Looking east from Garbh Eilean - geograph

Eilean Mhuire (meaning "Virgin Mary's island") is the most easterly of the

Shiant Islands The Shiant Islands (; or ) or Shiant Isles are a privately owned island group in the Minch, east of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. They are southeast of the Isle of Lewis.Keay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) ''Collin ...

in the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an Archipelago, island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islan ...

. Once populated, Eilean Mhuire is now used only for grazing

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

. There was an old local tradition that said there used to be a chapel on the island. There are various ruins on the island, and the

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

mark some remains as that of a “

St. Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

's Chapel" on the western side of the island. But this is based only on information provided in 1851 that the island had been the refuge of a priest "in the time of Knox". Nicolson (2002) has concluded that this tradition is mistaken, but has speculated that Eilean Mhuire may instead have been a hermitage in pre-Norse times. (And there was in fact a chapel on nearby Eilean an Taighe, possibly devoted to the Virgin Mary.) In 1549, Donald Monro, then Dean of the Isles, wrote that Eilean Mhuire was:

callit Senchastle by the Eriche, that is the alde castle ile in the Englishe, an strenthe, full of corne and grassinge, full of wyld fowls nests, and verey guid for fishing. It perteins to M’Cloyd of the Lewis.

Today, Seann Chaisteal (“old castle”) is the name of the flat-topped tidal islet at the south-eastern extremity of Eilean Mhuire. This islet is a "large tidal rock on which there never was a building of any kind","Seann Chaisteal, Eilean Mhuire, Shiant Islands"
Scotland's Places. Retrieved 11 Apr 2011. so the name may simply have been inspired by the rock's shape and appearance.

Notes and references

;Notes ;Footnotes ;General references * * Martin, Martin (1703)
A Description of The Western Islands of Scotland (Circa 1695)
'. Appin Regiment/Appin Historical Society. Retrieved 3 March 2007 * * Nicolson, Adam (2002) ''Sea Room''. London. HarperCollins. Shiant Islands {{WesternIsles-geo-stub