Rona ( gd, Rònaigh) is a remote, uninhabited Scottish island in the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

. Rona is often referred to as North Rona to distinguish it from

South Rona Rona ( gd, Rònaigh), sometimes called South Rona to distinguish it from North Rona (a small uninhabited island to the northwest of Cape Wrath), is an inhabited island in the Inner Hebrides. It lies between the Sound of Raasay and the Inner So ...

(another small island, in the

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Na h-Eileanan a-staigh'', "the inner isles") is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, whic ...

). It has an area of and a maximum elevation of . It is included within the historic county of

Ross-shire Ross-shire (; gd, Siorrachd Rois) is a historic county in the Scottish Highlands. The county borders Sutherland to the north and Inverness-shire to the south, as well as having a complex border with Cromartyshire – a county consisting of ...

. The island lies northwest of

Cape Wrath Cape Wrath ( gd, Am Parbh, known as ' in Lewis) is a cape in the Durness parish of the county of Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland. It is the most north-westerly point in mainland Britain. The cape is separated from the rest of the mai ...

, the same distance north-northeast of the

Butt of Lewis The Butt of Lewis ( gd, Rubha Robhanais) is the most northerly point of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The headland, which lies in the North Atlantic, is frequently battered by heavy swells and storms and is marked by the Butt of Lewis Lighthouse ...

and east of

Sula Sgeir Sula Sgeir is a small, uninhabited Scottish island in the North Atlantic, west of Rona. One of the most remote islands of the British Isles, it lies approximately north of Lewis and is best known for its population of gannets. It has a narr ...

. More isolated than St Kilda, it is the most remote island in the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

ever to have been inhabited on a long-term basis. It is also the closest neighbour to the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

. Because of the island's remote location and small area, it is omitted from many maps of the United Kingdom.

Etymology

The name "Rona" may come from ,

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

for "rough island", a combination of and ,

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

and Old Norse for "seal" and "island" respectively, or it may have been named after

Saint Ronan In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...

. The English language qualifier ''North'' is sometimes used to distinguish the island from Rona off

Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o 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 b ...

. In Gaelic it is also known as which is literally 'Rona of the stag' but may be derived from , containing the Norse word , meaning "ocean" and convey the meaning "Rona of the Atlantic".

History

Rona is said to have been the residence of

in the eighth century and he is said to have been the first inhabitant. A tiny

early Christian Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish d ...

oratory which may be as early as this date, built of unmortared stone, survives virtually complete on the island – the best-preserved structure of this type in

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 ...

. A number of simple cross-slabs of early medieval date are preserved within the structure, probably the grave-markers of

Dark Age The ''Dark Ages'' is a term for the Early Middle Ages, or occasionally the entire Middle Ages, in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire that characterises it as marked by economic, intellectual and cultural decline. The conce ...

monks or hermits from Scotland or

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The island continued to be inhabited until the entire population of thirty died shortly after 1685 after an infestation by rats, probably the

black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...

(''Rattus rattus''), which reached the island after a shipwreck. The rats raided the food stocks of barley meal and it is possible the inhabitants starved to death, although

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

may have been a contributory factor. This occurred in a year in which it is reported that no further ships reached the isolated island to supply or trade. The rats themselves eventually starved to death, the huge swells the island experiences preventing their hunting along the rocky shores. It was resettled, but again depopulated by around 1695 in some sort of boating tragedy, after which it remained home to a succession of shepherds and their families. It had a population of nine in 1764. "On one occasion ... a crew from Ness in

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

had their boat wrecked in landing at

in the month of June, and lived on the island for several weeks, sustaining themselves on the flesh of birds. Captain Oliver, who commanded the Revenue cruiser ''Prince of Wales'', visited Sula Sgeir in the month of August to look for the lost boat. He found the wreck of it, also an oar on end with an old pair of canvas trousers on it, and over the remains of a fire a pot containing birds' flesh; but there being no trace of the men, it was thought they must have been picked up by a passing vessel. Nothing more was heard of them until the month of October following, when a Russian vessel on her homeward voyage met a Stornoway craft in the Orkney Islands and informed the crew of the latter that they had taken the men off Sula Sgeir and landed them in Rona. Captain Oliver at once went to Rona, and found the crew consuming the last barrel of potatoes which the poor shepherd had. He took away the former and left the latter sufficient provision for the winter." Captain Benjamin Oliver commanded the vessel from 1811 until 1847. "The last family which lived upon Rona was that of a shepherd named Donald M'Leod, otherwise the 'King of Rona,' who returned to Lewis in 1844."

Sir James Matheson Sir James Nicolas Sutherland Matheson, 1st Baronet, FRS (17 November 179631 December 1878), was a Scottish Tai-Pan. Born in Shiness, Lairg, Sutherland, Scotland, he was the son of Captain Donald Matheson. He attended Edinburgh's Royal High Sc ...

