1.
Slate Islands (Ontario)
–
The Slate Islands archipelago is formed of two main islands, five minor islands and numerous islets located in northern Lake Superior,10 kilometres south of the town of Terrace Bay. The islands were created by an impact which formed a crater about 32 km wide. In 1985, the Ontario government established the Slate Islands as a natural environment provincial park, the islands are notable for having Ontarios largest herd of boreal woodland caribou. The total surface area is about 36 square kilometres, the nearby Leadman Group of islands one km east is often considered part of the Slate Islands. The islands are home to woodland caribou which have been studied extensively from 1974 to today by Dr. A. T, the caribou are a classic example of island biogeography in action, the islands are notable for species that are absent but present on the adjacent mainland. No ungulates were present on the islands until the arrived in the early 1900s. And, no predators of caribou were present, Caribou reached the highest population density in the world on the islands before the 1990s, with the herd estimated at 650 animals. After a food shortage and die-off in 1990, the numbers were reduced to about 100, in 2012 there are about 200 caribou on the Slate Islands. Wolves reached the archipelago in the early 1990s preying heavily on the caribou, other mammals found on the islands include beaver, muskrat, snowshoe hare, short-tailed weasel, red-backed vole, and red fox. The waters surrounding the Slate Islands have been protected from fishing to preserve one of the last native stocks of lake trout in Lake Superior. The Islands have been a source of lake trout brood stock used at the Dorion Fish Hatchery, the cooling effect of Lake Superior makes the Slate Islands a particularly harsh habitat for its latitude. As a result, islands harbour arctic and alpine plant species such as chickweed, Dryas drummondii, and alpine bistort. These arctic disjuncts are reminders of ice ages and associated conditions in this area in the past. Human sites have found on the islands dating to about 1000CE. A lighthouse was built on Patterson Island, the largest island, in 1903 to help locate the harbour at the nearby town of Jackfish. The island is named after William Patterson, a former lieutenant-governor of Saskatchewan, later, a fishing station was built on McColl Island. The original forests on the islands were modified by logging and forest fires, up until the 1940s, the islands were used to stockpile boomed logs from the mainland Lake Superior north shore for export on lake freighters to pulp mills in the United States. In 1985, the Slate Islands were protected as an Ontario Natural Environment Provincial Park, there are no facilities and the islands can only be accessed via boat or airplane
2.
Scarba
–
Scarba is a small island, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, just north of the much larger island of Jura. The island was owned by Richard Hill, 7th Baron Sandys and has not been inhabited since the 1960s. It is now covered in heather and used for grazing animals, Kilmory Lodge is used seasonally as a shooting lodge, the island having a flourishing herd of red deer. The islands name is from the Norse and may mean sharp, stony, 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, after that, there are no paths or well defined routes, and the terrain becomes rough and boggy. The island rises steeply to a peak of 449 metres, although there are no technical difficulties, the summits are often shrouded in mist, through which navigation skill may be required. A cylindrical triangulation point marks the highest of several summits, which are surrounded by several small lochs, 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 and 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, Scarba and a few nearby islets are collectively the Scarba, Lunga and the Garvellachs National Scenic Area. Monro, Sir Donald Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, media related to Scarba at Wikimedia Commons
3.
Island
–
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, an island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait, and a small island off the coast may be called a holm. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago, an island may be described as such, despite the presence of an artificial land bridge. Example, Singapore and its causeway, or the various Dutch delta islands, there are two main types of islands in the sea, continental and oceanic. The word island derives from Middle English iland, from Old English igland, Old English ieg is actually a cognate of Swedish ö and German Aue, and related to Latin aqua. There is a difference between islands and continents in terms of geology, continents sit on continental lithosphere which is part of tectonic plates floating high on Earths mantle. Oceanic crust is also part of tectonic plates, but it is denser than continental lithosphere, Islands are either extensions of the oceanic crust or geologically they are part of some continent sitting on continental lithosphere. This holds true for Australia, which sits on its own continental lithosphere, continental islands are bodies of land that lie on the continental shelf of a continent. A special type of island is the microcontinental island, which is created when a continent is rifted. Examples are Madagascar and Socotra off Africa, the Kerguelen Islands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, another subtype is an island or bar formed by deposition of tiny rocks where water current loses some of its carrying capacity. While some are transitory and may disappear if the volume or speed of the current changes, others are stable, oceanic islands are islands that do not sit on continental shelves. The vast majority are volcanic in origin, such as Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, the few oceanic islands that are not volcanic are tectonic in origin and arise where plate movements have lifted up the ocean floor above the surface. Examples are Saint Peter and Paul Rocks in the Atlantic Ocean, one type of volcanic oceanic island is found in a volcanic island arc. These islands arise from volcanoes where the subduction of one plate under another is occurring, examples are the Aleutian Islands, the Mariana Islands, and most of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean. The only examples in the Atlantic Ocean are some of the Lesser Antilles, another type of volcanic oceanic island occurs where an oceanic rift reaches the surface. There are two examples, Iceland, which is the second largest volcanic island, and Jan Mayen. A third type of oceanic island is formed over volcanic hotspots. A hotspot is more or less stationary relative to the tectonic plate above it
4.
