Scottish Gaelic name | Na Torrain |
---|---|
Meaning of name | "loud murmering or thunder" [1] |
Location | |
OS grid reference | NM266137 |
Coordinates | 56°14′13″N6°24′47″W / 56.237°N 6.413°W |
Physical geography | |
Island group | Mull |
Highest elevation | c. 10 m (33 ft) [2] |
Administration | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Country | Scotland |
Council area | Argyll and Bute |
The Torran Rocks are a group of small islands and skerries located between the islands of Mull and Colonsay in Scotland.
The main rocks are Dearg Sgeir, MacPhail's Anvil, Na Torrain, Torran Sgoilte and Torr an t-Saothaid although there are numerous others including the southernmost of Sgeir Dhoirbh (or Otter Rock). [3] [4] They cover an area of about 25 km2 (10 sq mi) some 3 km (2 mi) south of the tidal island of Erraid and the Ross of Mull. The largest islets of Na Torrain reach 10 metres (33 ft) or more above sea level and are up to 150 m (490 ft) long. West Reef is made up of half a dozen skerries of orthogneiss about 2 km (1+1⁄4 mi) west of Na Torrain. [2] The southern group of rocks and Ruadh Sgeir are formed from potassium-feldspar-phyric monzogranite intruded as part of the Caledonian Igneous Supersuite towards the end of the Caledonian orogeny (late Silurian to early Devonian period) and form an outlying part of the Ross of Mull pluton. Dearg Sgeir and Torr an t-Saothaid are monzogranite to granodiorite and hybridised with diorite enclaves. Na Torrain and McPhail's Anvil are formed from equigranular biotite monzogranite. [5]
Between 1867 and 1872 a lighthouse was built on the isolated reef of Dubh Artach, some 16 km (10 mi) southwest, in response to the hazards these rocks jointly presented to shipping. Between 1800 and 1854 thirty ships were wrecked on the Torrans with the loss of over fifty lives. [6] An astonishing 24 vessels were lost in the area in a storm on 30–31 December 1865. [7] [8] The writer Hamish Haswell-Smith describes the rocks as "being scattered over a wide area like dragon's teeth. They lurk menacingly just beneath the surface, occasionally showing themselves in a froth of white spittle". [1] Nicholson (1995) calls them "4+1⁄2 miles [7 km] of jumbled granite teeth" and that "the extent and confused nature of this reef claimed untold numbers of vessels plying between America or the Baltic ports and Oban". [9] The reefs are so hazardous that only small boats can hope to navigate them with any degree of safety. [10]
In addition to being a hazard to navigation, they are one of the locations featured in the novel Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was in this "stoneyard" that Alan Breck Stewart and David Balfour were ship-wrecked. [11] David Balfour, the hero of this tale was then marooned on neighbouring Erraid for a while. Stevenson's father, Thomas was the designer of Dubh Artach lighthouse, [12] and the young Robert Louis knew the area well. [13] He wrote of a "black brotherhood - the Torran reef that lies behind, between which and the shore the Iona Steamers" (taking visitors to Iona and Staffa) "have to pick their way on their return to Oban. The tourist on this trip can see upwards of 3 miles [5 kilometres] of ocean thickly sown with these fatal rocks, and the sea breaking white and heavy over some and others showing their dark heads threateningly above water". [14]
This passage begs comparison with Kidnapped itself:
Altogether it was no such ill night to keep the seas in; and I had begun to wonder what it was that sat so heavily upon the captain, when the brig rising suddenly on the top of a high swell, he pointed and cried to us to look. Away on the lee bow, a thing like a fountain rose out of the moonlit sea, and immediately after we heard a low sound of roaring.
"What do ye call that?" asked the captain, gloomily.
"The sea breaking on a reef," said Alan. "And now ye ken where it is; and what better would ye have?"
"Ay," said Hoseason, "if it was the only one."
And sure enough, just as he spoke there came a second fountain farther to the south.
"There!" said Hoseason. "Ye see for yourself. If I had kent of these reefs, if I had had a chart, or if Shuan had been spared, it's not sixty guineas, no, nor six hundred, would have made me risk my brig in sic a stoneyard! But you, sir, that was to pilot us, have ye never a word?"
"I'm thinking," said Alan, "these'll be what they call the Torran Rocks."
