Sulasgeir
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Sula Sgeir is a small, uninhabited
Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
island in the
North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...
, west of
Rona Rona, RONA or Róna may refer to: Places * Rona (Kristiansand), a neighbourhood in Kristiansand, Norway *Rona (river), a river in Maramureș County, Romania *Rona, Bellevue Hill, a historic house in the Sydney suburb of Bellevue Hill * Rona, Swit ...
. One of the most remote islands of the British Isles, it lies approximately north of Lewis and is best known for its population of gannets. It has a narrow elongated shape running north-northeast to south-southwest, and is approximately 900 m long by typically 100 m wide (apart from a central headland projecting a further 100 m on the easterly side). A ruined stone
bothy A bothy is a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge. It was also a term for basic accommodation, usually for gardeners or other workers on an estate. Bothies are found in remote mountainous areas of Sco ...
called Taigh Beannaichte (Blessed House) can be found on the east headland Sgeir an Teampaill. A small automated lighthouse on the south end at Sròn na Lice is regularly damaged by the huge waves which break over the island during rough
North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...
storms. Despite this, the island has diverse flora.


Etymology

The modern name is from the Old Norse ''súla'', "gannet" and ''sker'', " skerry". In the 16th century Dean Munro referred to the island as "Suilskeray".Monro (1549) "Suilskeray" no. 162 Macculloch's 1819 ''Description'' refers to "Sulisker", an
Anglicised Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...
spelling that is still occasionally used. There is ''Suleskjer'', a skerry in Utsira, Norway which has a name with a similar origin; there is also a Sule Skerry in
Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
.


Geology

The island is made of hard gneiss rock, the summit of a submarine mountain. Erosion causes the bedrock to sheer into long flat pieces. The sea has created a series of interconnected sea caves and tunnels throughout the southern part of the island. During big Atlantic storms, waves break right over the top of Sula Sgeir.


History

Brenhilda, the sister of the 7th Century CE cleric, St Ronan of Iona, is supposed to have gone to live on Sula Sgeir where she was found dead in a
bothy A bothy is a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge. It was also a term for basic accommodation, usually for gardeners or other workers on an estate. Bothies are found in remote mountainous areas of Sco ...
with a cormorant's nest in her ribcage. Sula Sgeir has a special place in the seafaring history of the men of the
Ness Ness or NESS may refer to: Places Australia * Ness, Wapengo, a heritage-listed natural coastal area in New South Wales United Kingdom * Ness, Cheshire, England, a village * Ness, Lewis, the most northerly area on Lewis, Scotland, UK * Cuspate ...
district on Lewis. Dean Munro visited the Hebrides in 1549 and his is one of the earliest accounts written about the Western Isles. His description of Sula Sgeir mentions that the men of Ness sailed in their small craft to "fetche hame thair boatful of dry wild fowls with wild fowl fedderi". How long before 1549 the Nessmen sailed to Sula Sgeir each year to collect the young gannets for food and feathers is not known, but it may be assumed that it was a tradition for centuries. That tradition is still carried on today. A 1797 census report written by the Reverend Donald McDonald states: :"There is in Ness a most venturous set of people who for a few years back, at the hazard of their lives, went there in an open six-oared boat without even the aid of a compass." The flesh of the young gannet or ''guga'' is regarded as a delicacy in Ness today though, for others, it is an acquired taste. It was a popular meat in earlier times in Scotland. In the sixteenth century it was served at the tables of Scots kings and was a favourite with the wealthy as a ’whet’ or appetizer before main meals. In the autumn of each year, a group of 10 Nessmen set sail for Sula Sgeir to kill a maximum of 2,000 young birds. They set up residence for about two weeks in stone bothys. Working in pairs, the men take the fledglings from their nests with poles, catching them around the neck with a rope noose, then killing the birds with a blow to the head. They bring home their catch to meet an eager crowd of customers. The demand is often so great that the birds have to be rationed out to ensure that each person does not go without a taste of guga. In 2009, a single guga fetched £16. 1953 saw the last journey under sail for the guga hunt, thereafter a fishing trawler was used, although it was still a five-hour trip. The Sula Sgeir hunt, which would otherwise be illegal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, receives an annual licence from the government, which allows it to continue. Scottish Natural Heritage, which is now responsible for granting the licence, states that the hunt is sustainable, although it has been criticised by animal welfare groups. The Scottish SPCA describes it as "barbaric and inhumane" and believes it causes unnecessary suffering to the birds, with many taking several blows to be killed. Sula Sgeir, with
North Rona Rona ( gd, Rònaigh) is a remote, uninhabited Scottish island in the North Atlantic. Rona is often referred to as North Rona to distinguish it from South Rona (another small island, in the Inner Hebrides). It has an area of and a maximum elevat ...
, historically formed part of the Barvas estate on Lewis, but a community buy-out of the estate from the Duckworth family in 2016 did not include the two islands, which would apparently have increased the purchase price by £80,000.


