Scarba ( gd, Sgarba) is an island, 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 ...

, Scotland, just north of the much larger island of Jura. The island was owned by

Richard Hill, 7th Baron Sandys Richard Michael Oliver Hill, 7th Baron Sandys DL (21 July 1931 – 11 February 2013), was a British landowner and Conservative politician. Sandys was the only son of Arthur Fitzgerald Sandys Hill, 6th Baron Sandys, and his wife Cynthia Mary ( ...

, and has not been permanently inhabited since the 1960s. It is now covered in heather and used for

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

animals. Kilmory Lodge is used seasonally as a shooting lodge, the island having a flourishing herd of

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

. The island's name is from the

Norse Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Nor ...

and may mean "sharp, stony, hilly terrain" or "cormorant island".Mac an Tàilleir (2003) p. 104

Description

Scarba is not served by any public ferries, but access from Craobh Haven or Crinan Harbour is possible by arrangement with local boatmen. The rough summit ridge can be accessed from the harbour at the north end, from where a vehicle track leads up past Kilmory Lodge to a height of about 200 metres. After that, there are no paths or well defined routes, and the terrain becomes rough and boggy. The island rises steeply to a peak (Cruach Scarba) of . A cylindrical triangulation point marks the highest of several summits, which are surrounded by several small

lochs ''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch. In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spelling ...

Geology

The western two-thirds of Scarba is formed from the

Neoproterozoic The Neoproterozoic Era is the unit of geologic time from 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago. It is the last era of the Precambrian Supereon and the Proterozoic Eon; it is subdivided into the Tonian, Cryogenian, and Ediacaran periods. It is ...

aged coarse-grained

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...

s of the Jura Quartzite Formation ascribed to the Islay Subgroup of the Dalradian Argyll Group. Separated from these rocks by a north–south aligned geological fault, the bedrock of the eastern third is the Neoproterozoic Scarba Conglomerate Formation, and the subordinate Jura Slate Member belonging to the Easdale Subgroup of the Argyll Group. North-south aligned dykes of amphibolite are found throughout the Jura Quartzite whilst

lamprophyre Lamprophyres () are uncommon, small-volume ultrapotassic igneous rocks primarily occurring as dikes, lopoliths, laccoliths, stocks, and small intrusions. They are alkaline silica- undersaturated mafic or ultramafic rocks with high magne ...

dykes of Siluro-

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, w ...

age and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

and micro-

gabbro Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is ...

dykes forming part of the Palaeogene age ‘Mull Dyke Swarm’ cut through both the Quartzite in the west and the conglomerate in the east. Raised marine deposits of sand and gravel occur on the northeast coast, a legacy of late Quaternary changes in relative sea-level.

Peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

deposits are common within the island's interior.

Corryvreckan

Between Scarba and Jura lies the Gulf of Corryvreckan, known for its whirlpool. Writing in 1549, Dean Monro wrote of "Skarbay" that between it and "Duray":

Ther runnes ane streame, above the power of all sailing and rowing, with infinite dangers, callit Corybrekan. This stream is aught myle lang, quhilk may not be hantit bot be certain tyds. This Skarbay is four myles lange from the west to the eist, and an myle breadth, ane high rough yle, inhabit and manurit, with some woods in it.

Scarba and a few nearby islets ( Lunga and the Garvellachs) are collectively the

Scarba, Lunga and the Garvellachs National Scenic Area Scarba, Lunga and the Garvellachs is the name of one of the 40 national scenic areas of Scotland. The designated area covers the islands of Scarba, Lunga, and the Garvellachs, all of which lie in the Firth of Lorn, along with much of the surroundi ...

, one of 40 such areas in Scotland, which are defined so as to identify areas of exceptional scenery and to ensure its protection by restricting certain forms of development.

Gallery

File:Corryvreckan.jpg, The Corryvreckan whirlpool File:Scarba1.JPG, The view from

Luing Luing ( ; Gaelic: ''Luinn'') is one of the Slate Islands, Firth of Lorn, in the west of Argyll in Scotland, about south of Oban. The island has an area of and is bounded by several small skerries and islets. It has a population of around 200 ...

looking towards Scarba File:Scarba.jpg, Na h-Urrachann, Isle of Scarba, looking north towards the Slate Islands File:Scarba-ridge.jpg, A view northwards along the summit ridge from a short distance north of the highest point

Footnotes

References

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External links

{{coord, 56.17607, -5.72324, type:landmark_region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(NM690044), display=title Islands of the Inner Hebrides Uninhabited islands of Argyll and Bute National scenic areas of Scotland