The Holy Island or Holy Isle () is an island in the

Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde, is the estuary of the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The Firth has some of the deepest coastal waters of the British Isles. The Firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre, Kintyre Peninsula. The ...

, off the west coast of central Scotland, inside Lamlash Bay on the larger

Isle of Arran The Isle of Arran (; ) or simply Arran is an island off the west coast of Scotland. It is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde and the seventh-largest Scottish island, at . Counties of Scotland, Historically part of Buteshire, it is in the ...

. The island is around long and around wide. Its highest point is the hill Mullach Mòr.

History

The island has a long history as a sacred site, with a spring or

holy well A holy well or sacred spring is a well, Spring (hydrosphere), spring or small pool of water revered either in a Christianity, Christian or Paganism, pagan context, sometimes both. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualitie ...

held to have healing properties, the

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 Chr ...

cave of 6th century monk St Molaise, and evidence of a 13th-century

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

. An old Gaelic name for the island was ''Eilean MoLaise'', Molaise's Island; this is the origin (via ''Elmolaise'' and ''Limolas'') of " Lamlash", the name of the village on Arran that faces Holy Island. Some

runic Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see '' futhark'' vs ''runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a ...

writing is to be found on the roof of St Molaise's cave and a

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� ...

fleet sheltered between Arran and Holy Isle before the

Battle of Largs The Battle of Largs (2 October 1263) was a battle between the kingdoms of Kingdom of Norway (872–1397), Norway and Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, on the Firth of Clyde near Largs, Scotland. The conflict formed part of the Scottish–Norwegian ...

. In 1549, Dean Monro wrote of the "little ile callit the yle of Molass, quherin there was foundit by Johne, Lord of the iles, ane monastry of friars, which is decayit."

Current ownership

In 1992, the island was in the possession of Kay Morris, a devout Catholic who reportedly had a dream in which the Virgin Mary instructed her to give ownership of the island to the Samyé Ling Buddhist Community, who belong to the

Kagyu The ''Kagyu'' school, also transliterated as ''Kagyü'', or ''Kagyud'' (), which translates to "Oral Lineage" or "Whispered Transmission" school, is one of the main schools (''chos lugs'') of Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan (or Himalayan) Buddhism. ...

school of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

. The settlements on the island include the ''Centre for World Peace and Health'', founded by Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche, on the north of the island. This is an environmentally designed residential centre for courses and retreats which extends the former farm house. It has

solar water heating Solar water heating (SWH) is water heating, heating water by sunlight, using a solar thermal collector. A variety of configurations are available at varying cost to provide solutions in different climates and latitudes. SWHs are widely used for ...

and a reed-bed sewage treatment system. The approach from the ferry jetty is decorated with

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

an flags and

stupa In Buddhism, a stupa (, ) is a domed hemispherical structure containing several types of sacred relics, including images, statues, metals, and '' śarīra''—the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns. It is used as a place of pilgrimage and m ...

s. On the southern end of the island lives a community of nuns who are undertaking three-year retreats. The remainder of the island is treated as a nature reserve with wild Eriskay ponies, Saanen goats,

Soay sheep The Soay sheep is a breed of domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') descended from a population of feral sheep on the island of Soay, St Kilda, Soay in the St Kilda, Scotland, St Kilda Archipelago, about from the Western Isles of Scotland. It is one ...

and the replanting of native trees. The rare Rock Whitebeam tree is found on the island, an essential link in the

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

of the Arran Whitebeam species, '' Sorbus arranensis'', '' Sorbus pseudofennica'' and '' Sorbus pseudomeinichii''. These are indigenous and unique to Arran. There is a regular ferry service from Lamlash, and the island is popular with holiday makers staying on Arran. The usually resident population was recorded as 31 in 2011, an increase from 13 in 2001.

Gallery

File:Centre_for_world_peace_on_holy_isle_with_flags.jpg, The ''Centre for World Peace and Health'', with Tibetan flags and

s File:SaanenGoat_HolyIsle.jpg, One of the Saanen goats File:Pony_on_holy_isle.jpg, One of the wild Eriskay ponies File:Holy Isle Firth of Clyde OS OpenData map.png, Map of the island

References

External links

*
The Holy Island Project web site

Movie of images taken on the island

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holy Island, Firth Of Clyde Islands of the Clyde Marilyns of Scotland Mountains and hills of the Scottish islands Islands of North Ayrshire Mountains and hills of North Ayrshire