Scottish Gaelic name | Sula Sgeir or Sùlaisgeir |
---|---|
Old Norse name | Súlasker |
Meaning of name | Gannet Skerry |
Location | |
Coordinates | 59°5′44.25″N6°9′23.37″W / 59.0956250°N 6.1564917°W |
Physical geography | |
Island group | North Atlantic |
Area | 15 ha [1] |
Highest elevation | (Near Sròn na Lice) > 70 m |
Administration | |
Council area | Comhairle nan Eilean Siar |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Demographics | |
Population | 0 |
References | [2] [3] [4] |
Sula Sgeir Lighthouse Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar | |
Coordinates | 59°5′37.47″N6°9′31.97″W / 59.0937417°N 6.1588806°W |
Foundation | concrete base |
Construction | metal tower |
Height | 5 m (16 ft) |
Shape | square parallelepiped with lantern |
Markings | white tower |
Power source | solar power |
Operator | Rona and Sula Sgeir National Nature Reserve |
Focal height | 74 m (243 ft) |
Range | 11 nmi (20 km) [5] |
Characteristic | Fl W 15 s |
Sula Sgeir is a small, uninhabited Scottish islet in the North Atlantic, 18 kilometres (9+1⁄2 nautical miles) west of Rona. One of the most remote islands of the British Isles, it lies approximately forty nautical miles (seventy kilometres) north of Lewis and is best known for its population of gannets. It has a narrow elongated shape running north-northeast to south-southwest, and is approximately 900 m long by typically 100 m wide (apart from a central headland projecting a further 100 m on the easterly side). [4]
A ruined stone bothy called Taigh Beannaichte (Blessed House) can be found on the east headland, Sgeir an Teampaill. A small automated lighthouse on the south end at Sròn na Lice is regularly damaged by the huge waves which break over the island during rough North Atlantic storms. Despite this, the island has diverse flora.[ citation needed ]
The modern name is from the Old Norse súla, "gannet" and sker, "skerry". [3] In the 16th century Dean Munro referred to the island as "Suilskeray". [6] Macculloch's 1819 Description refers to "Sulisker", [7] an Anglicised spelling that is still occasionally used. [8] There is Suleskjer, a skerry in Utsira, Norway which has a name with a similar origin; there is also a Sule Skerry in Orkney.
The island is made of hard gneiss rock, the summit of a submarine mountain. Erosion causes the bedrock to shear into long flat pieces. The sea has created a series of interconnected sea caves and tunnels throughout the southern part of the island. During big Atlantic storms, waves break right over the top of Sula Sgeir. [9]
Saint Brianhuil [10] or Brenhilda, the sister of St Ronan of Iona and North Rona, is said to have lived on Sula Sgeir as a recluse. [11] She was reportedly found dead in a bothy with a cormorant's nest in her ribcage. [12] [13] [9] The poets Karla Van Vliet and David Wheatley have written poems about her. [14]
Sula Sgeir has a special place in the seafaring history of the men of the Ness district on Lewis. Dean Munro visited the Hebrides in 1549 and his is one of the earliest accounts written about the Western Isles. His description of Sula Sgeir mentions that the men of Ness sailed in their small craft to "fetche hame thair boatful of dry wild fowls with wild fowl fedderi". [6] How long before 1549 the Nessmen sailed to Sula Sgeir each year to collect the young gannets for food and feathers is not known, but it may be assumed that it was a tradition for centuries. That tradition is still carried on today. A 1797 census report written by the Reverend Donald McDonald states:
The flesh of the young gannet or guga is regarded as a delicacy in Ness today though, for others, it is an acquired taste. It was a popular meat in earlier times in Scotland. In the sixteenth century it was served at the tables of Scots kings and was a favourite with the wealthy as a ’whet’ or appetizer before main meals. In the autumn of each year, a group of 10 Nessmen set sail for Sula Sgeir to kill a maximum of 2,000 young birds. [16] They set up residence for about two weeks in stone bothys. Working in pairs, the men take the fledglings from their nests with poles, catching them around the neck with a rope noose, then killing the birds with a blow to the head. They bring home their catch to meet an eager crowd of customers. The demand is often so great that the birds have to be rationed out to ensure that each person does not go without a taste of guga. In 2009, a single guga fetched £16. [17] 1953 saw the last journey under sail for the guga hunt, thereafter a fishing trawler was used, although it was still a five-hour trip. [9]
The Sula Sgeir hunt, which would otherwise be illegal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, receives an annual licence from the government, which allows it to continue. Scottish Natural Heritage, which is now responsible for granting the licence, states that the hunt is sustainable, although it has been criticised by animal welfare groups. The Scottish SPCA describes it as "barbaric and inhumane" and believes it causes unnecessary suffering to the birds, with many taking several blows to be killed. [18] [19]
Sula Sgeir, with North Rona, historically formed part of the Barvas estate on Lewis, but a community buy-out of the estate from the Duckworth family in 2016 did not include the two islands, which would apparently have increased the purchase price by £80,000. [20]
There are some 5,000 breeding pairs of gannets on Sula Sgeir, which they share with other bird species such as black-legged kittiwakes, common guillemots, puffins, northern fulmars and in the summers of 2005 to 2007 a Black-browed Albatross was resident in the gannet colony. [21] [9]
Together with North Rona, Sula Sgeir was formerly a national nature reserve because of its importance for birdlife and grey seal breeding. It remains a protected area for nature and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protection Area.[ citation needed ]
The island has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports breeding populations of several species of seabirds. [22]
[W]e saw the guga men standing on the steep rock that slopes to the landing point. [...] They looked out at us, unsmiling. [...] They knew the boat, and they knew Ian [Macfarlane's captain], but the implication was clear enough: Keep away, this is our day, our rock.