"Are there many of them?" says the captain.
"Truly, sir, I am nae pilot," said Alan; "but it sticks in my mind there are ten miles [16 km] of them."
Mr. Riach and the captain looked at each other.
"There's a way through them, I suppose?" said the captain.
"Doubtless," said Alan, "but where? But it somehow runs in my mind once more that it is clearer under the land."
Haswell-Smith (2004) states that the name is derived from the Gaelic for "loud murmering or thunder" [1] although in a different context Mac an Tàilleir describes Torrain as meaning "hillocks". [15]
The Hebrides are a Scottish archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrides.
The Inner Hebrides 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, which experience a mild oceanic climate. The Inner Hebrides comprise 35 inhabited islands as well as 44 uninhabited islands with an area greater than 30 hectares. Skye, Mull, and Islay are the three largest, and also have the highest populations. The main commercial activities are tourism, crofting, fishing and whisky distilling. In modern times the Inner Hebrides have formed part of two separate local government jurisdictions, one to the north and the other to the south. Together, the islands have an area of about 4,130 km2 (1,594 sq mi), and had a population of 18,948 in 2011. The population density is therefore about 4.6 inhabitants per square kilometre.
Argyll, sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland.
Rona is a remote, uninhabited Scottish island in the North Atlantic. Rona is often referred to as North Rona to distinguish it from South Rona. It has an area of 109 hectares and a maximum elevation of 108 metres (354 ft). It is included within the historic county of Ross-shire.
The Slate Islands are an island group in the Inner Hebrides, lying immediately off the west coast of Scotland, north of Jura and southwest of Oban. The main islands are Seil, Easdale, Luing, Shuna, Torsa and Belnahua. Scarba and Kerrera, which lie nearby, are not usually included.
Belnahua is one of the Slate Islands, in the Firth of Lorn in Scotland, known for its deserted slate quarries. The bedrock that underpins its human history is part of the Scarba Conglomerate Formation and its value has been on record since the 16th century. Likely uninhabited before commercial quarrying commenced, under the control of the Stevenson family during the 19th century the population expanded to over 150 before the island was abandoned again in 1914.
Barra Head, also known as Berneray, is the southernmost island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Within the Outer Hebrides, it forms part of the Barra Isles archipelago. Originally, Barra Head only referred to the southernmost headland of Berneray but is now a common name for the entire island. The highest point of the island is Sotan, a Marilyn.
The Flannan Isles or alternatively, the Seven Hunters are a small island group in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, approximately 32 kilometres (20 mi) west of the Isle of Lewis. They may take their name from Saint Flannan, the 7th century Irish preacher and abbot.
Erraid is a tidal island approximately one mile square located in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It lies west of Mull and southeast of Iona. The island receives about 1,000 millimetres (40 in) of rain and 1,350 hours of sunshine annually, making it one of the driest and sunniest places on the western seaboard of Scotland. It is attended by numerous uninhabited small islets, the largest being Eilean Dubh, Eilean nam Muc, Eilean Chalmain, Eilean Ghomain and Eilean na Seamair.
Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, written as a boys' novel and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886. The novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis Borges, and Hilary Mantel. A sequel, Catriona, was published in 1893.
Skerryvore is a remote island that lies off the west coast of Scotland, 12 miles south-west of the island of Tiree. Skerryvore Lighthouse is located on these rocks, built with some difficulty between 1838 and 1844 by Alan Stevenson.
Dubh Artach is a remote skerry of basalt rock off the west coast of Scotland lying 18 miles (29 km) west of Colonsay and 15 miles (24 km) south-west of the Ross of Mull.
Sula Sgeir is a small, uninhabited Scottish island in the North Atlantic, 18 kilometres west of Rona. One of the most remote islands of the British Isles, it lies approximately forty nautical miles 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.
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.
Loch na Keal, meaning Loch of the Kyle, or Narrows, also Loch of the Cliffs, is the principal sea loch on the western, or Atlantic coastline of the island of Mull, in the Inner Hebrides, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Loch na Keal extends over 20 kilometres (12 mi) inland, almost bisecting Mull, and extending to within 5 km (3 mi) of the eastern shore. The loch gives its name to the Loch na Keal National Scenic Area, one of forty national scenic areas in Scotland.
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