The Scares or the Scare Rocks are rocky islets in
Luce Bay
Luce Bay is a large bay in Wigtownshire in southern Scotland. The bay is 20 miles wide at its mouth and is bounded by the Rhins of Galloway to the west and the Machars to the east. The Scares are rocky islets at the mouth of the bay.
Bombing r ...
off the coast of
Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of ...
, Scotland. By far the largest is Big Scare. There is a small outlying rock to its west and three companion islets called the Little Scares are about 1 km to the north east.
["Unknown: Big Scare, Luce Bay, Solway Firth"]
RCAHMS. Retrieved 19 July 2010. Big Scare is south west of
Port William and a similar distance east of the
Mull of Galloway
The Mull of Galloway ( gd, Maol nan Gall, ; ) is the southernmost point of Scotland. It is situated in Wigtownshire, Dumfries and Galloway, at the end of the Rhins of Galloway peninsula.
The Mull has one of the last remaining sections of natur ...
.
The
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
''Annie Mclester'' was wrecked on Big Scare at an unknown date in the 19th century. On 27 January 1849 the 400 ton
barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts having the fore- and mainmasts Square rig, rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) Fore-and-aft rig, rigged fore and aft. Som ...
''Archibald'' of
Memel, was wrecked on the Little Scares. In September 1860 a small round-sterned four-oared boat was picked up near to Big Scare. The parent vessel had presumably been lost in the vicinity although no record of this is known.
[
There is an MOD firing range in the area with brightly coloured floating targets deployed. The southern limit is marked by buoys SSE of The Scares.][
The islands are part of Luce Bay and Sands SAC and are leased to the ]Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment throug ...
. They have been described as an "inaccessible bird reserve" and provide nesting sites for more than 2,000 pairs of breeding northern gannet
The northern gannet (''Morus bassanus'') is a seabird, the largest species of the gannet family, Sulidae. It is native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Western Europe and Northeastern North America. It is the largest seabird in t ...
s, hundreds of guillemots and smaller numbers of shags and kittiwakes.[Note: The rocks are part o]
RSPB Mull of Galloway reserve
where they are described as “Scar Rocks, an outlying part of the reserve with a small gannet colony”
Notes
External links
Solway Firth Partnership leaflet
with a photograph and map.
Flickr image
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scares, The
Islands of the Solway
Skerries of Scotland
Uninhabited islands of Dumfries and Galloway