The Barra Isles, also known as the Bishop's Isles, are a small

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

in the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an Archipelago, island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islan ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. They lie south of the island of

Barra Barra (; or ; ) is an island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and the second southernmost inhabited island there, after the adjacent island of Vatersay to which it is connected by the Vatersay Causeway. In 2011, the population was 1,174. ...

, for which they are named. The group consists of nine islands and numerous rocky islets,

skerries A skerry is a small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation. Skerry, skerries, or The Skerries may also refer to: Geography Northern Ireland *Skerries, County Armagh, a List of townlands in County Armagh#S, townland in Coun ...

, and sea stacks. In 1427, the

Lords of the Isles Lord of the Isles or King of the Isles ( or ; ) is a title of nobility in the Baronage of Scotland with historical roots that go back beyond the Kingdom of Scotland. It began with Somerled in the 12th century and thereafter the title was ...

awarded the

laird Laird () is a Scottish word for minor lord (or landlord) and is a designation that applies to an owner of a large, long-established Scotland, Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a Baronage of ...

ship of Barra (and its associated islands) to

Clan MacNeil of Barra Clan MacNeil, also known in Scotland as Clan Niall, is a Scottish Highlands, highland Scottish clan of Irish people, Irish origin. According to their early genealogies and some sources they're descended from Eógan mac Néill and Niall of the Ni ...

. However, after acts of piracy by the MacNeils, King

James VI James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

transferred ownership of the southern archipelago to the

Bishop of the Isles The Bishop of the Isles or Bishop of Sodor was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of the Isles (or Sodor), one of Scotland's thirteen medieval bishoprics. The bishopric, encompassing both the Hebrides and Mann, probably traces its origins as ...

, hence the islands became known as the ''Bishop's Isles''.Murray, W.H. (1966) ''The Hebrides''. London. Heinemann. p. 230 Murray writes that they belonged "to the Bishop of the Isles ''de jure'' although to

MacNeil MacNeil can have a number of different meanings and spellings: Clan MacNeil is a Scottish clan. Notable people * Al MacNeil (1935–2025), Canadian ice hockey player and coach * Angus MacNeil (born 1970), Scottish politician * Archibald Macne ...

''de facto''". Many of the islands are extremely small; only the largest,

Vatersay The island of Vatersay (; ) is the southernmost and westernmost inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and the settlement of Caolas on the north coast of the island is the westernmost permanently inhabited place in Scotland. The m ...

– which is now linked by the

Vatersay Causeway The Vatersay Causeway () is a 250-metre-long causeway that links the Scottish Hebridean Islands of Vatersay and Barra across the Sound of Vatersay (). The causeway was constructed between 1989 and 1991, and provides a direct link between V ...

to Barra – remains inhabited. Berneray (also known as Barra Head), Pabbay,

Sandray Sandray () is one of the Barra Isles in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It never had a large population, and has been uninhabited since 1934. It is now known for its large seabird colony. Geography Sandray is half a mile due south of Vaters ...

and

Mingulay Mingulay () is the second largest of the Bishop's Isles in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Located south of Barra, it is known for an extensive Gaelic oral tradition incorporating folklore, song and stories and its important seabird populations ...

have been inhabited in the past. The four smallest named islands are Flodday,

Lingay Lingeigh or Lingay is an unpopulated islet in the Outer Hebrides. It lies towards the southern end of the archipelago, just north of Pabbay and south of Vatersay The island of Vatersay (; ) is the southernmost and westernmost inhabited is ...

Muldoanich Muldoanich is an uninhabited island in the Barra Isles archipelago at the southern extremity of the larger island chain of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. The island is in area and rises to a maximum height of at the peak of Cruachan na h-ài ...

and Uineasan. The Barra Isles are featured in several

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

s. In addition to the larger islands there are various smaller islets, stacks and skerries. Biruaslum is a

stack Stack may refer to: Places * Stack Island, an island game reserve in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia, in Tasmania’s Hunter Island Group * Blue Stack Mountains, in Co. Donegal, Ireland People * Stack (surname) (including a list of people ...

to the west of Vatersay. It reaches in height and there is a ruined prehistoric fort on the southern side. Francis G. Thompson describes it as "high and virtually inaccessible"; James Fisher mentions a "

fulmar The fulmars are tube-nosed seabirds in the family Procellariidae. The family includes two extant species, and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene. Fulmars superficially resemble gulls, but are readily distinguished by their flight on s ...

flying up and down its tiny cliff."James Fisher, ''Rockall: The Islet of Birds'' 114.

Notes

References

Clan MacNeil {{WesternIsles-geo-stub