Inner Hebrides - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Inner Hebrides is an archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

off the west coast of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides

Outer Hebrides

The Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland...

. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides

Hebrides

The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive...

, which enjoy a mild oceanic climate

Oceanic climate

An oceanic climate, also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, Cascadian climate and British climate for Köppen climate classification Cfb and subtropical highland for Köppen Cfb or Cwb, is a type of climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of some of the...

. There are 36 inhabited islands and a further 43 uninhabited Inner Hebrides with an area greater than 30 hectares (74.1 acre). The main commercial activities are tourism, crofting

Croft (land)

A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer.- Etymology :...

, fishing, and whisky distilling

Scotch whisky

Scotch whisky is whisky made in Scotland.Scotch whisky is divided into five distinct categories: Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Single Grain Scotch Whisky, Blended Malt Scotch Whisky , Blended Grain Scotch Whisky, and Blended Scotch Whisky.All Scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for at least three...

. 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. Combined, the islands have an area of approximately 412850 hectares (1,594 sq mi), and had a population of 18,257 people in 2001. The population density is therefore a little over 4 persons per km² (11 persons per square mile).

There are various important prehistoric structures, many of which pre-date the first written references to the islands by Roman and Greek

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...

authors. In the historic period the earliest known settlers were Picts

Picts

The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...

to the north and Gaels

Gaels

The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....

in the southern kingdom of Dalriada

Dalriada

Dalriada can refer to:* Dál Riata, a Gaelic kingdom in western Scotland and north-east Ireland in the Early Middle Ages* Dalriada School, a co-educational, voluntary grammar school in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland* Dalriada , Hungarian folk metal band...

prior to the islands becoming part of the Suðreyjar kingdom of the Norse

Norsemen

Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...

, who ruled for over 400 years until sovereignty was transferred to Scotland by the Treaty of Perth

Treaty of Perth

The Treaty of Perth, 1266, ended military conflict between Norway, under King Magnus VI of Norway, and Scotland, under King Alexander III, over the sovereignty of the Hebrides and the Isle of Man....

in 1266. Control of the islands was then held by various clan

Scottish clan

Scottish clans , give a sense of identity and shared descent to people in Scotland and to their relations throughout the world, with a formal structure of Clan Chiefs recognised by the court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms which acts as an authority concerning matters of heraldry and Coat of Arms...

chiefs, principal of whom were the MacLeans

Clan MacLean

Clan Maclean is a Highland Scottish clan. They are one of the oldest clans in the Highlands and owned large tracts of land in Argyll as well as the Inner Hebrides. Many early MacLeans became famous for their honour, strength and courage in battle. They were involved in many clan skirmishes with...

, MacLeods

Clan MacLeod

Clan MacLeod is a Highland Scottish clan associated with the Isle of Skye. There are two main branches of the clan: the Macleods of Harris and Dunvegan, whose chief is Macleod of Macleod, are known in Gaelic as Sìol Tormoid ; the Macleods of Lewis, whose chief is Macleod of The Lewes, are known in...

and MacDonalds

Clan Donald

Clan Donald is one of the largest Scottish clans. There are numerous branches to the clan. Several of these have chiefs recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms; these are: Clan Macdonald of Sleat, Clan Macdonald of Clanranald, Clan MacDonell of Glengarry, Clan MacDonald of Keppoch, and Clan...

. The Highland Clearances

Highland Clearances

The Highland Clearances were forced displacements of the population of the Scottish Highlands during the 18th and 19th centuries. They led to mass emigration to the sea coast, the Scottish Lowlands, and the North American colonies...

of the 19th century had a devastating effect on many communities and it is only in recent years that population levels have ceased to decline.

Sea transport is crucial and a variety of ferry services operate between the islands and to mainland Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

. The Gaelic language remains strong in some areas, the landscapes have inspired a variety of artists, and there is a diversity of wildlife.

Geography

The islands form a disparate archipelago of which the largest are, from south to north Islay

Islay

-Prehistory:The earliest settlers on Islay were nomadic hunter-gatherers who arrived during the Mesolithic period after the retreat of the Pleistocene ice caps. In 1993 a flint arrowhead was found in a field near Bridgend dating from 10,800 BC, the earliest evidence of a human presence found so far...

, Jura

Jura, Scotland

Jura is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, situated adjacent and to the north-east of Islay. Part of the island is designated as a National Scenic Area. Until the twentieth century Jura was dominated - and most of it was eventually owned - by the Campbell clan of Inveraray Castle on Loch...

, Mull

Isle of Mull

The Isle of Mull or simply Mull is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute....

, Rùm

Rùm

Rùm , a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum) is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, in the district of Lochaber, Scotland...

, and Skye

Skye

Skye or the Isle of Skye is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillin hills...

. Skye is the largest of all and most populous with an area of 165625 hectares (639 sq mi) and a population of circa 9,200.

The southern group are in Argyll

Argyll

Argyll , archaically Argyle , is a region of western Scotland corresponding with most of the part of ancient Dál Riata that was located on the island of Great Britain, and in a historical context can be used to mean the entire western coast between the Mull of Kintyre and Cape Wrath...

, an area roughly corresponding with the heartlands of the ancient kingdom of Dál Riata

Dál Riata

Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...

and incorporated into the modern unitary council area of Argyll and Bute

Argyll and Bute

Argyll and Bute is both one of 32 unitary council areas; and a Lieutenancy area in Scotland. The administrative centre for the council area is located in Lochgilphead.Argyll and Bute covers the second largest administrative area of any Scottish council...

. The northern islands were part of the county

Counties of Scotland

The counties of Scotland were the principal local government divisions of Scotland until 1975. Scotland's current lieutenancy areas and registration counties are largely based on them. They are often referred to as historic counties....

of Inverness-shire and are now in the Highland Council area.

Physical

The ten largest islands are as follows.

Island	Gaelic name	Area (ha Hectare The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2... )	Population	Highest point	Height (m)
Coll Coll Coll is a small island, west of Mull in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Coll is known for its sandy beaches, which rise to form large sand dunes, for its corncrakes, and for Breachacha Castle.-Geography and geology:...	Colla	7,685	164	Ben Hogh	104
Colonsay Colonsay Colonsay is an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, located north of Islay and south of Mull and has an area of . It is the ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeill. Aligned on a south-west to north-east axis, it measures in length and reaches at its widest...	Colbhasa	4,074	143	Carnan Eoin	104
Eigg Eigg Eigg is one of the Small Isles, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. It lies to the south of the Skye and to the north of the Ardnamurchan peninsula. Eigg is long from north to south, and east to west. With an area of , it is the second largest of the Small Isles after Rùm.-Geography:The main...	Eige	3,049	67	An Sgurr An Sgurr (Eigg) An Sgurr is the highest hill on the Inner Hebridean island of Eigg, Lochaber, Highland, Scotland. It was formed around 58 million years ago; the result of one of the last eruptions of a volcano, the core of which now forms the Isle of Rùm. Thick viscous pitchstone lava flowed out, filling a river...	393
Islay Islay -Prehistory:The earliest settlers on Islay were nomadic hunter-gatherers who arrived during the Mesolithic period after the retreat of the Pleistocene ice caps. In 1993 a flint arrowhead was found in a field near Bridgend dating from 10,800 BC, the earliest evidence of a human presence found so far...		61,956	3,457	Beinn Bheigeir Beinn Bheigeir Beinn Bheigier is a Marilyn on the Isle of Islay. With 491 m, it is the highest of the seven Marilyns on Islay, and the highest point on the island ....	491
Jura Jura, Scotland Jura is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, situated adjacent and to the north-east of Islay. Part of the island is designated as a National Scenic Area. Until the twentieth century Jura was dominated - and most of it was eventually owned - by the Campbell clan of Inveraray Castle on Loch...	Diùra	36,692	188	Beinn an Òir Beinn an Oir Beinn an Òir is the highest peak of the Paps of Jura on the island of Jura, Scotland. It is the highest peak on the island, standing at 785 metres, and is thereby a Corbett....	785
Mull Isle of Mull The Isle of Mull or simply Mull is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute....	Muile	87,535	2,667	Ben More Ben More (Mull) Ben More is the highest mountain and only Munro on the Isle of Mull, Scotland....	966
Raasay Raasay Raasay is an island between the Isle of Skye and the mainland of Scotland. It is separated from Skye by the Sound of Raasay and from Applecross by the Inner Sound. It is most famous for being the birthplace of the poet Sorley MacLean, an important figure in the Scottish literary renaissance...	Ratharsair	6,231	192	Dùn Caan	444
Rùm Rùm Rùm , a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum) is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, in the district of Lochaber, Scotland...	Rùm	10,463	22	Askival Askival Askival is the highest mountain on the island of Rùm, located south of the town of Kinloch, Scotland. It is often climbed as part of a full traverse of the Rùm Cuillin, a rocky range of hills in the south east corner of Rùm, of which Askival is the highest....	812
Skye Skye Skye or the Isle of Skye is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillin hills...	An t-Eilean Sgitheanach	165,625	9,232	Sgurr Alasdair Sgurr Alasdair Sgurr Alasdair is the highest peak of the Black Cuillin, and the highest peak on the Isle of Skye. Like the rest of the range it is composed of gabbro, a rock with excellent grip for mountaineering.-Ascent:...	993
Tiree Tiree -History:Tiree is known for the 1st century BC Dùn Mòr broch, for the prehistoric carved Ringing Stone and for the birds of the Ceann a' Mhara headland....	Tioridh	7,834	770	Ben Hynish	141