Fauna

There are some 5,000 breeding pairs of gannets on Sula Sgeir, which they share with other bird species such as
black-legged kittiwake The black-legged kittiwake (''Rissa tridactyla'') is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' as ''Larus tridactylus''. The English ...
s, common guillemots, puffins,
northern fulmar The northern fulmar (''Fulmarus glacialis''), fulmar, or Arctic fulmar is a highly abundant seabird found primarily in subarctic regions of the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. There has been one confirmed sighting in the Southern Hemis ...
s and in the summers of 2005 to 2007 a Black-browed Albatross was resident in the gannet colony. Together with
North Rona Rona ( gd, Rònaigh) is a remote, uninhabited Scottish island in the North Atlantic. Rona is often referred to as North Rona to distinguish it from South Rona (another small island, in the Inner Hebrides). It has an area of and a maximum elevat ...
, Sula Sgeir was formerly a national nature reserve because of its importance for birdlife and grey seal breeding. It remains a protected area for nature and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protection Area.


Media and the arts

* In 2009 Director Mike Day sailed with the guga hunters to Sula Sgeir and filmed on the island over a 10-day period. The resulting film was commissioned by BBC Scotland and broadcast in January 2010. * Scottish writer
Peter May Peter May may refer to: *Peter W. May, American businessman *Peter May (cricketer) (1929–1994), English Test cricketer *Peter May (writer) Peter May (born 20 December 1951) is a Scottish television screenwriter, novelist, and crime writer. H ...
uses the setting of Sula Sgeir describing the annual expedition in his crime story "The Blackhouse" in 2011 (first published in a French translation in 2009). * Robert Macfarlane describes the hunt at Sula Sgeir in his book ''The Old Ways: A Journey On Foot''. He does not participate in the hunt, but circumnavigates the rock in a small craft at the same time as the arrival of the hunters. * In 2018,
BBC Alba BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic-language free-to-air public broadcast television channel jointly owned by the BBC and MG Alba. The channel was launched on 19 September 2008 and is on-air for up to seven hours a day with BBC Radio nan Gàidheal s ...
aired ''Sulasgeir: An t-Sealg/The Hunt'', a Gaelic-language documentary about the traditional annual guga hunt held on Sulasgeir by members of the community of Ness on Lewis.


See also

*
North Rona Rona ( gd, Rònaigh) is a remote, uninhabited Scottish island in the North Atlantic. Rona is often referred to as North Rona to distinguish it from South Rona (another small island, in the Inner Hebrides). It has an area of and a maximum elevat ...
* List of outlying islands of Scotland * List of lighthouses in Scotland * List of Northern Lighthouse Board lighthouses *
List of Important Bird Areas in the United Kingdom The following is a list of Important Bird Areas in the United Kingdom: England * Bodmin Moor, Cornwall * Duddon Estuary, Cumbria * Leighton Moss RSPB reserve Leighton Moss RSPB reserve is a nature reserve in Lancashire, England, which has bee ...


Notes


References

* * Macculloch, John (1819
''A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, Including the Isle of Man''
Constable. * Macculloch, John (1824
''The highlands and western isles of Scotland, in letters to Sir Walter Scott''
Longman. * *


Further reading

* * *


External links



(via Archive.org)


Guga Hunters
{{Lighthouse identifiers , qid2=Q29020874 Seabird colonies Important Bird Areas of Scotland Protected areas of the Outer Hebrides Skerries of Scotland Uninhabited islands of the Outer Hebrides