A lifetime of Islands: July 2022

Saturday 16 July 2022

Island 497 - Hamator Rock, North Devon

Hamator Rock is a small rocky tidal island separated from the coast of North Devon at Broadsands Beach between Watermouth Bay and Combe Martin by about 50 metres of water at high tide. It isn't named on the current small scale Ordnance Survey maps but it is on the 1886 edition of the 25" = 1 mile scale map. The rock beyond it is called Inner Stone and the one beyond that is Outer Stone. They are all composed of Middle Devonian sandstone.

To access Broadsands Beach you have to go down c240 steps. When we first tried to access it in December 2020, the path was shut because some of the steps were damaged but that section has now been replaced. Once on the beach, as long as it is at least a couple of hours after high tide, it is an easy stroll to the bottom of the island. There are a couple of routes to the top but the path is steep and coming down is always scarier than going up, so I only went part of the way up. The island has a row of trees growing on the top of it and the rest of the island above high tide level is covered in grass and scrub.

When we visited in April 2022, fulmars were sitting on some of the rocky ledges on the south side of Broadsands Beach.

Looking north towards Hamator Rock

Hamator Rock and Broadsands Beach

Hamator Rock with Inner and Outer Stone beyond it

Halfway up Hamator Rock

The beginning of the path to the top from the high tide level

Broadsands Beach from Hamator Rock

Lester Point and Little Hangman from Hamator Rock

Combe Martin Bay with Little Hangman in the distance

Looking west up Hamator Rock

Little Hangman from Hamator Rock

c240 steps up from the beach to the cliff top

Thursday 14 July 2022

Island 496 - Staffa

I finally made it to Staffa, 13 years after my first unsuccessful attempt. The weather for the first 6 days of our week on Mull in June 2021 was either too wet or too windy but on the final day it was perfect - calm, sunny and warm, so we booked two of the remaining few spaces on one of the trip boats running from Fionnphort (Staffa Trips and Staffa Tours). Boats also leave from Ulva Ferry (Turus Mara). Landing on Staffa is only possible on very calm days and when there is no swell. You only get just over an hour ashore on Staffa but that is long enough to see Fingal's Cave and also walk to and round the top of the island.

The only landing place is on the east coast. It is a simple concrete platform with a flight of steep concrete steps leading up from it to the top of the island.

Staffa is just over half a mile from north to south by quarter of a mile from east to west and the highest point on the island is 42 metres above sea level.

The island has been uninhabited since about 1800 but in 1772 it was home to one person and in 1784 16 people were living there. The island was originally part of the MacQuarrie's Ulva Estate but they sold it in 1777. It then had a succession of owners - Colin MacDonald of Lochboisdale, Ranald MacDonald, Gerald Newall, Alastair Watteville, the Langs and in 1986 it was bought by an American - Mr Jock Elliott Jr as a 60th birthday present for his wife Elly and donated to the National Trust for Scotland, who still own it.

Staffa is made of fine-grained black Tertiary basalt. Slow cooling caused the lava to form hexagonal columns. The same period of volcanic activity formed the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. The coast of the island is indented with many caves, the most famous of which is called Fingal's Cave. It is named after Fionn MacCool, a 3rd century Irishman, who defended the Hebrides against Viking raiders. He is known in Gaelic as Fionn na ghal, which means chief of valour. In Gaelic, Fingal's Cave is known as An Uamh Bhin, which means the melodious cave. The name Staffa means pillar/post island in Old Norse, referring to the basalt columns.

A natural path, known as The Causeway leads from the landing place down the east coast of the island, across the hexagonal blocks to the mouth of Fingal's Cave and then into it. In places the path has been made safer by the addition of some concrete steps. The acoustics in the cave are extraordinary, as the seawater moves in and out of it. The walls of the cave are all composed of tall hexagonal basalt columns. The cave is unique and absolutely amazing.

The other main caves on Staffa are Clamshell Cave, which is located next to the landing place; Boat Cave, McKinnon's Cave and Cormorant Cave on the south coast; Goat Cave on the east coast. McKinnon's Cave and Cormorant Cave are linked by a narrrow tunnel. The cliff near Fingal's Cave was damaged in 1945 when a sea mine exploded.

In 1772 the botanist Joseph Banks brought Staffa to the world's attention. He spent the night in the house of the only family on the island and became infested with lice as a result. He publicised the island on his return to London and tourists started to visit. The famous people who came to see Fingal's Cave included Sir Walter Scott, John Keats, William Wordsworth, Queen Victoria & Prince Albert, Jules Verne, Dr David Livingstone, Robert Louis Stevenson and JWM Turner. The composer Felix Mendelssohn visited Staffa in 1829 and the magnificence of Fingal's Cave inspired him to write his Hebridean Overture (also known as Fingal's Cave).

The top of the island is reasonably flat and a few puffins nest in burrows on the cliffs.