The geology and geomorphology of the islands is varied. Some, such as Skye and Mull, are mountainous, whilst others like Tiree

Tiree

-History:Tiree is known for the 1st century BC Dùn Mòr broch, for the prehistoric carved Ringing Stone and for the birds of the Ceann a' Mhara headland....

are relatively low lying. The highest eminences are found in the Cuillin

Cuillin

This article is about the Cuillin of Skye. See Rùm for the Cuillin of Rùm.The Cuillin are a range of rocky mountains located on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The true Cuillin are also known as the Black Cuillin to distinguish them from the Red Hills across Glen Sligachan...

hills of Skye, although peaks over 300 metres (984.3 ft) are common elsewhere. Much of the coastline is machair

Machair (geography)

The machair refers to a fertile low-lying grassy plain found on some of the north-west coastlines of Ireland and Scotland, in particular the Outer Hebrides...

, a fertile low-lying dune pastureland. Many of the islands are swept by strong tides, and the Corryvreckan tide race

Gulf of Corryvreckan

The Gulf of Corryvreckan , also called the Strait of Corryvreckan, is a narrow strait between the islands of Jura and Scarba, in Argyll and Bute, off the west coast of Scotland.It is possible for tourists to visit the site by way of boats trips from local harbours.- Topography...

between Scarba

Scarba

Scarba is a small island, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, just north of the much larger island of Jura. The island is owned by Richard Hill, 7th Baron Sandys and has not been permanently inhabited since the 1960s. It is now covered in heather and used for grazing animals...

and Jura is one of the largest whirlpools in the world.

There are various small subsidiary archipelagoes including the Ascrib Islands

Ascrib Islands

The Ascrib Islands are a group of small islands lying in Loch Snizort off the northwest coast of Skye, in Highland, Scotland.Together with Isay and Loch Dunvegan, they are designated as a Special Area of Conservation owing to the breeding colonies of the common seal.There is a house on South...

, Crowlin Islands

Crowlin Islands

The Crowlin Islands are a group of uninhabited islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. They lie between Skye and the Applecross peninsula on the mainland.The individual islands are:*Eilean Mòr *Eilean Meadhonach...

, Slate Islands

Slate Islands

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, Lunga, Shuna, Torsa and Belnahua...

, Small Isles

Small Isles

The Small Isles are a small archipelago of islands in the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland. They lie south of Skye and north of Mull and Ardnamurchan – the most westerly point of mainland Scotland.The four main islands are Canna, Rùm, Eigg and Muck...

, Summer Isles

Summer Isles

The Summer Isles are an archipelago lying in the mouth of Loch Broom, in the Highland region of Scotland.-Geography:The only inhabited isle, Tanera Mòr, is also the largest. It is home to an Atlantic salmon fish farm, some rental holiday homes, a café and a post office, which has operated its own...

and Treshnish Islands.

Human

The 36 inhabited islands of the Inner Hebrides had a population of 18,257 at the time of the 2001 census. There are a further 43 uninhabited Inner Hebrides with an area greater than 30 hectares (approximately 74 acres). Records for the last date of settlement for the smaller islands are incomplete, but most of them would have been inhabited at some point during the Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

, Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

, Early Historic

Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...

or Norse

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

periods. In common with the other main island chains of Scotland many of the smaller and more remote islands were abandoned during the 19th and 20th centuries, in some cases after continuous habitation since the prehistoric period. This process involved a transition from these places being perceived as relatively self-sufficient agricultural economies to a view becoming held by both island residents and outsiders alike that the more remote islands lacked the essential services of a modern industrial economy. However, the larger islands have retained their populations well, which grew overall by more than 12% from 1981-2001.

The main commercial activities are tourism, crofting

Croft (land)

, fishing, and whisky distilling

Scotch whisky

(centred on Islay

Islay whisky

Islay whisky is Scotch whisky made on Islay or Ìle in Gaelic, the southernmost of the Inner Hebridean Islands located off the west coast of Scotland. There are eight active distilleries on the island, as of early 2008, with a ninth being made ready for production...

but also including Talisker

Talisker

Talisker is an Island Single Malt Scotch whisky produced by the Talisker Distillery, Carbost, Scotland; the only distillery on the Isle of Skye. The distillery is operated by United Distillers and Vintners for Diageo, and is marketed as part of their Classic Malts series...

from Skye

Skye

Skye or the Isle of Skye is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillin hills...

, Isle of Jura Single Malt

Isle of Jura Single Malt

Isle of Jura Single Malt is a Scotch whisky distilled at the Isle of Jura Distillery located on the island of Jura located off the West Coast of Scotland...

and Tobermory and Ledaig from Mull

Isle of Mull

The Isle of Mull or simply Mull is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute....

). Overall, the area is relatively reliant on primary industries and the public sector; there is a dependence on self employment and micro-business, and most parts are defined by Highlands and Islands Enterprise

Highlands and Islands Enterprise

Highlands and Islands Enterprise is the Scottish Government's economic and community development agency for a diverse region which covers more than half of Scotland and is home to around 450,000 people....

as economically "Fragile Areas". However, the islands are well placed to exploit renewable energy, particularly onshore and offshore wind and the Sleat

Sleat

Sleat is a peninsula on the island of Skye in the Highland council area of Scotland, known as "the garden of Skye". It is the home of the clan MacDonald of Sleat...

peninsula of Skye is an example of a more economically robust area. Some of the islands have development trust

Development trust

Development Trusts are organisations which operate in the United Kingdom that are:*community based, owned and led*engaged in the economic, environmental and social regeneration of a defined area or community...

s that support the local economy.

Climate

The influence of the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

and the Gulf Stream

Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean...

create a mild oceanic climate. Temperatures are generally cool, averaging 6.5 °C (44 °F) in January and 15.4 °C (60 °F) in July at Duntulm on the Trotternish

Trotternish

Trotternish or Tròndairnis is the northernmost peninsula of the Isle of Skye, in Scotland.One of its more well-known features is the Trotternish landslip, a massive landslide that runs almost the full length of the peninsula, some...

peninsula of Skye. Snow seldom lies at sea level and frosts are fewer than the mainland. Winds are a limiting factor for vegetation with speeds of 128 km/h (80 mph) being recorded and south-westerlies the most common. Rainfall is generally high at between 1300–2000 mm (50–80 in) per annum and the elevated mountains and hills are wetter still. Tiree is one of the sunniest places in the country and had 300 days of sunshine in 1975. Trotternish typically has 200 hours of bright sunshine in May, the sunniest month.

