Inch Kenneth ( gd, Innis Choinnich) is a small grassy island off the west coast of the Isle of Mull, in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. It is at the entrance of

Loch na Keal Loch na Keal ( gd, Loch na Caol), meaning Loch of the Kyle, or Narrows, also Loch of the Cliffs, is the principal sea loch on the western, or Atlantic coastline of the island of Mull, in the Inner Hebrides, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Loch na Keal ...

, to the south of

Ulva Ulva (; gd, Ulbha) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, off the west coast of Mull. It is separated from Mull by a narrow strait, and connected to the neighbouring island of Gometra by a bridge. Much of the island is formed f ...

. It is part of the Loch na Keal National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland. It is within the parish of Kilfinichen and Kilvickeon, in

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 202 ...

History

The island is named after St Kenneth, a follower of

Saint Columba Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is tod ...

, who is said to have founded a monastery on the island.

Ownership and visitors

The island was visited in 1773 by

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...

and

James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the English writer S ...

during their tour of the

Hebrides The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrid ...

; they were entertained there by Sir Allan MacLean, head of the Maclean clan. Both Johnson and Boswell published accounts of their visit. In the early 1930s the island was owned by

Sir Harold Boulton, 2nd Baronet Sir Harold Edwin Boulton, 2nd Baronet, (7 August 1859 – 1 June 1935), son of Sir Samuel Bagster Boulton, 1st Baronet of Copped Hall, born in Charlton then part of Kent, was an English baronet, songwriter and philanthropist, most famously author ...

, the writer of the words to the '' Skye Boat Song''. He enlarged an earlier house to make the existing mansion. The island's most celebrated owner in the twentieth century was the eccentric

Mitford family The Mitford family is an aristocratic English family, whose principal line had its seats at Mitford, Northumberland. Several heads of the family served as High Sheriff of Northumberland. A junior line, with seats at Newton Park, Northumberland ...

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

sympathiser Unity Mitford spent her final years on the island. Following the death of their father Lord Redesdale, the island was inherited under Scots law by the surviving Mitford sisters and not his wife, as Lord Redesdale had willed it to his only son Tom, who had predeceased him. When their mother died in 1963, Nancy gave her share to Jessica, who bought the shares of

Diana Diana most commonly refers to: * Diana (name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Diana (mythology), ancient Roman goddess of the hunt and wild animals; later associated with the Moon * Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–1997) ...

Deborah According to the Book of Judges, Deborah ( he, דְּבוֹרָה, ''Dəḇōrā'', "bee") was a prophetess of the God of the Israelites, the fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israel and the only female judge mentioned in the Bible. Many scholars c ...

and Pamela. Jessica, a former

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

, teasingly suggested that it might become a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

submarine base. The island was sold by Jessica in the late 1960s to Andrew Barlow, son of

Sir Alan Barlow, 2nd Baronet Sir James Alan Noel Barlow, 2nd Baronet (25 December 1881 – 28 February 1968) was a British civil servant and collector of Islamic and Chinese art. He was Principal Private Secretary to Ramsay MacDonald, 1933–1934, and later Under-secre ...

. It remains with their family.

Other

The island was a location for the 1993 feature film ''Walk Me Home'' produced by author Timothy Neat. Inch Kenneth is classified by the

National Records of Scotland , type = Non-ministerial government department , logo = National Records of Scotland logo.svg , logo_width = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = National Archives of Scotland , preceding2 = General Reg ...

as an inhabited island that "had no usual residents at the time of either the 2001 or 2011 censuses."

Notes and references

{{Commons category, Inch Kenneth Uninhabited islands of Argyll and Bute