Power cable notice and posts
Looking south west towards Benbecula
Patch of nettles. Looking north up the causeway towards North Uist
Friday, 15 July 2016
Island 317 - Eileanan Glasa, Benbecula, Outer Hebrides
Eileanan Glasa is a small formerly tidal island, which has now has the Benbecula to North Uist causeway on top of part of it. When I drove over it at high tide I noticed that part of it is still tidal. The island is very low lying and is covered in rough grass, nettles, thrift, buttercups, irises and thistles. It is obviously visited by sheep, as there was evidence of sheep poo. However there were no sheep there when I visited. The island is also home to a couple of posts supporting a power cable.
Island 316 - Eilean na Cille, Benbecula, Outer Hebrides
Eilean na Cille can be reached via a causeway from the south east coast of Benbecula via Grimsay and 5 very small unnamed islands. The island has a ruined house on it but is currently uninhabited. It does however have a working pier and a slightly dilapidated picnic site. It wasn't looking its best when I visited on a rainy day. It looked a bit better when I revisited on a sunny day at the end of my holiday in order to visit the neighbouring tidal island of Triallabreac. The island is covered in rough grass with patches of heather and wild irises.
Anchor at the picnic site
End of the jetty
Fishing boats at the pier
Pier
Neatly stacked fishing pots
The picnic site could do with a bit of TLC
Ruined house on a rainy day
Looking north west along the causeway to Grimsay from Eilean na Cille
Ruined house on a sunny day
Island 315 - Grimsay/Griomasaigh, Benbecula, Outer Hebrides
There are two islands called Grimsay or Griomasaigh on either side of Benbecula. This is the smaller of the two Grimsays and it is located off the south east coast of Benbecula and is joined to it by a causeway with a road on it. It is just over a mile long by just under half a mile wide at its widest point. It has about half a dozen houses on it and a few fields of rough grazing. It is a stepping stone between Benbecula and the pier on neighbouring Eilean na Cille. The highest point on the island is 20 metres above sea level.
Some of the island's residents were happy to pose for a photo!
This sums up the island - a place to pass through on the way to somewhere else
Surprisingly bold sheep
Ruined house on Grimsay
Grimsay from an unnamed island
I thought this was a novel way of displaying a house number
Island 314 - Or Eilean, Scalpay, Harris, Outer Hebrides
Or Eilean is a small tidal island, which is only separated from the island of Scalpay by a strip of seaweed covered land no wider than about 15 metres and which is covered at high tide. The island is about 500 metres from east to west and 300 metres from north to south.
I followed a group of sheep on to the island. However being more agile than me, they soon disappeared up the cliff an on to the plateau of the island. I stayed lower down, as I was on my own and no one knew where I was, so I didn't want to risk having an accident. The bit of the island I visited had plenty of grass and bracken with some thrift, heather and tormentil. I saw a wren and listened to a stonechat.
I followed a group of sheep on to the island. However being more agile than me, they soon disappeared up the cliff an on to the plateau of the island. I stayed lower down, as I was on my own and no one knew where I was, so I didn't want to risk having an accident. The bit of the island I visited had plenty of grass and bracken with some thrift, heather and tormentil. I saw a wren and listened to a stonechat.
Or Eilean from Scalpay
The crossing point
Looking south east towards Stiolamair
Looking north west from Or Eilean
Looking south east towards Stiolamair
Or Eilean from Scalpay
Looking north west over Scalpay to Harris. Or Eilean is on the left hand side of the photo
Eilean Mhuire, Shiant Isles, Outer Hebrides
Eilean Mhuire (Mary's Island) is the 3rd largest of the Shiant Isles. I wasn't able to visit it but the island could clearly be seen from Eilean an Tighe. The island, which is L shaped, has high cliffs on all sides but there is a cobble beach on the southern side where landings can be made and at this point the cliffs are slightly less steep and climbable. The top of the island is an undulating plateau.
Eilean Mhuire has been used for grazing and cultivating crops in the past, as there is evidence of lazy beds. It may or may not have had permanent inhabitants at one time. There are slight remains of turf walled huts. There are also the remains of what is thought to be a chapel dedicated to St Mary, hence the name of the island. Today the island is home to thousands of puffins.