Inner Hebrides
–
The Inner Hebrides is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which experience a mild oceanic climate, the Inner Hebrides comprise 35 inhabited islands as well as 44 uninhabited islands with an area greater than 30 hectares. The main commercial activities are tourism, crofting, fishing and whisky distilling, in modern times the Inner Hebrides have formed part of two separate local government jurisdictions, one to the north and the other to the south. Together, the islands have an area of about 4,130 km2, the population density is therefore about 4.6 per km2. There are various important prehistoric structures, many of which pre-date the first written references to the islands by Roman, control of the islands was then held by various clan chiefs, principally the MacLeans, MacLeods and MacDonalds. The Highland Clearances of the 19th century had an effect on many communities. Sea transport is crucial and a variety of services operate to mainland Scotland. The Gaelic language remains strong in areas, the landscapes have inspired a variety of artists. The islands form a disparate archipelago, the largest islands are, from south to north, Islay, Jura, Mull, Rùm and Skye. Skye is the largest and most populous of all with an area of 1,656 km2, the southern group are in Argyll, an area roughly corresponding with the heartlands of the ancient kingdom of Dál Riata and incorporated into the modern unitary council area of Argyll and Bute. The northern islands were part of the county of Inverness-shire and are now in the Highland Council area, the ten largest islands are as follows. The geology and geomorphology of the islands is varied, some, such as Skye and Mull, are mountainous, whilst others like Tiree are relatively low-lying. The highest mountains are the Cuillins of Skye, although peaks over 300 metres are common elsewhere, much of the coastline is machair, a fertile low-lying dune pastureland. Many of the islands are swept by strong tides, and the Corryvreckan tide race between Scarba and Jura is one of the largest whirlpools in the world. There are various smaller archipelagoes including the Ascrib Islands, Crowlin Islands, Slate Islands, Small Isles, Summer Isles, the inhabited islands of the Inner Hebrides had a population of 18,257 at the 2001 census, and this had grown to 18,948 in 2011. During the same period Scottish island populations as a whole grew by 4% to 103,702, there are a further 44 uninhabited Inner Hebrides with an area greater than 74 acres. Records for the last date of settlement for the islands are incomplete. However, the populations of the islands grew overall by more than 12% from 1981-2001
5.
Scotland
–
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
6.
Jura, Scotland
–
Jura is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, adjacent to and to the north-east of Islay. Compared with its fertile and more populous neighbour, Jura is mountainous, bare and infertile, covered largely by vast areas of blanket bog, in a list of the islands of Scotland ranked by size, Jura comes eighth, whereas ranked by population it comes thirty-first. It is in the area of Argyll and Bute. Evidence of settlements on Jura dating from the Mesolithic period was first uncovered by the English archaeologist John Mercer in the 1960s, There is evidence of Neolithic settlement at Poll a Cheo in the southwest of the island. The modern name Jura dates from the Norse-Gael era and is from the Old Norse Dyrøy meaning beast island, the Viking occupation of the Hebrides began in the 9th century, and was formalised when sovereignty was secured in 1098. From this point, Norse rule continued until 1266, when the Hebrides, together with Kintyre, a key figure during the Norse period was the warlord Somerled, whose descendants, for around 150 years from the mid-14th century, styled themselves Lords of the Isles. The Lordship of the Isles was dominated by Clan Donald, whose seat was at Finlaggan on Islay, the Lordship came to an end in 1493, but Clan Donald continued to rule the southern part of Jura, through the MacDonalds of Dunnyveg. The north of the island, however, was owned by this time by Clan Maclean, in 1647, this was the site of a notable battle between the Macleans and the Campbells of Craignish. For many years in the 20th century, a human skull stood on a ledge in a nearby cave, the skull is no longer there, but the latest editions of Ordnance Survey maps still mark the location as Macleans Skull Cave. Despite this, the 16th century was a period of skirmishing between the clans, McDonalds, Campbells, MacLeans and others. Then in 1607 the Campbells finally bought the island from the MacDonalds and this was the beginning of some three hundred years during which the island was ruled and largely owned by eleven successive Campbell lairds. The north of the island, however, remained in MacLean hands until 1737, from the mid-18th century, long before the notorious Highland Clearances of the 19th century, there were a number of waves of emigration from Jura. In 1767, fifty people left Jura for Canada, and from that point the population shrank from over a thousand to its 20th century level of just a few hundred. Mercer