, who bought Lewis in 1844, offered the island to the Government for use as a penal settlement. The offer was refused. Although farmers from

have continued to graze sheep on Rona ever since, the island has remained uninhabited, apart from one brief and tragic episode in 1884–85. In June 1884, two men from Lewis, Malcolm MacDonald and Murdo Mackay, having reportedly had a dispute with the minister of their local church, went to stay on Rona to look after the sheep. In August, boatmen who had called at the island reported that the men were well and in good spirits, and had refused offers to take them back to Lewis. In April 1885, the next people to visit Rona found the two men had died during the winter. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the commander of German U-boat ''U-90'', Walter Remy, stopped his submarine at North Rona during each of his wartime patrols, weather permitting, and sent crewmen onto the island to shoot sheep to obtain

mutton Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries''. A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Gen ...

for on-board consumption. The island was occupied temporarily in 1938–1939 by author and conservationist

Frank Fraser Darling Sir Frank Fraser Darling FRSE (23 June 1903 – 22 October 1979) was an English ecologist, ornithologist, farmer, conservationist and author, who is strongly associated with the highlands and islands of Scotland. He gives his name to the Fraser ...

with his wife Bobbie and their son Alasdair, while they studied the

grey seal The grey seal (''Halichoerus grypus'') is found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. In Latin Halichoerus grypus means "hook-nosed sea pig". It is a large seal of the family Phocidae, which are commonly referred to as "true seals" or " ...

s and the breeding

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s. North Rona, with

, historically formed part of the

Barvas Barvas (Scottish Gaelic: ''Barabhas'' or ''Barbhas'', ) is a settlement, community and civil parish on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. It developed around a road junction. The A857 and A858 meet at the southern end of Barvas. North is the road ...

estate on Lewis, but a community buy-out of the estate in 2016 did not include the two islands, which would apparently have increased the purchase price by £80,000. The island still boasts the

Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...

ic ruins of St Ronan's Chapel. Together with Sula Sgeir, the island was formerly managed by

Scottish Natural Heritage NatureScot ( gd, NàdarAlba), which was formerly known as Scottish Natural Heritage, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government responsible for the country's natural heritage, especially its natural, genetic and ...

as a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

, for its important

and seabird colonies. These include the

European storm-petrel The European storm petrel, British storm petrel, or just storm petrel (''Hydrobates pelagicus'') is a seabird in the northern storm petrel family, Hydrobatidae. The small, square-tailed bird is entirely black except for a broad, white rump and ...

and the larger

Leach's storm-petrel Leach's storm petrel or Leach's petrel (''Hydrobates leucorhous'') is a small seabird of the tubenose order. It is named after the British zoologist William Elford Leach. The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek. ''Hydrobates'' is from ...

, for which North Rona is an important breeding locality. It remains a protected area for nature and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protection Area. In "Island at the edge of the world", the poet

Kathleen Jamie Kathleen Jamie FRSL (born 13 May 1962) is a Scottish poet and essayist. In 2021 she became Scotland's fourth Makar. Life and work Kathleen Jamie is a poet and essayist. Raised in Currie, near Edinburgh, she studied philosophy at the University ...

describes a visit to the island,Island at the edge of the world
/ref> as well as in an essay in her collection ''Sightlines''. The island hosts an automatic light beacon, remotely monitored by the

Northern Lighthouse Board The Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) is the general lighthouse authority for Scotland and the Isle of Man. It is a non-departmental public body responsible for marine navigation aids around coastal areas. History The NLB was formed by Act of P ...

Gallery

File:Ronay island.jpg, File:The Remains of St Ronan's Church, Rona - geograph.org.uk - 91788.jpg, The Remains of St Ronan's Church, Rona - geograph.org.uk - 91788

Footnotes

References

Modern sources

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Pre-1900 sources

* - Contains information about Malcolm MacDonald and Murdoch Mackay. * * * * in (account given to

Sir Robert Sibbald Sir Robert Sibbald (15 April 1641 – August 1722) was a Scottish physician and antiquary. Life He was born in Edinburgh, the son of David Sibbald (brother of Sir James Sibbald) and Margaret Boyd (January 1606 – 10 July 1672). Educated at t ...

* (Describes the swarm of rats on pages 24–5). * * * * * *

External links

BBC Radio 3 Feature on North Rona
!-- Note: WGS84 lat/long, converted from OSGB36 grid ref --> *
Joint Nature Conservation Committee - North Rona - Special Area of Conservation

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland - Information on the church and oratory

Scotland's National Nature Reserves - Rona and Sula Sgeir

Article in the Herald Scotland - 13 July 2002

Northern Lighthouse Board
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rona, North Uninhabited islands of the Outer Hebrides Former populated places in Scotland Seabird colonies Archaeological sites in the Outer Hebrides Important Bird Areas of Scotland Protected areas of the Outer Hebrides