Prehistory

The Hebrides were originally settled in the Mesolithic era

Mesolithic

The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....

and have a diversity of prehistoric

Prehistory

Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

sites. A flint arrowhead found in a field near Bridgend, Islay has been dated to 10,800 BC. This find may indicate the presence of a summer hunting party rather than permanent settlement. Burnt hazelnut

Corylus avellana

Corylus avellana, the Common Hazel, is a species of hazel native to Europe and western Asia, from the British Isles south to Iberia, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, north to central Scandinavia, and east to the central Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, and northwestern Iran. It is an important component of...

shells and microscopic charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

found at Farm Fields, Kinloch on Rùm indicate a settlement of some kind and this is amongst the oldest evidence of occupation in Scotland.

Evidence of large-scale Mesolithic

Mesolithic

The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....

nut processing, radiocarbon dated

Radiocarbon dating

Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...

to circa 7000 BC, has been found in a midden

Midden

A midden, is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, vermin, shells, sherds, lithics , and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupation...

pit at Staosnaig on Colonsay. The dig discovered the remains of hundreds of thousands of burned hazelnut shells and gives an insight into communal activity and forward planning in the period. The nuts were harvested in a single year and pollen analysis

Pollen analysis

Analysis of the distribution of pollen grains of various species contained in surface layer deposits, especially peat bogs and lake sediments, from which a record of past climate may be inferred. Because the lake sediments accumulate over time, a core of the mud will show that the mud at the bottom...

suggests that the hazel

Hazel

The hazels are a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae, though some botanists split the hazels into a separate family Corylaceae.They have simple, rounded leaves with double-serrate margins...

trees were all cut down at the same time. The scale of the activity, unparalleled elsewhere in Scotland, and the lack of large game on the island, suggests the possibility that Colonsay contained a community with a largely vegetarian diet for the time they spent on the island.

Three stone hearth

Hearth

In common historic and modern usage, a hearth is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace or oven often used for cooking and/or heating. For centuries, the hearth was considered an integral part of a home, often its central or most important feature...

s and traces of red ochre

Ochre

Ochre is the term for both a golden-yellow or light yellow brown color and for a form of earth pigment which produces the color. The pigment can also be used to create a reddish tint known as "red ochre". The more rarely used terms "purple ochre" and "brown ochre" also exist for variant hues...

found on Jura and dated to 6000 BC are the earliest stone-built structures found so far in Scotland. However in general the Neolithic

Neolithic

sites in the Inner Hebrides lack the scale and drama of those found in Orkney and the Western Isles. There are numerous Iron Age

Iron Age

sites including the remains of Dun Ringill

Dun Ringill

Dun Ringill is an Iron Age hill fort on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Further fortified in the Middle Ages, tradition holds that it was for several centuries the seat of Clan MacKinnon...

fort on Skye, which are similar in layout to that of both a broch

Broch

A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....

and a complex Atlantic roundhouse

Atlantic roundhouse

In archaeology, an Atlantic roundhouse is an Iron Age stone building found in the northern and western parts of mainland Scotland, the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.-Types of structure:...

Etymology

The earliest written references that have survived relating to these islands were made by Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

in his Natural History, where he states that there are 30 "Hebudes". Writing about 80 years later in the period 140-150 AD, Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

, drawing on the earlier naval expeditions of Agricola

Gnaeus Julius Agricola

Gnaeus Julius Agricola was a Roman general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain. His biography, the De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae, was the first published work of his son-in-law, the historian Tacitus, and is the source for most of what is known about him.Born to a noted...

refers to the "Ebudes", of which he writes there were only five, thus possibly specifically meaning the Inner Hebrides. Pliny probably took his information from Pytheas

Pytheas

Pytheas of Massalia or Massilia , was a Greek geographer and explorer from the Greek colony, Massalia . He made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe at about 325 BC. He travelled around and visited a considerable part of Great Britain...

of Massilia who visited Britain sometime between 322 and 285 BC. It is possible that Ptolemy did as well, as Agricola's information about the west coast of Scotland was of poor quality.

Watson (1926) states that the meaning of Ptolemy's "Eboudai" is unknown and that the root may be pre-Celtic. Other early written references include the flight of the Nemed

Nemed

Nemed , meaning "holy" or "privileged" is a figure of Irish mythology who features in The Book of Invasions...

people from Ireland to "Domon and to Erdomon in the north of Alba", which is mentioned in the 12th century Lebor Gabála Érenn
Lebor Gabála Érenn
Lebor Gabála Érenn is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages...

. Domon, meaning the "deep sea isle" refers to the Outer Hebrides and Erdomon, meaning "east of, on or near Domon" is thus the Inner Hebrides.

The individual island and place names in the Outer Hebrides have mixed Gaelic and Norse origins.

Dál Riata

Although Ptolemy's map identifies various tribes such as the Creones
Creones
The Creones were a people of ancient Britain, known only from a single mention of them by the geographer Ptolemy c. 150. From his general description and the approximate locations of their neighbors, their territory was along the western coast of Scotland, south the Isle of Skye and north of the...

that might conceivably have lived in the Inner Hebrides in the Roman era,
the first written records of life begin in the 6th century AD when the founding of the kingdom of Dál Riata

Dál Riata

Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...

is recorded. This encompassed roughly what is now Argyll and Bute

Argyll and Bute

and Lochaber

Lochaber

District of Lochaber 1975 to 1996Highland council area shown as one of the council areas of ScotlandLochaber is one of the 16 ward management areas of the Highland Council of Scotland and one of eight former local government districts of the two-tier Highland region...

in Scotland and County Antrim

County Antrim

County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...

in Ireland.

In Argyll

Argyll

it consisted initially of three main kindreds

Clan

A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...

: Cenél Loairn

Loarn mac Eirc

Loarn mac Eirc was a legendary king of Dál Riata who may have lived in the 5th century.The Duan Albanach and the Senchus Fer n-Alban and other genealogies name Loarn's father as Erc son of Eochaid Muinremuir...

in north and mid-Argyll, Cenél nÓengusa

Cenél nÓengusa

The Cenél nÓengusa were a kin group who ruled the island of Islay, and perhaps nearby Colonsay, off the western coast of Scotland in the early Middle Ages....

based on Islay and Cenél nGabráin based in Kintyre

Kintyre

Kintyre is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the southwest of Argyll and Bute. The region stretches approximately 30 miles , from the Mull of Kintyre in the south, to East Loch Tarbert in the north...

. By the end of the 7th century a fourth kindred, Cenél Comgaill had emerged, based in eastern Argyll.

The figure of Columba

Columba

Saint Columba —also known as Colum Cille , Colm Cille , Calum Cille and Kolban or Kolbjørn —was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...

looms large in any history of Dál Riata and his founding of a monastery on Iona

Iona

Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Irish monasticism for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination and a place for retreats...

ensured that Dál Riata would be of great importance in the spread of Christianity in northern Britain. However, Iona was far from unique. Lismore

Lismore, Scotland

Lismore is a partially Gaelic speaking island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. This fertile, low-lying island was once a major centre of Celtic Christianity, with a monastery founded by Saint Moluag and the seat of the Bishop of Argyll.-Geography:...

in the territory of the Cenél Loairn, was sufficiently important for the death of its abbots to be recorded with some frequency and many smaller sites, such as on Eigg, Hinba

Hinba

Hinba is an island in Scotland of unknown location that was the site of a small monastery associated with the Columban church on Iona. Although a number of details are known about the monastery and its early abbots, and various anecdotes dating from the time of Columba of a mystical nature have...

and Tiree, are known from the annals. The kingdom's independent existence ended in the Viking Age

Viking Age

Viking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...

, and it eventually merged with the lands of the Picts

Picts

to form the Kingdom of Alba

Kingdom of Alba

The name Kingdom of Alba pertains to the Kingdom of Scotland between the deaths of Donald II in 900, and of Alexander III in 1286 which then led indirectly to the Scottish Wars of Independence...

.