Eilean Mhuire has been used for grazing and cultivating crops in the past, as there is evidence of lazy beds. It may or may not have had permanent inhabitants at one time. There are slight remains of turf walled huts. There are also the remains of what is thought to be a chapel dedicated to St Mary, hence the name of the island. Today the island is home to thousands of puffins.
Eilean Mhuire from the sea
Eilean Mhuire from the beach between Eilean an Tighe and Garbh Eilean
Eilean Mhuire from the summit of Eilean an Tighe
Thursday, 14 July 2016
Island 313 - Garbh Eilean, Shiant Isles, Outer Hebrides
Garbh Eilean is one of the three main Shiant Isles. It is linked to Eilean an Tighe at all times except high spring tides or storms by a pebble beach. The name means Rough Island. The island has precipitous cliffs on its south, east and north coasts. The cliffs are marginally less steep on the west coast. There is a natural arch called Toll a' Roimh at the north east corner of the island.
Four people in the group with whom I travelled to the Shiants chose to climb an extremely steep path to the top of Mullach Buidhe, the highest point on Garbh Eilean at 160 metres above sea level. It looked far too vertiginous for me but they all made it up and back again safely. At least one of them was collecting Marilyns (relative hills). I'm not sure what the attraction was for the others. I contented myself with sitting for the required 10 minutes above the high tide line at the foot of the cliff.
Four people in the group with whom I travelled to the Shiants chose to climb an extremely steep path to the top of Mullach Buidhe, the highest point on Garbh Eilean at 160 metres above sea level. It looked far too vertiginous for me but they all made it up and back again safely. At least one of them was collecting Marilyns (relative hills). I'm not sure what the attraction was for the others. I contented myself with sitting for the required 10 minutes above the high tide line at the foot of the cliff.
Columnar jointing of the dolerite cliffs
Garbh Eilean from Eilean an Tighe, looking across the shingle ridge
Looking west down the south coast of Garbh Eilean
Garbh Eilean from Eilean an Tighe
Garbh Eilean showing the natural arch Toll a' Roimh at the north east end of the island
Garbh Eilean
Island 312 - Eilean an Taighe, Shiant Isles, Outer Hebrides
Eilean an Tighe is one of the 3 islands and half a dozen or so named rocks, (which are collectively known as Galtachan), which make up the Shiant Isles. Shiant is pronounced "Shant". Eilean an Tighe (House Island) is joined to Garbh Eilean (Rough Island) by a pebble beach at all but the highest spring tides. The third island in the group is Eilean Mhuire (Mary's Island). It is not connected to the other two islands at any state of the tide.
The Shiants are located 5 miles south east of the Pairc area of the Isle of Lewis and 11 miles east north east of Eilean Glas Lighthouse on the island of Scalpay. In Gaelic the Shiants are called Na h-Eileanan Seunta, which means holy or enchanted islands.
I visited the Shiant Isles on a special day trip arranged by The Islands Book Trust in mid June 2016. We sailed on the Enchanted Isle from Caolas Scalpaigh with Sea Harris and the trip across to the islands only took about 20 minutes. We then sailed around Garbh Eilean and between Garbh Eilean and Eilean Mhuire to look at the sea birds nesting on the cliffs and flying around (mainly puffins, razorbills, guillemots, fulmars and kittiwakes). We then landed on the rocks near the house on Eilean an Tighe. We had about 2.75 hours ashore, which was just enough time to explore Eilean an Tighe but didn't allow any "stand and stare" time.
There is no jetty on Eilean an Tighe, so we had to get from the Enchanted Isle into a dinghy and then we had to scramble over the rocks to the shore. This wasn't a problem when we arrived, as the tide was high and there was only a short section of slippery seaweed to negotiate. However when we came to leave 3 hours later the tide had gone out and we had to pick our way across about 30 metres of seaweed covered rocks and rock pools to reach the dinghy. We all made it safely back to the dinghy, even the man who was carrying an enormous rucksack, having camped near Caolas Scalpaigh the night before.
The weather on the day I visited was nearly perfect - a light breeze and bright sunshine. This was the only perfect weather day of my fortnight on the Outer Hebrides. I climbed to the top of Eilean an Tighe dodging the beautiful but dive bombing great skuas, who presumably had a nest close by.