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 name referring to the chicks only.
The northern gannet is a seabird, the largest species of the gannet family, Sulidae. It is native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Western Europe and Northeastern North America. It is the largest seabird in the northern Atlantic. The sexes are similar in appearance. The adult northern gannet has a mainly white streamlined body with a long neck, and long and slender wings. It is 87–100 cm long with a 170–180 cm (67–71 in) wingspan. The head and nape have a buff tinge that is more prominent in breeding season, and the wings are edged with dark brown-black feathers. The long, pointed bill is blue-grey, contrasting with black, bare skin around the mouth and eyes. Juveniles are mostly grey-brown, becoming increasingly white in the five years it takes them to reach maturity.
Rona is an uninhabited Scottish island in the North Atlantic. It is often referred to as North Rona to distinguish it from the island of South Rona in the Inner Hebrides. It has an area of 109 hectares and a maximum elevation of 108 metres (354 ft).
Rona, sometimes called South Rona to distinguish it from North Rona, is an inhabited island in the Inner Hebrides. It lies between the Sound of Raasay and the Inner Sound just north of the neighbouring island of Raasay and east of the Trotternish peninsula of Skye. It has a total area of 930 hectares (3.6 sq mi) and a population of 3.
The Treshnish Isles are an archipelago of small islands and skerries, lying west of the Isle of Mull, in Scotland. They are part of the Inner Hebrides. Trips to the Treshnish Isles operate from Ulva Ferry, Tobermory, Ardnamurchan and Tiree.
The Shiant Islands or Shiant Isles are a privately owned island group in the Minch, east of Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. They are five miles southeast of the Isle of Lewis.
The Flannan Isles or the Seven Hunters are a small island group in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, approximately 32 kilometres west of the Isle of Lewis. They may take their name from Saint Flannan, the 7th century Irish preacher and abbot.
Ness is the northernmost part of the Isle of Lewis, a community consisting of about 16 villages, including Lionel, Habost, Swainbost, Cross, North and South Dell, Cross Skigersta, Skigersta, Eorodale, Adabroc, Port of Ness, Knockaird, Fivepenny and Eoropie. It was the most north-westerly community in the European Union, when the United Kingdom was a member. Its most northerly point is the Butt of Lewis. The name Ness derives from the old Norse for headland and many of the other place names in the area also have a Norse origin.
Sule Stack or Stack Skerry is an extremely remote island or stack in the North Atlantic off the north coast of Scotland. It is formed of Lewisian gneiss.
Sule Skerry is a remote skerry in the North Atlantic off the north coast of Scotland.
The Islands of the Forth are a group of small islands located in the Firth of Forth and in the estuary of the River Forth on the east coast of Scotland. Most of the group lie in the open waters of the firth, between the Lothians and Fife, with the majority to the east of the city of Edinburgh. Two islands lie further west in the river estuary.
Nave Island lies to the north of Islay in the Inner Hebrides near the mouth of Loch Gruinart. It is uninhabited.
Port of Ness is a village on the Isle of Lewis in the community of Ness, in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Port of Ness is within the parish of Barvas. Port of Ness is situated at the end of the A857, which runs from Stornoway. In 2014, the Ness Fishery Memorial was erected to celebrate the fishing heritage in the area and to commemorate the 96 people who lost their lives in the industry between 1835 and 1900.
Description of the Western Isles of Scotland is the oldest known account of the Hebrides and the Islands of the Clyde, two chains of islands off the west coast of Scotland. The author was Donald Monro, a clergyman who used the title of "Dean of the Isles" and who lived through the Scottish Reformation. Monro wrote the original manuscript in 1549, although it was not published in any form until 1582 and was not widely available to the public in its original form until 1774. A more complete version, based on a late 17th-century manuscript written by Sir Robert Sibbald, was first published as late as 1961. Monro wrote in Scots and some of the descriptions are difficult for modern readers to render into English. Although Monro was criticised for publishing folklore and for omitting detail about the affairs of the churches in his diocese, Monro's Description is a valuable historical account and has reappeared in part or in whole in numerous publications, remaining one of the most widely quoted publications about the western islands of Scotland.