Kitterland ( gv, Famman Kitterland) is an

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanen ...

in the

Calf Sound Calf Sound () is a body of water which separates the Calf of Man island from the mainland of the Isle of Man. The sound - technically a strait - is about 700 yards in width, and contains the small islet of Kitterland, which is home to a large col ...

between the Isle of Man and the

Calf of Man Calf of Man ( gv, Yn Cholloo ) is a island, off the southwest coast of the Isle of Man. It is separated from the Isle of Man by a narrow stretch of water called the Calf Sound. Like the nearby rocky islets of Chicken Rock and Kitterland, it i ...

in the Irish Sea. Kitterland is currently owned by the Manx National Trust and has a wealth of bird and marine

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted fo ...

. Kitterland is uninhabited and is in the parish of

Rushen Rushen ( ; gv, Rosien), formally Kirk Christ Rushen, is one of the seventeen historic parishes of the Isle of Man. It is located in the south of the island (part of the traditional ''South Side'' division) in the sheading of the same name. A ...

. It is called ''Famman Kitterland'' in Manx, which roughly translates as "Tail of the Rocky Isle." Its area is less than .

Background

Legend says that the islet was named after the Norwegian Baron Kitter who supposedly ruled the Isle of Man. After killing all the deer,

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'' ...

and

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The commo ...

on the mainland, he sailed to the Calf of Man to hunt there. While on the Calf his castle at Barrule was accidentally set on fire. Seeing his house in flames across the water he rushed back, but his boat foundered and he drowned. The islet was named after this accident. According to a Manx legend, Baron Kitter's hunting wiped out all the animals of the Calf, and the people of Mann were afraid he would begin hunting their own beasts. So, they asked the wisest witches of the island to help them. One day while Baron Kitter was on the isle of Calf, his cook Eaoch of the Loud Voice fell asleep. The witch Ada put a spell on the pot so that it boiled over, setting the castle on fire. Kitter's friends, who had stayed on the Calf, decided that Eaoch had plotted with the witch to kill off the Norwegians and had him brought before the Norwegian-born King Olaf, who sentenced him to death. Norwegian custom allowed him to choose the manner of his own death, so Eaoch said he wished to have his head laid across the king's legs and cut off with the king's own sword, which was named Macabuin. It was made by Loan Maclibuin the Dark Smith of Drontheim, and could cut the through hardest granite just by touching it. The Norwegians begged the king to refuse, but he would not break his word and gave orders to proceed. However, the witch Ada was there, and told them to lay nine times nine toads' skins, cuirn tree twigs and adders' eggs across the king's legs. When the sword was laid gently on Eaoch's neck, it instantly cut it off and cut through the adders' eggs and the cuirn tree twigs as well - only the toads' skins saved the king's legs.

External links

The legend of Baron Kitter

Information on Kitterland at Britlink

Notes

{{coord, 54.0623, -4.7967, display=title, region:IM_type:isle Islands of the Isle of Man Uninhabited islands of the United Kingdom