The Shiants were inhabited intermittently in the past. There were possibly 40 people in 5 families living on Eilean an Tighe in the mid 18th century. They were uninhabited from around 1770 until the 1820s when a shepherd and his wife lived there. Eilean an Tighe was called Eilean na Cille (Church Island) until the mid 19th century. From c1842-1862 the islands were again uninhabited but another shepherd and his wife and daughters then lived on Eilean an Tighe. They were uninhabited again after 1901.
The Shiant Isles were bought by the writer Compton Mackenzie in 1925. He sold them in 1936 to a Colonel Macdonald in 1936. He in turn sold them to the publisher Nigel Nicholson in 1937 for £1,400. He gave them to his son Adam on his 21st birthday. Adam Nicholson wrote an excellent book Sea Room: An Island Life, which was first published in 2001. Adam Nicolson describes Sea Room as "an attempt to tell the whole story, as I now understand it, of a tiny place in as many dimensions as possible: geologically, spiritually, botanically, historically, culturally, aesthetically, ornithologically, etymologically, emotionally, politically, socially, archaeologically and personally." Adam has subsequently given the Shiants to his son Tom.
I had never seen the Shiant Isles on television and then just two weeks after my visit I spotted a documentary called The Last Seabird Summer? which was made by Adam Nicholson, being shown on BBC4. Although he also travels to Iceland and Norway, much of the programme is set on the Shiants.
The Shiants were infested with non-native black rats, which originally arrived via a ship, which was wrecked on the islands in the 18th century. In 2012 there were estimated to be a population of 3,600 of them in the winter with many more in the summer when food was more abundant. The rats feasted on seabird eggs and chicks. However in the winter of 2015-16 the RSPB undertook a rat eradication programme using poison bait. The aim is to encourage storm petrels and Manx shearwaters to breed on the islands. When we visited in June 2016 some of the people involved in the rat eradication programme were still on the island. The Shiants are home to about 10% of the UK's puffins and 2% of the world's total. As we arrived on Eilean Tighe we spotted a couple of seals watching us from the safety of the sea. In addition to the seabirds, skylarks were singing during our visit and I saw a few white butterflies.
The Shiant Isles are made of sills of igneous rocks, mainly dolerite. There are 2 kinds of dolerite present on the islands: crinanite and teschenite. The most distinctive feature is the columnar jointing, which can clearly be seen on the cliffs of the islands.
When I visited in mid June 2016 a great many wildflowers were in bloom, including tormentil, yellow iris, at least 2 kinds of orchids, butterwort, milkwort, lousewort, ragged robin, buttercups, cotton-grass, meadowsweet, cuckoo flower, wild thyme and heather. The island is grazed by sheep, although I didn't see any during my visit.
It was a day out that I will remember for the rest of my life and which was well worth the expense and effort of getting there.
More information about the archaeology, natural history and geology of the Shiant Isles can be found on their official website: http://www.shiantisles.net/
The Shiants are located 5 miles south east of the Pairc area of the Isle of Lewis and 11 miles east north east of Eilean Glas Lighthouse on the island of Scalpay. In Gaelic the Shiants are called Na h-Eileanan Seunta, which means holy or enchanted islands.
I visited the Shiant Isles on a special day trip arranged by The Islands Book Trust in mid June 2016. We sailed on the Enchanted Isle from Caolas Scalpaigh with Sea Harris and the trip across to the islands only took about 20 minutes. We then sailed around Garbh Eilean and between Garbh Eilean and Eilean Mhuire to look at the sea birds nesting on the cliffs and flying around (mainly puffins, razorbills, guillemots, fulmars and kittiwakes). We then landed on the rocks near the house on Eilean an Tighe. We had about 2.75 hours ashore, which was just enough time to explore Eilean an Tighe but didn't allow any "stand and stare" time.
There is no jetty on Eilean an Tighe, so we had to get from the Enchanted Isle into a dinghy and then we had to scramble over the rocks to the shore. This wasn't a problem when we arrived, as the tide was high and there was only a short section of slippery seaweed to negotiate. However when we came to leave 3 hours later the tide had gone out and we had to pick our way across about 30 metres of seaweed covered rocks and rock pools to reach the dinghy. We all made it safely back to the dinghy, even the man who was carrying an enormous rucksack, having camped near Caolas Scalpaigh the night before.
