Garbh Eilean (

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

''Rough Isle'') is one of the

Shiant Islands The Shiant Islands (; or ) or Shiant Isles are a privately owned island group in the Minch, east of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. They are southeast of the Isle of Lewis.Keay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) ''Collin ...

at the south end of

the Minch The Minch () is a strait in north-west Scotland that separates the mainland from Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides. It was known as ("Scotland's firth") in Old Norse. The Minch's southern extension, which separates Skye from the midd ...

on the west coast of

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 ...

Geology

In geological terms, these islands essentially represent an extension of the

Trotternish Trotternish () is the northernmost peninsula of the Isle of Skye in Scotland, spanning in length from Portree to Rubha Hunish. The Trotternish escarpment runs almost the full length of the peninsula, some ,Ordnance Survey ''Landranger'' 1:50000 ...

peninsula of

Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some o ...

. The rocks are volcanic, and at 60 Ma, very young by Hebridean standards.

Dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...

columns on the north side of Garbh Eilean are over tall and about across. Similar to those at

Staffa Staffa (, , from the Old Norse for stave or pillar island) is an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Vikings gave it this name as its columnar basalt reminded them of their houses, which were built from vertically pl ...

and the

Giant's Causeway The Giant's Causeway () is an area of approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcano, volcanic fissure eruption, part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province active in the region during the Paleogene period. ...

, they were formed by the slow cooling of volcanic rocks deep underground. Intrusion sills show a progression in their chemical compositions, from

olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron Silicate minerals, silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of Nesosilicates, nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle (Earth), upper mantle, it is a com ...

-rich rocks at the base to rocks with very little or no olivine at the top. The sills are thought to have formed by crystal settling. Recent study has suggested that at least one of the sills represents a multiple intrusion. In some places the

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

is overlain by

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

mudstone, which weathers to form much more fertile soil than elsewhere in the

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

Economy

The islands were inhabited until the late 18th century, when changes in land ownership and society made the old way of life no longer viable. The previously inhabited and cultivated areas of Àirighean a’ Baigh and Àirighean na h-Annaid are unusually fertile land. Feannagan may still be made out in these areas.

Adam Nicolson Adam Nicolson, (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. He is also the 5th Baron Carnock, but does not use the title. Biography Adam Nicolson is the son of writer Ni ...

, father of the present owner of the Shiants, published a book about them in 2001 under the title of ''Sea Room'' 'to tell the whole story'.

Archaeology

There are several possible chapel sites. The first may have been dedicated to

St Columba Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey ...

and have been on the west side of Garbh Eilean, perhaps at Àirighean na h-Annaid - the name ''Annaid'' means Old Church. There is also evidence of a more recent church, dedicated to the Virgin, near the present cottage on Eilean an Taighe. A gold

torc A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some have hook and ring closures and a few hav ...

was dredged up by some Scalpay

scallop Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve molluscs in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related famili ...

fishermen south-west of the islands. This beautiful object dates from perhaps 1200BC, and while similar such torcs have turned up elsewhere in UK, this is by far the furthest north. It is possible to speculate endlessly about the provenance of such a find, and whether it got there by shipwreck, or as a

votive A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

offering.

Wildlife

The Shiants are a major seabird breeding ground due to their location next to good feeding grounds and lack of predators. Huge numbers of

puffin Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (auks) in the bird genus ''Fratercula''. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crev ...

s breed in burrows on the slopes of Garbh Eilean, as well as significant numbers of

guillemot Guillemot is the common name for several species of seabird in the Alcidae or auk family, part of the order Charadriiformes. In Europe, the term covers two genera, '' Uria'' and '' Cepphus''. In North America the ''Uria'' species are called mu ...

razorbill The razorbill (''Alca torda'') is a North Atlantic colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus ''Alca (bird), Alca'' of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinus impennis' ...

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 ...

s, kittiwakes, shags,

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed ...

s and

great skua The great skua (''Stercorarius skua''), sometimes known by the name bonxie in Britain, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is roughly the size of a herring gull. It mainly eats fish caught at the sea surface or taken fro ...

s. Although St Kilda has more puffins, the sheer density on the Shiants is greater. Until 2016 the island had a population of black rats, which may originally have come ashore from a shipwreck. Analysis of their stomach contents showed that the Shiant rats did eat seabirds, but it was impossible to tell if they preyed on live birds or simply scavenged remains.Paul Stapp (2002) Stable isotopes reveal evidence of predation by ship rats on seabirds on the Shiant Islands, Scotland Journal of Applied Ecology 39 (5), 831–840. These rats are now rare in the UK. On the Shiants their numbers have been controlled in and around the house for some time, and a comprehensive wildlife project has now extinguished the population.

Notes and references

{{coord, 57, 54, N, 6, 22, W, display=title, type:isle_region:GB Shiant Islands

Geology

Economy

Archaeology

Wildlife

See also

Notes and references