North of Dál Riata the Inner Hebrides were nominally under Pictish control although the historical record is sparse.

Norse rule

According to Ó Corráin (1998) "when and how the Vikings conquered and occupied the Isles is unknown, perhaps unknowable" although from 793 onwards repeated raids by Vikings on the British Isles are recorded. "All the islands of Britain" were devastated in 794 with Iona being sacked in 802 and 806. In 870 Dumbarton

Dumbarton Castle

Dumbarton Castle has the longest recorded history of any stronghold in Great Britain. It overlooks the Scottish town of Dumbarton, and sits on a plug of volcanic basalt known as Dumbarton Rock which is high.-Iron Age:...

was besieged by Amlaíb Conung

Amlaíb Conung

Amlaíb Conung was a Norse or Norse-Gael leader in Ireland and Scotland in the years after 850. Together with his brothers Ímar and Auisle he appears frequently in the Irish annals....

and Ímar, "the two kings of the Northmen". It is therefore likely that Scandinavian hegemony was already significant on the western coasts of Scotland by then. In the 9th century the first references to the Gallgáedil
Norse-Gaels
The Norse–Gaels were a people who dominated much of the Irish Sea region, including the Isle of Man, and western Scotland for a part of the Middle Ages; they were of Gaelic and Scandinavian origin and as a whole exhibited a great deal of Gaelic and Norse cultural syncretism...

(i.e. "foreign Gaels") appear. This term was variously used in succeeding centuries to refer to individuals of mixed Scandinavian-Celtic descent and/or culture who became dominant in south-west Scotland, parts of northern England and the isles.

The early tenth century are an obscure period so far as the Hebrides are concerned but Aulaf mac Sitric, who fought at the Battle of Brunanburh

Battle of Brunanburh

The Battle of Brunanburh was an English victory in 937 by the army of Æthelstan, King of England, and his brother Edmund over the combined armies of Olaf III Guthfrithson, the Norse-Gael King of Dublin, Constantine II, King of Scots, and Owen I, King of Strathclyde...

in 937 is recorded as a King of the Isles from c. 941-980.

It is difficult to reconcile the records of the Irish annals with Norse sources such as the Orkneyinga Saga
Orkneyinga saga
The Orkneyinga saga is a historical narrative of the history of the Orkney Islands, from their capture by the Norwegian king in the ninth century onwards until about 1200...

but it is likely that Norwegian and Gallgáedil Uí Ímair

Uí Ímair

The Uí Ímair , or Dynasty of Ivar, were an enormous royal and imperial Norse dynasty who ruled Northern England, the Irish Sea region and Kingdom of Dublin, and the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides, from the mid 9th century, losing control of the first in the mid 10th, but the rest...

warlords fought for control for much of period from the 9th to the 12th centuries. In 990 Sigurd the Stout, Earl of Orkney took command of the Hebrides, a position he retained for most of the period until he was killed at the Battle of Clontarf

Battle of Clontarf

The Battle of Clontarf took place on 23 April 1014 between the forces of Brian Boru and the forces led by the King of Leinster, Máel Mórda mac Murchada: composed mainly of his own men, Viking mercenaries from Dublin and the Orkney Islands led by his cousin Sigtrygg, as well as the one rebellious...

in 1014. There is then a period of uncertainty but it is possible that Sigurd's son Thorfinn the Mighty became ruler circa 1035 until his own death some two decades later.

By the late 12th century Irish influence became a significant feature of island life and Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó

Diarmait mac Mail na mBo

Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó was King of Leinster, and also High King of Ireland .He was one of the most important and significant Kings in Ireland in the pre-Norman era...

, the High King of Ireland

High King of Ireland

The High Kings of Ireland were sometimes historical and sometimes legendary figures who had, or who are claimed to have had, lordship over the whole of Ireland. Medieval and early modern Irish literature portrays an almost unbroken sequence of High Kings, ruling from Tara over a hierarchy of...

took possession of Mann and the Isles until 1072. The records for the rulers of the Hebrides are obscured again until the arrival of Godred Crovan

Godred Crovan

Godred Crovan was a Norse-Gael ruler of Dublin, and King of Mann and the Isles in the second half of the 11th century. Godred's epithet Crovan may mean "white hand" . In Manx folklore he is known as King Orry.-Ancestry and early life:...

as King of Dublin and the Isles. The ancestor of many of the succeeding rulers of Mann and the Isles, he was eventually ousted by Muirchertach Ua Briain and fled to Islay, where he died in the plague of 1095. It is not clear the extent to which Ui Briain dominance was now asserted in the islands north of Man, but growing Irish influence in these seas brought a rapid and decisive response from Norway.

Magnus Barelegs

Magnus III of Norway

Magnus Barefoot or Magnus III Olafsson was King of Norway from 1093 until 1103 and King of Mann and the Isles from 1099 until 1103.-Background:...

had re-established direct Norwegian overlordship by 1098.
A second expedition in 1102 saw incursions into Ireland but in August 1103 he was killed fighting in Ulster. The next king of the isles was Lagmann Godredsson and there followed a succession of Godred Crovan's descendants who, (as vassals of the kings of Norway) ruled the Hebrides north of Ardnamurchan

Ardnamurchan

Ardnamurchan is a peninsula in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, noted for being very unspoilt and undisturbed. Its remoteness is accentuated by the main access route being a single track road for much of its length.-Geography:...

for the next 160 years. However, their control of the southern Inner Hebrides was lost with the emergence of Somerled

Somerled

Somerled was a military and political leader of the Scottish Isles in the 12th century who was known in Gaelic as rí Innse Gall . His father was Gillebride...

, the self-styled Lord of Argyle.

For a while Somerled took control of Mann and the Hebrides in toto, but he met his death in 1164 during an invasion of the Scottish mainland. At this point Godred the Black, grandson of Godred Crovan re-took possession of the northern Hebrides and the southern isles were distributed amongst Somerled's sons, his descendant's eventually becoming known as the Lords of the Isles

Lord of the Isles

The designation Lord of the Isles is today a title of Scottish nobility with historical roots that go back beyond the Kingdom of Scotland. It emerged from a series of hybrid Viking/Gaelic rulers of the west coast and islands of Scotland in the Middle Ages, who wielded sea-power with fleets of...

, and giving rise to Clan MacDougall

Clan MacDougall

Clan MacDougall is a Highland Scottish clan consisting of the descendants of Dubgall mac Somairle, son of Somerled, who ruled Lorne and the Isle of Mull in Argyll in the 13th century...

, Clan Donald

Clan Donald

and Clan Macruari

Clan Macruari

Clan Macruari was a Scottish clan. The founder of Clan Macruari is Ruaidhri mac Raghnaill, a son of Raghnall mac Somhairle who was a son of Somhairle mac Gillebride. The lands of Clan Macruari were in Bute, Uist, Barra, Eigg, Rùm, and Garmoran....

. However, both during and after Somerled's life the Scottish monarchs sought to take a control of the islands he and his descendants held. This strategy eventually led to an invasion by Haakon Haakonarson

Haakon IV of Norway

Haakon Haakonarson , also called Haakon the Old, was king of Norway from 1217 to 1263. Under his rule, medieval Norway reached its peak....

, King of Norway. After the stalemate of the Battle of Largs

Battle of Largs

The Battle of Largs was an engagement fought between the armies of Norway and Scotland near the present-day town of Largs in North Ayrshire on the Firth of Clyde in Scotland on 2 October 1263. It was the most important military engagement of the Scottish-Norwegian War. The Norwegian forces were...

, Haakon retreated to Orkney, where he died in 1263. Following this expedition, the Hebrides and Mann and all rights that the Norwegian crown "had of old therein" were yielded to the Kingdom of Scotland as a result of the 1266 Treaty of Perth

Treaty of Perth

The Treaty of Perth, 1266, ended military conflict between Norway, under King Magnus VI of Norway, and Scotland, under King Alexander III, over the sovereignty of the Hebrides and the Isle of Man....

