Hermetray ( gd, Theàrnatraigh) is an uninhabited island off

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 ...

, 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 ...

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 ...

Geography and geology

Hermetray lies in the

Sound of Harris The Sound of Harris ( gd, Caolas na Hearadh) is a channel between the islands of Harris and North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Geography Approximately in width, the Sound of Harris provides the main sea passage through the Hebridean ...

on the edge of

the Minch The Minch ( gd, An Cuan Sgitheanach, ', ', '), also called North Minch, is a strait in north-west Scotland, separating the north-west Scottish Highlands, Highlands and the northern Inner Hebrides from Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides. It ...

. It is on the south side of the sound although it is in the parish 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 of ...

."North Uist, Hermetray"
Scotland's Places. Retrieved 4 November 2013. The island is in area, and at its highest point, ''Cnoc a' Chombaiste'' (compass hill). The

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

of the island is

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 Paleopr ...

. The hillock of ''Cnoc a' Chombaiste'' is found to the northeast. The other main

geomorphological Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: , ', "earth"; , ', "form"; and , ', "study") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or n ...

features are ''Acarseid Mór'' (big harbour) to the west a "shallow and weedy inlet with a rocky shore" and Loch Hermetray at the island's centre. There are numerous surrounding islets. The largest is Vaccasay or ''Bhacasaigh'' (island with a bay) which extends to and lies to the west. Along with Fuam to the south and Hulmatraigh to the north this island encloses the sheltered Basin of Vaccasay. Fuam's full name in Gaelic is ''Fuam an Aon Fhoid'', meaning "far out isle of the one peat" a reference to its shallow soils. Greineam and the skerries of Staffin and Creag na Stead lie to the north in the Grey Horse Channel and Grodaigh and the once fortified Dun Mhic Leathann to the south, beyond the ''Seòlaid na h-Eala'' and close to North Uist. This strait is named after the ''Eala Bhàn'' (white swan), a famous 17th century ''

birlinn The birlinn ( gd, bìrlinn) or West Highland galley was a wooden vessel propelled by sail and oar, used extensively in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland from the Middle Ages on. Variants of the name in English and Lowland Scots inclu ...

''. ''Seòlaid'' means a sailing channel, "fairway in the sea" or anchorage. Further northwest is the Cabbage Patch, a complex group of reefs and skerries including the islets of Opasaigh, Sàrstaigh and Nàrstaigh.

History

The island's name is Norse, ''Hermunðr-øy'' meaning "Hermund's Island", although it is not known who this person was. The

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 ...

also refer to the islet by its Gaelic name of "Thernatraigh". In 1549,

Dean Monro Donald Monro (or Munro) ( fl. 1526–1574) was a Scottish clergyman, who wrote an early and historically valuable description of the Hebrides and other Scottish islands and enjoyed the honorific title of "Dean of the Isles". Origins Donald Monro ...

wrote of "Hermodray" that it was a: "''half mile lang, fertile and frutfull''".

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 ...

visited the island in 1695 and said of it, that it had: ''"moorish soil, covered all over almost in

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

, except here and there, with a few piles of grass and the plant

milkwort ''Polygala'' is a large genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Polygalaceae. They are commonly known as milkworts or snakeroots. The genus is distributed widely throughout much of the worldMartin (1703) p. 42 Martin Martin also mentions that there is: :"''the foundation of a house built by the English in the reign of King Charles the First's time, for one of their magazines to lay up the cask, salt etc, for carrying on the fishery, which was then begun in the Western Islands; but this design miscarried because of the civil wars which then broke out.''" Martin was referring to Lord Seaforth's fishery, set up in 1633, but which collapsed a mere seven years later. It was part of Charles I's "Company of the General Fishery of Great Britain & Ireland". In 1841, a population of 8 was recorded as living on the island in a single household. Ordnance Survey maps published in 1881 showed six unroofed buildings on the island, which has remained uninhabited since the mid-19th century. A sheep fank at Acarseid Mór may be on the site of the 1841 house. North Uist was much affected by 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 ...

from where there was large scale emigration to

Cape Breton Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18. ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

but no certain reasons for the abandonment of Hermetray have come to light. In 1920, a Norwegian ship, the ''Puritan'' was wrecked here. Reportedly the three survivors would not partake of a crate of whisky which was wrecked with them, and did not thank their rescuer, Alasdair Beag of Berneray, when he arranged for them to be returned to their home country. The Hebrideans explained this by the name of the ship, although the survivors spoke neither

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

nor English. Heremtray is currently owned by the Scottish Government and there is a

fish farm upright=1.3, Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye">mariculture.html" ;"title="Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture">Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye, Scotland Fish farming or ...

in the Basin of Vaccasay.

Wildlife

Gulls and buzzards nest in the low cliffs and escaped

American mink The American mink (''Neogale vison'') is a semiaquatic species of mustelid native to North America, though human intervention has expanded its range to many parts of Europe, Asia and South America. Because of range expansion, the American mink i ...

have been trapped on the island during an eradication programme."Mink project enters final year in Hebrides"
. (31 March 2010) SNH. Retrieved 6 November 2013. Fish are absent from Loch Hermetray. The flora includes adder's tongue, flag iris,

bog cotton ''Eriophorum angustifolium'', commonly known as common cottongrass or common cottonsedge, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. Native to North America, North Asia, and Northern Europe, it grows on peat or acidic s ...

ragged robin ''Silene flos-cuculi'' (syn. ''Lychnis flos-cuculi''), commonly called ragged-robin, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. This species is native to Europe and Asia, where it is found along roads and in wet meadows and p ...

and

white clover ''Trifolium repens'', the white clover, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the bean family Fabaceae (otherwise known as Leguminosae). It is native to Europe, including the British Isles,Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg., E.F. 1968. ''Excursio ...

In popular culture

In the ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...

, at some point in the 16th century Zygmunt Budge, an accomplished maker of potions, took up residence on Hermetray after leaving

Hogwarts Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry () is a fictional Scotland, Scottish boarding school of Magic in Harry Potter, magic for students aged eleven to eighteen, and is the primary setting for the first six books in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Pot ...

in protest at the age of 14. Living alone, he continued his studies and eventually wrote the ''

Book of Potions ''Book of Potions'' (or ''Wonderbook: Book of Potions'') is an augmented reality video game developed by London Studio in conjunction with J. K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment as a companion to the '' Harry Potter'' series and ...

''.

Notes and references

External links

Scotland's Places aerial photograph

Geograph image
of Bagh a Chaise, North Uist with Hermetray in the distance at right. {{Hebrides (uninhabited) Islands of the Sound of Harris Uist islands Uninhabited islands of the Outer Hebrides