Shuna, Slate Islands
Encyclopedia
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...
lying east of 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...
on 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...
.
History
Shuna Castle was built as recently as 1911 for a rumoured cost of £300,000. It fell into disrepair in the 1980s when the cost of maintenance become too great.Unlike the other Slate Islands, Shuna has little 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...
, and has historically been farmed, although it is now quite overgrown with woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
. There are several cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
s in the south and west of the small island.
During the nineteenth century the population numbered as many as 69, but in the 2001 census, Shuna was one of four Scottish islands with a population of one. The island has been privately owned by the Gully family since 1946. It is now occupied by a farmer and his family, who also let four houses as holiday cottages.