Clans and Scottish rule

The Lords of the Isles, a phrase first recorded in 1336, would continue to rule the Inner Hebrides as well as part of the Western Highlands as subjects of the King of Scots until John MacDonald

John of Islay, Earl of Ross

John of Islay was a late medieval Scottish magnate. He was Earl of Ross and last Lord of the Isles as well as being Mac Domhnaill, chief of Clan Donald....

, fourth Lord of the Isles, squandered the family's powerful position. Through a secret treaty with Edward IV of England

Edward IV of England

Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...

, negotiated at Ardtornish Castle

Ardtornish Castle

Ardtornish Castle is situated in the grounds of the Ardtornish estate in Morvern, on the west coast of Scotland. It stands at the seaward end of a promontory which extends in a southerly direction into the Sound of Mull, approximately a mile south-east of the village of Lochaline, Highland...

and signed in 1462, he made himself a servant of the English crown. When James III of Scotland

James III of Scotland

James III was King of Scots from 1460 to 1488. James was an unpopular and ineffective monarch owing to an unwillingness to administer justice fairly, a policy of pursuing alliance with the Kingdom of England, and a disastrous relationship with nearly all his extended family.His reputation as the...

found out about the treaty in 1476, he issued a sentence of forfeiture for MacDonald's lands. Some were restored for a promise of good behaviour, but MacDonald was unable to control his son Aonghas Óg

Aonghas Óg

Aonghas Óg was a Scottish nobleman who was the last independent Lord of the Isles.-Biography:He was the bastard son of John of Islay, Earl of Ross . Aonghas became a rebel against both his father and against the Scottish crown...

, who defeated him at the Battle of Bloody Bay

Battle of Bloody Bay

The Battle of Bloody Bay, or Blàr Bàgh na Fala in Scottish Gaelic, was a naval battle fought near Tobermory, Scotland. It was fought on the coast of Mull two miles north of Tobermory, between John of Islay, Earl of Ross, the Lord of the Isles and chief of Clan Donald; and his son, Angus Og Macdonald...

fought of the coast of Mull near Tobermory in 1481. A further rebellion by his nephew, Alexander of Lochalsh provoked an exasperated James IV to forfeit the lands for the last time in 1493.

The most powerful clans on Skye in the post–Norse period were Clan MacLeod

Clan MacLeod

, originally based in Trotternish

Trotternish

, and Clan MacDonald of Sleat

Sleat

Sleat is a peninsula on the island of Skye in the Highland council area of Scotland, known as "the garden of Skye". It is the home of the clan MacDonald of Sleat...

. Following the disintegration of the Lordship of the Isles, the Mackinnons also emerged as an independent clan, whose substantial landholdings in Skye were centred on Strathaird

Strathaird

Strathaird is a peninsula on the island of Skye, Scotland, situated between Loch Slapin and Loch Scavaig on the south coast.Skye's shape defies description and W. H. Murray said that "Skye is sixty miles long, but what might be its breadth is beyond the ingenuity of man to state". Strathaird is...

. The MacDonalds of South Uist

South Uist

South Uist is an island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. In the 2001 census it had a usually resident population of 1,818. There is a nature reserve and a number of sites of archaeological interest, including the only location in Great Britain where prehistoric mummies have been found. The...

were bitter rivals of the MacLeods, and an attempt by the former to murder church-goers at Trumpan

Trumpan

Trumpan is a hamlet located on the Vaternish peninsula in the Isle of Skye, in the Scottish council area of the Highland. Trumpan church, which is now a ruin, was the focus of a particularly brutal incident in 1578, when the Clan MacDonald of Uist travelled to Trumpan in eight boats and under...

in retaliation for a previous massacre on Eigg, resulted in the Battle of the Spoiling Dyke

Battle of the Spoiling Dyke

The Battle of the Spoiling Dyke was a Scottish clan battle that took place in 1578, fought in the Scottish Highlands, between the MacDonalds of Uist and the Clan MacLeod.The MacDonalds of Uist barred the doors of Trumpan Church, or Kilconan Church as it was once known, east...

of 1578.

After the failure of the Jacobite

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

rebellion of 1745, Flora MacDonald became famous for rescuing Prince Charles Edward Stuart

Charles Edward Stuart

Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...

from the Hanoverian

House of Hanover

The House of Hanover is a deposed German royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Kingdom of Hanover, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

troops. Her story is strongly associated with their escape via Skye and she is buried at Kilmuir. She was visited by Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...

and James Boswell

James Boswell

James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....

during their 1773 Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland

A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland

A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland is a travel narrative by Samuel Johnson about an eighty-three day journey through Scotland, in particular the islands of the Hebrides, in the late summer and autumn of 1773...

and written on her gravestone are Johnson's words that hers was "A name that will be mentioned in history, and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour". In the wake of the rebellion the clan system was broken up and islands of the Hebrides became a series of landed estates.

British era

With the implementation of the Treaty of Union

Treaty of Union

The Treaty of Union is the name given to the agreement that led to the creation of the united kingdom of Great Britain, the political union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which took effect on 1 May 1707...

in 1707 the Hebrides became part of the new Kingdom of Great Britain

Kingdom of Great Britain

The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

, but the clans' loyalties to a distant monarch were not strong. A considerable number of islesmen "came out" in support of the Jacobite Earl of Mar

Earl of Mar

The Mormaer or Earl of Mar is a title that has been created seven times, all in the Peerage of Scotland. The first creation of the earldom was originally the provincial ruler of the province of Mar in north-eastern Scotland...

in the "15" and again in the 1745 rising including Macleod of Dunvegan

Dunvegan

Dunvegan is a town on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It is famous for Dunvegan Castle, seat of the chief of Clan MacLeod...

and MacLea

Clan MacLea

The Clan MacLea is a Highland Scottish clan, which was traditionally located in the district of Lorn in Argyll, Scotland, and is seated on the Isle of Lismore. There is a tradition of some MacLeas Anglicising their names to Livingstone, thus the also refers to clan as the Highland Livingstones...

of Lismore. The aftermath of the decisive Battle of Culloden

Battle of Culloden

The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...

, which effectively ended Jacobite hopes of a Stuart restoration, was widely felt. The British government's strategy was to estrange the clan chiefs from their kinsmen and turn their descendants into English-speaking landlords whose main concern was the revenues their estates brought rather than the welfare of those who lived on them. This may have brought peace to the islands, but in the following century it came at a terrible price.

The early 19th century was a time of improvement and population growth. Roads and quays were built, the slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

industry became a significant employer on Easdale and surrounding islands, and the construction of the Crinan

Crinan Canal

The Crinan canal is a canal in the west of Scotland. It takes its name from the village of Crinan at its westerly end. Nine miles long, it connects the village of Ardrishaig on Loch Gilp with the Sound of Jura, providing a navigable route between the Clyde and the Inner Hebrides, without the need...

and Caledonian

Caledonian Canal

The Caledonian Canal is a canal in Scotland that connects the Scottish east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Corpach near Fort William. It was constructed in the early nineteenth century by engineer Thomas Telford, and is a sister canal of the Göta Canal in Sweden, also constructed by...

canals and other engineering works such as Telford's

Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...

"Bridge across the Atlantic

Clachan Bridge

The Clachan Bridge is a simple, single-arched, hump-backed masonry bridge spanning the Clachan Sound, miles southwest of Oban in Argyll, Scotland....

" improved transport and access. However, in the mid-19th century, the inhabitants of many parts of the Hebrides were devastated by the clearances

Highland Clearances

, which destroyed communities throughout the Highlands and Islands

Highlands and Islands

The Highlands and Islands of Scotland are broadly the Scottish Highlands plus Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides.The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 1886 applied...

as the human populations were evicted and replaced with sheep farms. The position was exacerbated by the failure of the islands' kelp

Kelp

Kelps are large seaweeds belonging to the brown algae in the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera....

industry that thrived from the 18th century until the end of the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

in 1815 and large scale emigration became endemic. The "Battle of the Braes

Camastianavaig

Camastianavaig is a crofting township on the island of Skye in Scotland. It is located on the shores of the Sound of Raasay south east of Portree. The Allt Osglan watercourse flows from Loch Fada through the township into Tianavaig Bay.The name is from both Gaelic and Norse, Camas Dìonabhaig...