notes that relatively few forced clearances on Jura were recorded, the emigrations were far from voluntary. There are now seven estates on Jura, all in separate ownership, with six of the seven held by absentees, Ardfin, Inver, Jura Forest, Tarbert, Ruantallain, Ardlussa, There is also a relatively small area owned by Forestry Commission Scotland. Barnhill was the home of British novelist George Orwell, who lived there intermittently from 1946 until his death in January 1950, despite its isolation, Barnhill has in recent years become something of a shrine for his readers. The Ardfin Estate is situated at the tip of the island. For some seventy years from 1938, Ardfin belonged to the Riley-Smith family, having also wound up the estates farm, Mr Coffey then submitted proposals for the construction of a private 18-hole golf course on the estate, which was due to be completed in 2016
7.
Oban
–
Oban is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William, during the tourist season, the town can play host to up to 25,000 people. Oban occupies a setting in the Firth of Lorn, the bay is a near perfect horseshoe, protected by the island of Kerrera, and beyond Kerrera, the Isle of Mull. To the north, is the long low island of Lismore, the site where Oban now stands has been used by humans since at least mesolithic times, as evidenced by archaeological remains of cave dwellers found in the town. Just outside the town stands Dunollie Castle, on a site that overlooks the entrance to the bay and has been fortified since the Bronze age. Prior to the 19th century, the town itself supported very few households, sustaining only minor fishing, trading, shipbuilding and quarrying industries, and a few hardy tourists. The Renfrew trading company established a storehouse there in about 1714 as an outlet for its merchandise. The modern town of Oban grew up around the distillery, which was founded there in 1794, the town was raised to a burgh of barony in 1811 by royal charter. Sir Walter Scott visited the area in 1814, the year in which he published his poem The Lord of the Isles, the arrival of the railways in the 1880s brought further prosperity, revitalising local industry and giving new energy to tourism. Shortly thereafter, McCaigs Tower, a folly and prominent local landmark, was constructed, during World War II, Oban was used by Merchant and Royal Navy ships and was an important base in the Battle of the Atlantic. The Royal Navy had a station near Ganavan, and an anti-submarine indicator loop station. There was a minefield in the Sound of Kerrera, which was operated from a building near the caravan site at Gallanach. There was also a Royal Air Force flying boat base at Ganavan and on Kerrera, a Sector Operations Room was built near the airfield, after the war, this was extended to become the Royal Observer Corps Group HQ. Oban was also important during the Cold War because the first Transatlantic Telephone Cable came ashore at Gallanach Bay and this carried the Hot Line between the US and USSR presidents. Since the 1950s, the industry has remained tourism, though the town is also an important ferry port. As with the rest of the British Isles, Oban experiences a climate with cool summers. The nearest official Met Office weather station for which records are available is Dunstaffnage. Rainfall is high, but thanks to the Gulf stream the temperature falls below zero
8.
Seil
–
One of the Slate Islands, Seil is a small island on the east side of the Firth of Lorn,7 miles southwest of Oban, in Scotland. Seil has been linked to the mainland by bridge since the late 18th century, Seil has been linked to the Scottish mainland since 1792 when the Clachan Bridge was built by engineer Robert Mylne. Also known as the Bridge Over the Atlantic, the bridge is used today. Balvicar, in the centre of the island, is the settlement with a fishing industry, the island shop. At the end of the lies the former slate-mining village of Ellenabeich. This village is an area with a number of holiday cottages and is fully occupied only in the summer months. Parts of Ring of Bright Water were filmed here, the Ellenabeich Heritage Centre which opened in 2000, is run by the Scottish Slate Islands Trust. Located in a former slate quarry-workers cottage, the centre has displays on life in the 19th century, slate quarrying, ferries sail from Ellenabeich to Easdale, and from Cuan on the island to Luing. The mother of Princess Diana, Frances Shand Kydd, lived there until her death in 2004, according to wildlife experts the entire badger population of the island may have been deliberately exterminated in 2007. Forty of the animals, whose setts were believed to be established, may have been gassed to death. The police also expressed concerns that two golden eagles and one white-tailed sea eagle have been found poisoned near Seil in recent years, rae has argued that Seil could be the location of Hinba, an island associated with St Columba. His reasons include the islands association with St Brendan, its location on a trade route from Antrim to the north. This, he proposes, could have been a Norse interpretation of Hinba/Inbhir, a Voyage in Search of Hinba in Historic Argyll No.16
9.