The weather on the day I visited was nearly perfect - a light breeze and bright sunshine. This was the only perfect weather day of my fortnight on the Outer Hebrides. I climbed to the top of Eilean an Tighe dodging the beautiful but dive bombing great skuas, who presumably had a nest close by.
The Shiants were inhabited intermittently in the past. There were possibly 40 people in 5 families living on Eilean an Tighe in the mid 18th century. They were uninhabited from around 1770 until the 1820s when a shepherd and his wife lived there. Eilean an Tighe was called Eilean na Cille (Church Island) until the mid 19th century. From c1842-1862 the islands were again uninhabited but another shepherd and his wife and daughters then lived on Eilean an Tighe. They were uninhabited again after 1901.
The Shiant Isles were bought by the writer Compton Mackenzie in 1925. He sold them in 1936 to a Colonel Macdonald in 1936. He in turn sold them to the publisher Nigel Nicholson in 1937 for £1,400. He gave them to his son Adam on his 21st birthday. Adam Nicholson wrote an excellent book Sea Room: An Island Life, which was first published in 2001. Adam Nicolson describes Sea Room as "an attempt to tell the whole story, as I now understand it, of a tiny place in as many dimensions as possible: geologically, spiritually, botanically, historically, culturally, aesthetically, ornithologically, etymologically, emotionally, politically, socially, archaeologically and personally." Adam has subsequently given the Shiants to his son Tom.
I had never seen the Shiant Isles on television and then just two weeks after my visit I spotted a documentary called The Last Seabird Summer? which was made by Adam Nicholson, being shown on BBC4. Although he also travels to Iceland and Norway, much of the programme is set on the Shiants.
The Shiants were infested with non-native black rats, which originally arrived via a ship, which was wrecked on the islands in the 18th century. In 2012 there were estimated to be a population of 3,600 of them in the winter with many more in the summer when food was more abundant. The rats feasted on seabird eggs and chicks. However in the winter of 2015-16 the RSPB undertook a rat eradication programme using poison bait. The aim is to encourage storm petrels and Manx shearwaters to breed on the islands. When we visited in June 2016 some of the people involved in the rat eradication programme were still on the island. The Shiants are home to about 10% of the UK's puffins and 2% of the world's total. As we arrived on Eilean Tighe we spotted a couple of seals watching us from the safety of the sea. In addition to the seabirds, skylarks were singing during our visit and I saw a few white butterflies.
The Shiant Isles are made of sills of igneous rocks, mainly dolerite. There are 2 kinds of dolerite present on the islands: crinanite and teschenite. The most distinctive feature is the columnar jointing, which can clearly be seen on the cliffs of the islands.
When I visited in mid June 2016 a great many wildflowers were in bloom, including tormentil, yellow iris, at least 2 kinds of orchids, butterwort, milkwort, lousewort, ragged robin, buttercups, cotton-grass, meadowsweet, cuckoo flower, wild thyme and heather. The island is grazed by sheep, although I didn't see any during my visit.
It was a day out that I will remember for the rest of my life and which was well worth the expense and effort of getting there.
More information about the archaeology, natural history and geology of the Shiant Isles can be found on their official website: http://www.shiantisles.net/
The only house on Eilean an Tighe
It has 2 main rooms - a bedroom and a living room but no electricity, telephone, running water, bathroom or toilet - visitors are instructed to go to the loo in the inter-tidal zone!
It has 2 main rooms - a bedroom and a living room but no electricity, telephone, running water, bathroom or toilet - visitors are instructed to go to the loo in the inter-tidal zone!
A former residence
Precipitous Cliffs on the eastern side of Eilean an Taighe
The southern end of Eilean an Taighe looking down the spine of the island
Eilean Mhuire from the east coast of Eilean an Taighe
Garbh Eilean from the summit of Eilean an Taighe
Cairn at the northern edge of Eilean an Taighe
Looking west towards Galtachan
Orchid - I'm not sure which sort
A different orchid - no idea what sort this is either
I'm not sure if this hollow is significant
House looking towards Galtachan
House ruins
Well - I'm not sure I'd want to drink the water in it though!
The Enchanted Isle on its way back to collect us
The Enchanted Isle approaching Eilean an Taighe
Dinghy ride back to the Enchanted Isle
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