" involved a demonstration against lack of access to land and the serving of eviction notices. This event was instrumental in the creation of the Napier Commission

Napier Commission

The Napier Commission, officially the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands was a royal commission and public inquiry into the condition of crofters and cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.The commission was appointed in...

, which reported in 1884 on the situation in the Highlands. Disturbances continued until the passing of the 1886 Crofters' Act

Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886

The Crofters' Holdings Act, 1886 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which created legal definitions of crofting parish and crofter, granted security of tenure to crofters and produced the first Crofters Commission, a land court which ruled on disputes between landlords and crofters...

and on one occasion 400 marines were deployed on Skye to maintain order.

For those who remained new economic opportunities emerged through the export of cattle, commercial fishing and tourism. Nonetheless emigration and military service became the choice of many and the archipelago's populations continued to dwindle throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries. Jura's population fell from 1300 in 1831 to less than 250 by 1961 and Mull's from 10,600 in 1821 to less than 3,000 in 1931. Lengthy periods of continuous occupation notwithstanding, some of the smaller islands were abandoned - the Treshnish Isles in 1934, Handa

Handa, Scotland

Handa is an island off the west coast of Sutherland, Highland, Scotland. It is and at its highest point.A small ferry sails to Handa from Tarbet on the mainland and boat trips operate to it from Fanagmore....

in 1948, and Eilean Macaskin

Island Macaskin

Island Macaskin or MacAskin is an island in Loch Craignish, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.-History and wildlife:The island was formerly inhabited, and unusually for the Scottish islands, is quite well wooded, with some mature trees scattered about...

in the 1880s among them.

Nonetheless, there were continuing gradual economic improvements, among the most visible of which was the replacement of the traditional thatched black house

Black house

A blackhouse is a traditional type of house which used to be common in the Highlands of Scotland, the Hebrides, and Ireland.- Origin of the name :...

with accommodation of a more modern design and in recent years, with the assistance of Highlands and Islands Enterprise

Highlands and Islands Enterprise

many of the island's populations have begun to increase after decades of decline.

Transport

Scheduled ferry

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

services between the Inner Hebrides and the Scottish Mainland operate on various routes including: Tayinloan

Tayinloan

Tayinloan is a village situated on the west coast of the Kintyre peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The village has a sub post office and general store, a small hotel , a village hall and a play park. The nearest towns are Campbeltown and Tarbert .A ferry service runs between the village...

, Kintyre to Gigha

Gigha

The Isle of Gigha is a small island off the west coast of Kintyre in Scotland. The island forms part of Argyll and Bute and has a population of about 150 people, many of whom speak Scottish Gaelic. The climate is mild with higher than average sunshine hours and the soils are fertile.Gigha has a...

; Kennacraig

Kennacraig

Kennacraig is a hamlet situated on West Loch Tarbert, Argyll, a few miles south of Tarbert on the Kintyre peninsula.Caledonian MacBrayne ferries sail from the terminal, on the rocky islet Eilean Ceann na Creige, to Port Ellen or Port Askaig on Islay and to Colonsay....

, Kintyre to Islay; Oban

Oban

Oban Oban Oban ( is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. It has a total resident population of 8,120. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William and during the tourist season the town can be crowded by up to 25,000 people. Oban...

to Mull, Coll and Tiree and Colonsay; Mallaig

Mallaig

Mallaig ; is a port in Lochaber, on the west coast of the Highlands of Scotland. The local railway station, Mallaig, is the terminus of the West Highland railway line , completed in 1901, and the town is linked to Fort William by the A830 road – the "Road to the Isles".The village of Mallaig...

to Armadale

Armadale, Isle of Skye

Armadale is a village near the southern end of the Sleat Peninsula, on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Like most of Sleat, but unlike most of Skye, the area is fairly fertile, and though there are hills, most do not reach a great height...

, Skye and Eigg, Muck

Muck, Scotland

Muck is the smallest of four main islands in the Small Isles, part of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It measures roughly 2.5 miles east to west and has a population of around 30, mostly living near the harbour at Port Mòr. The other settlement on the island is the farm at Gallanach...

, Rùm & Canna

Canna, Scotland

Canna is the westernmost of the Small Isles archipelago, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. It is linked to the neighbouring island of Sanday by a road and sandbanks at low tide. The island is long and wide...

; and Glenelg to Kyle Rhea on the Sleat

Sleat

Sleat is a peninsula on the island of Skye in the Highland council area of Scotland, known as "the garden of Skye". It is the home of the clan MacDonald of Sleat...

peninsula, Skye.

Some ferries reach the Inner Hebrides from other islands such as the Seil

Seil

One of the Slate Islands, Seil is a small island on the east side of the Firth of Lorn, southwest of Oban, in Scotland.Seil has been linked to the Scottish mainland since 1792 when the Clachan Bridge was built by engineer Robert Mylne...

to Luing

Luing

Luing is one of the Slate Islands, Firth of Lorn, in the west of Argyll in Scotland, about 16 miles south of Oban. It has a population of around 200 people, mostly living in Cullipool, Toberonochy , and Blackmillbay...

route, Fionnphort

Fionnphort

Fionnphort is the principal port of the Ross of Mull, and the second largest settlement in the locale . Fionnphort is the base of the ferry service between 'mainland' Mull and Iona, and also boat trips to Staffa...

on the Ross of Mull

Ross of Mull

The Ross of Mull is the largest peninsula of the island of Mull, about long and makes up the south-western part of the island. It is bounded to the north by Loch Scridain and by the Firth of Lorne to the south. The main villages are Bunessan and Fionnphort with smaller settlements including...

to Iona, Sconser

Sconser

Sconser is a small crofting township on the island of Skye, in Scotland, situated on the south shore of Loch Sligachan. The main A87 road of Skye passes through Sconser and the ferry to Raasay departs from the pier....

to Raasay and Port Askaig

Port Askaig

Port Askaig is a port village on the east coast of the island of Islay, in Scotland.-Transport:Port Askaig serves as the main port of Islay, sharing passenger services to the Scottish mainland with Port Ellen...

to Feolin

Feolin

Feolin is a slipway on the west coast of Jura. It provides the only regular access to the island, with a vehicle and passenger ferry service from Port Askaig on Islay across the Sound of Islay. The road on both islands has the designation A846....

, Jura. There is also a service to and form the Outer Hebrides from Tarbert, Harris

Tarbert, Harris

Tarbert is the main community on Harris in the Western Isles of Scotland. It is also a car ferry terminal to Uig on Skye. Its name means "isthmus".-1990 RAF air crash:...

and Lochmaddy

Lochmaddy

Lochmaddy is the administrative centre of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland...

on North Uist

North Uist

North Uist is an island and community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.-Geography:North Uist is the tenth largest Scottish island and the thirteenth largest island surrounding Great Britain. It has an area of , slightly smaller than South Uist. North Uist is connected by causeways to Benbecula...

to Uig, Skye

Uig, Skye

The village of Uig lies at the head of the sheltered inlet of Uig Bay on the west coast of the Trotternish peninsula on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Uig is situated partly on the raised beach around the head of the bay and partly on the steep slopes behind it...

and from Castlebay

Castlebay

Castlebay is the main village and a community council area on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It is located on the south coast of the island, and overlooks a bay in the Atlantic Ocean dominated by Kisimul Castle, as well as nearby islands such as Vatersay.- Church :The...

, Barra to Tiree

Tiree

-History:Tiree is known for the 1st century BC Dùn Mòr broch, for the prehistoric carved Ringing Stone and for the birds of the Ceann a' Mhara headland....

.

National Rail services are available for onward journeys, from stations at Oban

Oban

, which has direct services to Glasgow and from Kyle of Lochalsh

Kyle of Lochalsh

Kyle of Lochalsh is a village on the northwest coast of Scotland, 63 miles west of Inverness. It is located at the entrance to Loch Alsh, opposite the village of Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye...

to Inverness

Inverness

Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...

