Pabbay ( gd, Pabaigh) is one of the

Barra Isles The Barra Isles, also known as the Bishop's Isles, are a small archipelago in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. They lie south of the island of Barra, for which they are named. The group consists of nine islands and numerous rocky islets, skerri ...

at the southern tip of 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 coas ...

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 name comes from ''Papey'', which is Norse for "island of the ''

papar The Papar (; from Latin ''papa'', via Old Irish, meaning "father" or "pope") were, according to early Icelandic sagas, Irish monks who took eremitic residence in parts of what is now Iceland before that island's habitation by the Norsemen ...

''" (i.e. monks). At only , it never had a large population, and, after all the able-bodied men were killed in a fierce storm while out on a fishing trip on 1 May 1897, it was abandoned in the early twentieth century. The

National Trust for Scotland The National Trust for Scotland for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, commonly known as the National Trust for Scotland ( gd, Urras Nàiseanta na h-Alba), is a Scottish conservation organisation. It is the largest membership organi ...

has owned the island since 2000. With only two sheep left on the island in July 2007 and few, if any, other permanent mammalian residents, Pabbay is consequently home in summer to many ground-nesting birds due to the absence of predators. The island was the site of a

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 Foo ...

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite ( adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a C ...

age, and a

Pictish Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographica ...

carved stone dates from that period. Remains of an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

settlement can also been seen on Pabbay. The name of Pabbay is used for one of the three houses of Castlebay Secondary School. The other two are Mingulay and Sandray.

Areas of Interest

Looking towards Bàgh Ban from Rosinish (27322927655)

Bàgh Bàn is the name applied to a large bay situated on the SE coast of the island. It's the principal bay on the coast of the island and is well sheltered from the North and West - this made it the ideal area for historical settlers. Rosinish (or Rubha Phabach) is a small peninsular headland situated on the East coast of the island. It lies in a South-Easterly direction and is only attached to the mainland of the island by a small natural arch. Steir is the narrow rock which joins Rosinish to the mainland.

Rock Climbing

Composed of

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 Pale ...

, Pabbay is "one of the finest climbing venues in the UK". This includes the climbing route The Great Arch, which is graded E8 6c."Pabbay"
UKClimbing.com. Retrieved 12 September 2013.

Footnotes

External links

Scottish climbers blogtopo guide
{{coord, 56.85880, N, 7.57260, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(NL605880), display=title Barra Isles National Trust for Scotland properties Uninhabited islands of the Outer Hebrides Former populated places in Scotland Natural arches of Scotland

Areas of Interest

Rock Climbing

See also

Footnotes

External links