A lifetime of Islands: Island 190 - St Ninian's Isle, Shetland

Friday 24 May 2013

Island 190 - St Ninian's Isle, Shetland

St Ninian's Isle is connected to the west coast of Shetland Mainland at the village of Bigton by a 500 metre long tombolo of pale yellow shell sand. The tombolo only gets covered at high spring tides and during storms. It is apparently the largest active tombolo in the UK and it certainly one of the most beautiful. The tombolo is formed by waves from the Atlantic Ocean to the west bending round the island on either side and meeting on the east side. These waves deposit sand in the meeting zone.

The remains of a chapel can be seen near the west coast of the island. The site was excavated in the late 1950s and in 2000/2001. In 1958 28 Pictish silver and silver-gilt objects and the jaw bone of a porpoise were discovered buried in a wooden box under a cross-marked slab close to the altar by a local schoolboy called Douglas Coutts. The treasure is now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh but replicas can be seen in the excellent Shetland Museum in Lerwick. The treasure may have been buried in the chapel as early as the late 8th or early 9th centuries or possibly several centuries later. Archaeological remains on St Ninian's Isle date back to the Iron Age.

St Ninian's Isle was inhabited until 1775 but is now only used to graze sheep. It is also home to many rabbits. Fulmars, puffins, black guillemots and cormorants breed on Hich Holm, a small rocky island off the west coast of St Ninian's Isle. The rare bulbous buttercup can be found on St Ninian's Isle.