Shiant Islands
The Shiant Isles (Scottish Gaelic: Na h-Eileanan Mòra), also known in Gaelic as "The Enchanted Isles" (Na h-Eileanan Seunta) are a privately owned island group in the Minch, east of Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. They are five miles south east of Lewis [1].
Geography and geology
The main islands are Garbh Eilean and Eilean an T(a)ighe, and are actually joined by a narrow isthmus, and Eilean Mhuire.
The islands are known for their dolerite columns, similar to but much larger than those on Staffa, and they are surrounded by tall cliffs, which are over 400 ft/500m high.
History
At the turn of the 20th century, the Shiant Isles had a population of 8 [1].
The author and politician Compton MacKenzie owned the islands in the 1920s. He was a great fan of islands, and also owned Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides, and rented Herm in the Channel Islands at different points in his life. He lived on Eilean an Taighe briefly in the 1930s.[1].
In the 1930s they were acquired by Nigel Nicolson, then an undergraduate at Oxford, who like MacKenzie was later a writer, publisher and politician. Nicolson's son, the writer Adam Nicolson, published the definitive book on the islands, Sea Room. The Shiants now belong to Adam's son Tom. Sheep belonging to a Lewis crofter graze all three islands. The simple bothy restored by Nigel Nicolson on Eilean an Taighe is currently the only habitable structure on the islands. [2]
Wildlife
The Shiant Isles have a large population of seabirds, including a few great skuas and tens of thousands of puffins. The islands are also home to a colony of black rats: apart from one or two small islands in the Firth of Forth, the Shiants are the only place in the UK where the black rat or ship's rat (Rattus rattus) can still be found. There are thought to be about 3,000 rats over-wintering on the islands.
Footnotes
- ^ a b c Keay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland. London. HarperCollins.
- ^ Nicholson, Adam Sea Room: an island life Harper Collins, 2001 (ISBN 0-00-257164-1)
Bibliography
- Nicolson, Adam (2001). Sea Room: an island life. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-257164-1.
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- Benvie, Niall (2004). Scotland's Wildlife. Aurum Press. ISBN 1-85-410978-2.
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External links
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