Easdale
–
Easdale is one of the Slate Islands, in the Firth of Lorn, Scotland. Once the centre of the Scottish slate industry, there has been some recent island regeneration, a ferry sails from Easdale to Ellenabeich on the nearby island of Seil, which is separated from Easdale by only a narrow channel. Confusingly, Ellenabeich is sometimes known as Easdale as a result of its connections with the island. Haswell Smith notes that eas is Gaelic for waterfall and dal is Norse for valley, nonetheless, it is not clear why either description should apply to the island which is low lying and has no waterfalls. The Gaelic name, Èisdeal or Eilean Èisdeal has a long vowel, Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland states that the first element is obscure, the second Norse dalr. It is not clear if this Èisdeal shares its derivation with Gleann Èisdeal on the Isle of Arran, ellenbeich is usually analysed as Eilean nam Beathach island of the animals but this may be a reflex of an earlier and homophonous form Eilean nam Beitheach island of the birch trees. Once a centre of the British slate industry, Easdale had a community of more than 500 working as many as seven quarries, some of which extended to 300 feet below sea level. Easdale slate helped to build major cities of the British Empire and can still be seen on rooftops as far afield as Melbourne, Nova Scotia, the great storm of 1850 flooded most of the quarries. Lacking any means of pumping the water away, the industry on the island more or less came to an abrupt end. The last slate was cut in the 1950s and the active quarries are little more than still pools which provide a safe haven for a wide variety of flora. This was eventually swept away by the sea and little sign of the island now remains. By the early 1960s, the population had dwindled to four people. Descendants of the quarrymen, along with others from around the world, have moved to Easdale to create a model of island regeneration. The island now has a population of sixty people and is the smallest permanently inhabited island of the Inner Hebrides. The island is owned by Jonathan Feigenbaum, who succeeded his late father Clive Feigenbaum, Clive created local issues of stamps, and Jonathan has continued doing this. The island is home to a museum owned and operated by the Eilean Eisdeal. Eilean Eisdeal spearheaded the renovation of the Easdale Island Community Hall, according to Mike Scott of the Waterboys, The Hall itself is magical. From the first sighting of its roof and arced frontispiece across the water to stepping off its stage at the end of the concert
10.
Luing
–
Luing is one of the Slate Islands, Firth of Lorn, in the west of Argyll in Scotland, about 16 miles south of Oban. The island has an area of 1,430 hectares and is bounded by several small skerries and it has a population of around 200 people, mostly living in Cullipool, Toberonochy, and Blackmillbay. A regular ferry service crosses the 200 metres wide Cuan Sound which separates Luing from the island of Seil. The main industries on Luing are tourism, lobster fishing and beef farming, although slate quarrying was important until 1965, with quarries at Toberonochy, Cullipool, Slate from Luing was used in the construction of the University of Glasgow and re-roofing of Iona Abbey. For such an island, Luing has produced numerous mod gold medallists, Nan MacInnes, Sandy Brown. Luing cattle were first developed here, as a beef breed hardy enough to prosper under adverse weather. They are a breed of red cattle, produced by the Cadzow family in 1947 from a cross between Beef Shorthorn and Highland cattle. According to Haswell-Smith the name Luing may derive from the Old Norse lyng, meaning heather or long meaning ship, however, Mac an Tàilleir states this is probably a pre-Gaelic name of unclear meaning. In the early part of the Christian era Luing would have formed part of the Gaelic kingdom of Dalriada, from the 9th to 13th centuries almost all of the Hebrides came under the control of Norse settlers and formed part of the Kingdom of the Isles. The graveyard at the church of Kilchattan documents the lives of past islanders. Gravestones of note include those of Covenanter Alexander Campbell, hebridean sea kings, The successors of Somerled, 1164–1316. In Cowan, Edward J. McDonald, Russell Andrew, alba, Celtic Scotland in the middle ages
