5th Baron Carnock, but does not use the title.
He is noted for his books ''Sea Room'' (about t ...
''Sea Room: An Island Life in the Hebrides'' HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
, 2001 () In 2012, Robert Macfarlane published a description of his visit to the islands, titled ''The Old Ways''.
Wildlife
The Shiant Islands have a large population of seabird
Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...
s, including tens of thousands of Atlantic puffin
The Atlantic puffin ('), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin is found in the northeastern ...
s that breed in burrows on the slopes of Garbh Eilean, and significant numbers of common guillemot
The common murre or common guillemot (''Uria aalge'') is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to ...
s, razorbill
The razorbill, razor-billed auk, or lesser auk (''Alca torda'') is a colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus '' Alca'' of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinis impe ...
s, northern fulmar
The northern fulmar (''Fulmarus glacialis''), fulmar, or Arctic fulmar is a highly abundant seabird found primarily in subarctic regions of the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. There has been one confirmed sighting in the Southern Hemis ...
s, black-legged kittiwake
The black-legged kittiwake (''Rissa tridactyla'') is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae.
This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' as ''Larus tridactylus''. The English ...
s, common shag
The European shag or common shag (''Gulosus aristotelis'') is a species of cormorant. It is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Gulosus''. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern Europe, southwest Asia and north Africa, mai ...
s, gull
Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...
s and great skua
The great skua (''Stercorarius skua''), sometimes known by the name bonxie in Britain, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is roughly the size of a herring gull. It mainly eats fish caught at the sea surface or taken fr ...
s. (There are fewer puffins on Garbo Eilean than on the remote island of St Kilda, but they are much more densely congregated.)[
Until recently, the islands were also home to a population of ]black rat
The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...
s, ''Rattus rattus'', which are presumed to have originally come ashore from a shipwreck.[Haswell-Smith (2004) pp. 276-77] Apart from one or two small islands 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 ...
, the Shiants were the only place in the UK where the black rat (or ship rat) could still be found. There was thought to be a population of about 3,500 rats on the islands in wintertime, with their numbers rising exponentially during the summer. Analysis of their stomach contents had shown that they ate seabirds, but it could not be determined whether they preyed on live birds or simply scavenged dead ones. (Their numbers had for many years been well controlled in and around the house.)
During the winter of 2015–2016, Wildlife Management International Limited initiated a project to permanently eradicate rats from the Shiant Islands, as part of the Shiant Isles Seabird Recovery Project. The project was funded by contributions from the EU, the SNH, the RSPB and many individual donors. In March 2018, the Shiant Islands were deemed to have satisfactorily completed the internationally agreed two-year eradication period, and were officially declared rat-free.
See also
* List of islands of Scotland
This is a list of islands of Scotland, the mainland of which is part of the island of Great Britain. Also included are various other related tables and lists. The definition of an offshore island used in this list is "land that is surrounded by ...
References
Notes
Footnotes
General references
*
*
* Mac an Tàilleir, Iain (2003)
Placenames/Ainmean-àite le buidheachas
' (pdf). Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
* Martin, Martin (1703)
A Description of The Western Islands of Scotland (Circa 1695)
'. Appin Regiment/Appin Historical Society. Retrieved 3 March 2007
*
* Nicolson, Adam
Adam Nicolson, (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. He is also the 5th Baron Carnock, but does not use the title.
He is noted for his books ''Sea Room'' (about t ...
(2002) ''Sea Room''. London. HarperCollins.
External links
Site about the Shiant Isles
{{coord, 57.8990, -6.3641, type:isle_region:GB, display=title
Islands of the Outer Hebrides
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Western Isles North
Important Bird Areas of Scotland
Paleogene volcanism
Sills (geology)
Geology of Scotland
Archipelagoes of Scotland
Private islands of the United Kingdom