Inch Kenneth ( gd, Innis Choinnich) is a small grassy island off the west coast of the
Isle of Mull
The Isle of Mull ( gd, An t-Eilean Muileach ) or just Mull (; gd, Muile, links=no ) is the second-largest island of the Inner Hebrides (after Skye) and lies off the west coast of Scotland in the Council areas of Scotland, council area of Arg ...
, in
Scotland. It is at the entrance of
Loch na Keal, to the south of
Ulva
Ulva (; gd, Ulbha) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, off the west coast of Mull. It is separated from Mull by a narrow strait, and connected to the neighbouring island of Gometra by a bridge. Much of the island is formed from ...
. It is part of the Loch na Keal
National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland.
It is within the parish of
Kilfinichen and Kilvickeon, in
Argyll and Bute.
History
The island is named after
St Kenneth, a follower of
Saint Columba, who is said to have founded a monastery on the island.
Ownership and visitors
The island was visited in 1773 by
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
and
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 (New Style, N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the Englis ...
during their tour of the
Hebrides; they were entertained there by Sir Allan MacLean, head of the
Maclean clan. Both Johnson and Boswell published accounts of their visit.
In the early 1930s the island was owned by
Sir Harold Boulton, 2nd Baronet
Sir Harold Edwin Boulton, 2nd Baronet, (7 August 1859 – 1 June 1935), son of Sir Samuel Bagster Boulton, 1st Baronet of Copped Hall, born in Charlton then part of Kent, was an English baronet, songwriter and philanthropist, most famously author ...
, the writer of the words to the ''
Skye Boat Song''. He enlarged an earlier house to make the existing mansion.
The island's most celebrated owner in the twentieth century was the eccentric
Mitford family.
Nazi sympathiser
Unity Mitford spent her final years on the island. Following the death of their father Lord Redesdale, the island was inherited under Scots law by the surviving
Mitford sisters and not his wife, as Lord Redesdale had willed it to his only son Tom, who had predeceased him. When their mother died in 1963,
Nancy gave her share to Jessica, who bought the shares of
Diana,
Deborah and
Pamela
Pamela may refer to:
*''Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'', a novel written by Samuel Richardson in 1740
*Pamela (name), a given name and, rarely, a surname
*Pamela Spence, a Turkish pop-rock singer. Known as her stage name "Pamela"
* MSC ''Pamela'', ...
. Jessica, a former
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
, teasingly suggested that it might become a
Soviet submarine base.
The island was sold by Jessica in the late 1960s to Andrew Barlow, son of
Sir Alan Barlow, 2nd Baronet. It remains with their family.
Other
The island was a location for the 1993 feature film ''Walk Me Home'' produced by author Timothy Neat.
Inch Kenneth is classified by the
National Records of Scotland as an inhabited island that "had no usual residents at the time of either the 2001 or 2011 censuses."
Notes and references
{{Commons category, Inch Kenneth
Uninhabited islands of Argyll and Bute