. There are scheduled flights from Broadford Airfield

Broadford Airfield

Broadford Airfield is a small airfield on the island of Skye, Scotland with just one runway. It gets its name from the nearby settlement of Broadford.- History :...

Skye, Colonsay Airport

Colonsay Airport

Colonsay Airport is located on the island of Colonsay, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Located west of Scalasaig, it is a small airport, with to Oban Airport by ....

, Islay Airport

Islay Airport

Islay Airport is located north northwest of Port Ellen on the island of Islay in Argyll and Bute, off the west coast of Scotland. It is a small rural airport owned and maintained by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited.-History:The first airports appeared in Islay in the 1930s. However, these...

near Port Ellen

Port Ellen

Port Ellen is a small town on the island of Islay, in Argyll, Scotland.Port Ellen is named after the wife of the founder, Frederick Campbell of Islay. Its previous name, Leòdamas, is derived from old Norse meaning "Leòd's Harbour"....

and Tiree Airport

Tiree Airport

Tiree Airport is located north northeast of Balemartine on the island of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. It is owned and maintained by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited....

.

The archipelago is exposed to wind and tide, and there are numerous sites of wrecked ships. Lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

s are sited as an aid to navigation at various locations.
Dubh Artach

Dubh Artach

Dubh Artach is a remote skerry of basalt rock off the west coast of Scotland lying west of Colonsay and south-west of the Ross of Mull.A lighthouse designed by Thomas Stevenson with a tower height of was erected between 1867 and 1872 with a shore station constructed on the isle of Erraid...

lighthouse is located on a remote rock and warns seafarers away from the area itself and the nearby Torran Rocks

Torran Rocks

The Torran Rocks are a group of small islands and skerries located between the islands of Mull and Colonsay in Scotland.-Geography: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...

. Originally it was considered to be an impossible site for a light, but the loss of the steamer Bussorah with all thirty-three hands on her maiden voyage in 1863 and of an astonishing 24 vessels in the area in a storm on 30–31 December 1865 encouraged positive action. Skerryvore

Skerryvore

Skerryvore is a remote reef that lies off the west coast of Scotland, 12 miles south west of the island of Tiree...

is another remote lighthouse in the vicinity and at a height of 48 metres (157.5 ft) it is the tallest in Scotland.

Gaelic language

There have been speakers of Goidelic languages

Goidelic languages

The Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...

in the Inner Hebrides since the time of Columba or before and the modern variant of Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) remains strong in some parts. However, the Education (Scotland) Act 1872 led to generations of Gaels being forbidden to speak their native language in the classroom, and is now recognised as having dealt a major blow to the language. Children were being beaten for speaking Gaelic in school as late as the 1930s. More recently the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act

Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005

The Gaelic Language Act 2005 passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2005 is the first piece of legislation to give formal recognition to the Scottish Gaelic language....

was enacted by the Scottish Parliament

Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...

in 2005 in order to provide continuing support for the language.

By the time of the 2001 census Kilmuir parish in Skye had 47% Gaelic Speakers, with Skye overall having an unevenly distributed 31%. At that time Tiree had 48% of the population Gaelic-speaking, Lismore 29%, Islay 24%, Coll 12%, Jura 11%, Mull 13%, and Iona 5%. Students of Scottish Gaelic travel from all over the world to attend Sabhal Mòr Ostaig

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is a Scottish Gaelic medium college located about north of Armadale on the Sleat peninsula of the island of Skye in northwestern Scotland. It is part of the University of the Highlands and Islands and also has a campus on Islay known as Ionad Chaluim Chille Ìle.The college was...

, a Scottish Gaelic college based on Skye.

The arts

Hebridean landscapes have inspired a variety of musicians, writers and artists. The Hebrides
Hebrides Overture
The Hebrides Overture , Op. 26, also known as Fingal's Cave , is a concert overture composed by Felix Mendelssohn. Written in 1830, the piece was inspired by a cavern known as Fingal's Cave on Staffa, an island in the Hebrides archipelago located off the west coast of Scotland...

, also known as Fingal's Cave
Fingal's Cave
Fingal's Cave is a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, part of a National Nature Reserve owned by the National Trust for Scotland. It is formed entirely from hexagonally jointed basalt columns, similar in structure to the Giant's Causeway in Northern...

, is a famous overture written by Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

inspired by his visit to Staffa

Staffa

Staffa from the Old Norse for stave or pillar island, is an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Vikings gave it this name as its columnar basalt reminded them of their houses, which were built from vertically placed tree-logs....

. Contemporary musicians associated with the islands include Ian Anderson

Ian Anderson (musician)

Ian Scott Anderson, MBE is a Scottish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the leader and flautist of British rock band Jethro Tull.-Early life:...

, Donovan

Donovan

Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...

and Runrig

Runrig

Runrig are a Scottish Celtic rock group formed in Skye, in 1973 under the name 'The Run Rig Dance Band'. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included songwriters Rory Macdonald and Calum Macdonald. The current line-up also includes longtime members Malcolm Jones, Iain Bayne, and more...

. Enya

Enya

Enya is an Irish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to...

's song "Ebudæ" from Shepherd Moons
Shepherd Moons
Shepherd Moons is an album by Irish musician Enya, released on November 4, 1991. It won the Grammy Award for "Best New Age Album" of 1993...

is based on a traditional waulking song

Waulking song

Waulking songs are Scottish folk songs, traditionally sung in the Gaelic language by women while waulking cloth. This practice involved a group of people beating newly woven tweed rhythmically against a table or similar surface to soften it...

.

The poet Sorley MacLean

Sorley MacLean

Sorley MacLean was one of the most significant Scottish poets of the 20th century.-Early life:He was born at Osgaig on the island of Raasay on 26 October 1911, where Scottish Gaelic was the first language. He attended the University of Edinburgh and was an avid shinty player playing for the...

was born on Raasay, the setting for his best known poem, Hallaig
Hallaig
Hallaig is a poem by Sorley MacLean. It was originally written in Scots Gaelic and has also been translated into both English and Lowland Scots. A recent translation was made by Seamus Heaney, an Irish Nobel Prize winner....

. George Orwell

George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...

wrote much of the novel 1984 whilst living at Barnhill

Barnhill, Jura

Barnhill is a solitary farmhouse, remotely situated at grid reference in the north of the island of Jura in the Scottish Hebrides. It stands on the site of a larger settlement known in Gaelic since the fifteenth century as Knockintavil, the English name Barnhill having only been in use since the...

on Jura and J.M. Barrie wrote a screenplay for the 1924 film adaptation

Peter Pan (1924 film)

Peter Pan is a 1924 adventure silent film released by Paramount Pictures, the first film adaptation of the play by J. M. Barrie. It was directed by Herbert Brenon and starred Betty Bronson as Peter Pan, Ernest Torrence as Captain Hook, Mary Brian as Wendy, and Virginia Browne Faire as Tinker Bell...

of Peter Pan
Peter and Wendy
Peter and Wendy, published in 1911, is the novelisation by J. M. Barrie of his most famous play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up...

whilst on Eilean Shona

Eilean Shona

Eilean Shona is a tidal island in Loch Moidart, Scotland. The earlier Gaelic names was Arthraigh, meaning 'foreshore island', similar to the derivation of Erraid....

. Cressida Cowell

Cressida Cowell

Cressida Cowell is an English children's author who wrote the Hiccup series of books.- Personal life :Cowell lives in London with her husband Simon, a former director and interim CEO of the International Save the Children Alliance; daughters Maisie and Clementine; and son Alexander...

, the author of How to Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon is a series of nine books set in a fictional Viking world. The books were published starting in 2003 as children's novels written by British author Cressida Cowell and published by Hodder Children's Books...

, spent childhood summers in the Inner Hebrides and has stated that they are "one of the most beautiful places on Earth" and "the kind of place where you expect to see dragons overhead".

