Soay () is an uninhabited

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

in the St Kilda

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 ...

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 ...

. The name is from

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...

, meaning "island of sheep". The island is part of the St Kilda

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

and home to a primitive breed of sheep. Excluding

Rockall Rockall () is a high, uninhabitable granite islet in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is west of Soay, St Kilda, Scotland; northwest of Tory Island, Ireland; and south of Iceland. The nearest permanently inhabited place is North Uist, east in ...

, it is the westernmost point of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Geography

Soay lies some west-northwest of

North Uist North Uist (; ) is an island and community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Etymology In Donald Munro's ''A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland Called Hybrides'' of 1549, North Uist, Benbecula and South Uist are described as one isla ...

in the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for ...

It is about north-west of

Hirta Hirta () is the largest island in the St Kilda archipelago, on the western edge of Scotland. The names (in Scottish Gaelic) and ''Hirta'' (historically in English) have also been applied to the entire archipelago. Now without a permanent resi ...

, from which it is separated by the narrow Sound of Soay, which is only about 500 metres wide. Two

sea stacks A stack or sea stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion. Stacks are formed over time by wind and water, processes of coastal geomorphology. ...

, Stac Shoaigh (Soay Stac), , and Stac Biorach, , lie between. The island covers about and reaches a height of , the cliffs rising sheer from the sea. The summit, Cnoc Glas, is the most westerly hill in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

and the United Kingdom. The island is formed of a

breccia Breccia ( , ; ) is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or Rock (geology), rocks cementation (geology), cemented together by a fine-grained matrix (geology), matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language ...

gabbro Gabbro ( ) is a phaneritic (coarse-grained and magnesium- and iron-rich), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is ch ...

and

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 ...

s and is a single mountain peak rising from the sea-bed, without Ice-Age erosion. St Kilda map

Along with the rest of the archipelago, Soay is owned by the

National Trust for Scotland The National Trust for Scotland () is a Scottish Building preservation and conservation trusts in the UK, conservation organisation. It is the largest membership organisation in Scotland and describes itself as "the charity that cares for, sha ...

, managed by

NatureScot NatureScot () is an Scottish public bodies#Executive NDPBs, executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government responsible for Scotland’s natural heritage, especially its nature, natural, genetics, genetic and scenic diversity. ...

as a nature reserve and is included it the St Kilda

. It is unlikely that this island ever had permanent habitation. Men from

would stay for a few days while gathering wool.

Wildlife

Feral A feral (; ) animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in som ...

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 ...

are a

relict A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...

population of the first sheep brought to northern Europe around 5000BC. They were kept for their wool, which was plucked, not shorn, and made into

tweed Tweed is a rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained ...

. Only occasionally were the sheep killed for meat. When the neighbouring island of

became uninhabited, Soay sheep were introduced there too, and more recently they have become widely kept elsewhere as a

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

animal. Another somewhat less primitive breed, the Boreray, lives on another island in the group. The island's cliffs hold breeding colonies of many seabirds, including

gannet Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus ''Morus'' in the family Sulidae, closely related to boobies. They are known as 'solan' or 'solan goose' in Scotland. A common misconception is that the Scottish name is 'guga' but this is the Gaelic n ...

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 ...

storm petrel Storm petrel or stormy petrel may refer to one of two bird family (biology), families, both in the order Procellariiformes, once treated as the same family. The two families are: * Northern storm petrels (''Hydrobatidae'') are found in the No ...

Manx shearwater The Manx shearwater (''Puffinus puffinus'') is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. The scientific name of this species records a name shift: Manx shearwaters were called Manks puffins in the 17th century. Puffin is an ...

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' ...

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 ...

, Leach's petrel and

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 ...

Gallery

File:Inselsoay.JPG, Soay in mist File:Soay.jpg, Soay from

File:Soay and Hirta from Stac an Armin.jpg, Soay and Hirta from

Stac an Armin Stac an Armin (), based on the proper Scottish Gaelic spelling (formerly ''àrmuinn''), is a sea stack in the St Kilda archipelago. It is tall, qualifying it as a Marilyn. It is the highest sea stack in Scotland and the British Isles. The n ...

File:Soaysheepkilda.jpg, Soay sheep File:Slopes of Soay - geograph.org.uk - 1435854.jpg, Steep pasture File:Sound of Soay.jpg, Sound of Soay File:The Island Of Soay - geograph.org.uk - 1379919.jpg, Soay in the mist File:Fresh rockfall, Soay - geograph.org.uk - 1264916.jpg, Freshly fallen scree

Footnotes

References

* * {{coord, 57, 49, 44, N, 8, 38, 0, W, display=title, region:GB_type:isle Uninhabited islands of the Outer Hebrides St Kilda, Scotland Seabird colonies

Geography

Wildlife

Gallery

See also

Footnotes

References