Insh Island () or simply Insh is an uninhabited island west of the island of

Seil Seil (; , ) is one of the Slate Islands, Scotland, Slate Islands, located on the east side of the Firth of Lorn, southwest of Oban, in Scotland. Seil has been linked to the mainland by bridge since the late 18th century. The origins of the isl ...

in the

Firth of Lorn The Firth of Lorn or Lorne () is the inlet of the sea between the south-east coast of the Isle of Mull and the mainland of Scotland. It includes a number of islands, and is noted for the variety of wildlife habitats that are found. In 2005, a l ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. One of the Slate Islands, Insh Island lies a mile (1.5 km) northeast of Ellenabeich in

. It is separated from it by the Sound of Insh. The island rises to and is in area. A previous owner, David Brearley lived in a cave at the north end of the island between 1973 and 2003. It was "Eilean nan Caorach" on the 1875 OS maps, which was thought to have been an error, with its correct name being "Inis-Capul". It is now on OS maps as "Insh Island". Insh was previously known as Sheep Island. The name is tautologous. The Gaelic ''An Innis'' means simply "The Island" and the derived English language name thus means "The Island Island." The long wooden sailing ship ''Norval'' ran aground in fog near the southern tip of Insh on 20 September 1870. The wreckage was still visible in 1995. The Northern sea fan ('' Swiftia pallida'') is found in the waters off Insh Island.

Ownership

In 2004 Haswell-Smith stated that the island is "reputed to be owned by a Londoner who occasionally occupies the cave" found in the northwest overlooking Seil. The owner at that time was David Brearley, who died in 2016 and left the island to the

National Trust for Scotland The National Trust for Scotland () is a Scottish Building preservation and conservation trusts in the UK, conservation organisation. It is the largest membership organisation in Scotland and describes itself as "the charity that cares for, sha ...

. In 2020 the Trust came in for criticism for selling the island for £353,000 to West Coast Heritage Limited. Mike Russell MSP joined those who believed that the former owner wanted Insh to “stay untouched as nature intended” and

Scottish Green Party The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; ) are a green party, green List of political parties in Scotland, political party in Scotland. The party has 7 MSPs of 129 in the Scottish Parliament, the party holds 35 of the 1226 ...

MSP John Finnie called it “disappointing that yet another part of the Highlands and Islands... will find itself in private ownership and in questionable use”."National Trust deemed ‘imperious’ for selling Scottish island"
''The Ferret''. 12 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020. A spokesperson for the new owners stated that the plan for the island was to "harvest seaweed, and make the island generally accessible in terms of rough pathways and rovide asafe facility for boats to dock” but noted that "these plans have been shelved for the time being.” They added: “the island is extremely difficult to land on and therefore, we wouldn’t encourage members of the public to attempt such.”

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * * {{Argyll Islands Uninhabited islands of Argyll and Bute Private islands of the United Kingdom Slate Islands