Wildlife

In some respects the Hebrides generally lack biodiversity in comparison to mainland Britain, with for example only half the number of mammalian species the latter has. However, these islands have much to offer the naturalist. Observing the local abundance found on Skye in the 18th century Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

noted that:
In the modern era avian life includes the Corncrake

Corn Crake

The Corn Crake, Corncrake or Landrail is a bird in the rail family. It breeds in Europe and Asia as far east as western China, and migrates to Africa for the winter...

, Red-throated Diver

Red-throated Diver

The Red-throated Loon or Red-throated Diver is a migratory aquatic bird found in the northern hemisphere. It breeds primarily in Arctic regions, and winters in northern coastal waters. It is the most widely distributed member of the loon or diver family. Ranging from in length, the Red-throated...

, Rock Dove

Rock Pigeon

The Rock Dove or Rock Pigeon, is a member of the bird family Columbidae . In common usage, this bird is often simply referred to as the "pigeon"....

, Kittiwake

Black-legged Kittiwake

The Black-legged Kittiwake is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae.This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 as Larus tridactylus....

, Tystie

Black Guillemot

The Black Guillemot or Tystie is a medium-sized alcid.Adult birds have black bodies with a white wing patch, a thin dark bill, and red legs and feet. They show white wing linings in flight. In winter, the upperparts are pale grey and the underparts are white. The wings remain black with the large...

, Atlantic Puffin

Atlantic Puffin

The Atlantic Puffin is a seabird species in the auk family. It is a pelagic bird that feeds primarily by diving for fish, but also eats other sea creatures, such as squid and crustaceans. Its most obvious characteristic during the breeding season is its brightly coloured bill...

, Goldeneye

Common Goldeneye

The Common Goldeneye is a medium-sized sea duck of the genus Bucephala, the goldeneyes. Their closest relative is the similar Barrow's Goldeneye....

, Golden Eagle

Golden Eagle

The Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...

and White-tailed Sea Eagle

White-tailed Eagle

The White-tailed Eagle , also known as the Sea Eagle, Erne , or White-tailed Sea-eagle, is a large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which includes other raptors such as hawks, kites, and harriers...

. The last named was re-introduced to Rùm in 1975 and has successfully spread to various neighbouring islands, including Mull. There is a small population of Red-billed Chough

Red-billed Chough

The Red-billed Chough or Chough , Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, is a bird in the crow family; it is one of only two species in the genus Pyrrhocorax...

concentrated on the islands of Islay

Islay

and Colonsay

Colonsay

Colonsay is an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, located north of Islay and south of Mull and has an area of . It is the ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeill. Aligned on a south-west to north-east axis, it measures in length and reaches at its widest...

.

Mountain Hare

Mountain Hare

The Mountain Hare , also known as Blue Hare, Tundra Hare, Variable Hare, White Hare, Alpine Hare and Irish Hare, is a hare, which is largely adapted to polar and mountainous habitats. It is distributed from Fennoscandia to eastern Siberia; in addition there are isolated populations in the Alps,...

(apparently absent from Skye in the 18th century) and Rabbit

European Rabbit

The European Rabbit or Common Rabbit is a species of rabbit native to south west Europe and north west Africa . It has been widely introduced elsewhere often with devastating effects on local biodiversity...

are now abundant and predated on by Wild Cat

Wildcat

Wildcat is a small felid native to Europe, the western part of Asia, and Africa.-Animals:Wildcat may also refer to members of the genus Lynx:...

and Pine Marten

Pine Marten

The European Pine Marten , known most commonly as the pine marten in Anglophone Europe, and less commonly also known as Pineten, baum marten, or sweet marten, is an animal native to Northern Europe belonging to the mustelid family, which also includes mink, otter, badger, wolverine and weasel. It...

. Red Deer

Red Deer

The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...

are common on the hills and the Grey Seal

Grey Seal

The grey seal is found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is a large seal of the family Phocidae or "true seals". It is the only species classified in the genus Halichoerus...

and Common Seal are present around the coasts of Scotland in internationally important numbers, with colonies of the former found on Oronsay

Oronsay, Inner Hebrides

Oronsay , also sometimes spelt and pronounced Oransay by the local community, is a small tidal island south of Colonsay in the Scottish Inner Hebrides with an area of just over two square miles....

and the Treshnish Isles and the latter most abundant in the Firth of Lorn. The rich fresh water streams contain Brown Trout

Brown trout

The brown trout and the sea trout are fish of the same species....

, Atlantic Salmon

Atlantic salmon

The Atlantic salmon is a species of fish in the family Salmonidae, which is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into the north Atlantic and the north Pacific....

and Water Shrew

Eurasian Water Shrew

The Eurasian Water Shrew, Neomys fodiens, known in the United Kingdom as the Water Shrew, is a relatively large shrew, up to long, with a tail up to three-quarters as long again. It has short dark fur, often with a few white tufts, a white belly, and a few stiff hairs around the feet and tail...

. Offshore Minke Whales

Minke Whale

Minke whale , or lesser rorqual, is a name given to two species of marine mammal belonging to a clade within the suborder of baleen whales. The minke whale was given its official designation by Lacepède in 1804, who described a dwarf form of Balænoptera acuto-rostrata...

, Killer Whales, Basking Sharks

Basking shark

The basking shark is the second largest living fish, after the whale shark. It is a cosmopolitan migratory species, found in all the world's temperate oceans. It is a slow moving and generally harmless filter feeder and has anatomical adaptations to filter feeding, such as a greatly enlarged...

, porpoise

Porpoise

Porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. They are distinct from dolphins, although the word "porpoise" has been used to refer to any small dolphin, especially by sailors and fishermen...

s and dolphin

Dolphin

Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...

s are among the sea life that can be seen and Edible Crab and Oyster

Ostreidae

Ostreidae are the true oysters, and include most species that are commonly eaten under the name oyster. Pearl oysters are not true oysters and belong to the distinct order Pterioida....

are also found, in for example, the Sound of Scalpay

Scalpay, Inner Hebrides

Scalpay is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.Separated from the east coast of Skye by Loch na Cairidh, Scalpay rises to at Mullach na Càrn. It has an area of almost ten sq. miles....

. There are nationally important Horse Mussel

Mussel

The common name mussel is used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.The...

and Brittlestar

Brittle star

Brittle stars or ophiuroids are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea closely related to starfish. They crawl across the seafloor using their flexible arms for locomotion. The ophiuroids generally have five long slender, whip-like arms which may reach up to in length on the largest specimens...

beds in the sea lochs.

Heather moor containing Ling

Calluna

Calluna vulgaris is the sole species in the genus Calluna in the family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing perennial shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade...

, Bell Heather

Erica cinerea

Erica cinerea is a species of heather, native to western and central Europe. It is a low shrub growing to tall, with fine needle-like leaves long arranged in whorls of three...

, Cross-leaved Heath

Erica tetralix

Erica tetralix is a species of heather found in Atlantic areas of Europe, from southern Portugal to central Norway, as well as a number of boggy regions further from the coast in Central Europe. In bogs, wet heaths and damp coniferous woodland, Erica tetralix can become a dominant part of the flora...

, Bog Myrtle

Myrica gale

Myrica gale is a species of flowering plant in the genus Myrica, native to northern and western Europe and parts of northern North America. It is a deciduous shrub growing to 1–2 m tall. Common names include Bog Myrtle and Sweet Gale...

and Fescue

Fescue

Festuce is a genus of about 300 species of perennial tufted grasses, belonging to the grass family Poaceae . The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, although the majority of the species are found in cool temperate areas...

s is abundant and there is a diversity of Arctic and alpine plants including Alpine Pearlwort

Sagina

Sagina is a genus of 20–30 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. These are flowering herbs native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere extending south to tropical mountain areas at high altitudes, reaching just south of the equator in Africa...

and Mossy Cyphal

Minuartia

Minuartia is a genus of small flowering plants, one of those commonly known as "sandwort" or "stitchwort". The genus is classed within the family Caryophyllaceae, the pink family, characterised by its opposite and decussate leaves....

External links

Guide to Southern Inner Hebrides

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