Eilean Chathastail

Eilean Chathastail (Eng: Castle Island[2]) is one of the Small Isles in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.

Gaelic nameEilean Chathastail

The north end of Eilean Chathastail from Eigg
Location
Eilean Chathastail
shown within Scotland
OS grid referenceNM485835
Coordinates56.875°N 6.129°W / 56.875; -6.129
Physical geography
Island groupSmall Isles
Area25 hectares (0.1 sq mi)[1]
Highest elevation35 metres (115 ft)
Administration
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
CountryScotland
Council areaHighland
Demographics
Population0
References[2]

Geography
  • Satellite view of Eigg (Landsat image viewed using NASA World Wind software). Eilean Chathastail is the island in the bottom right of the picture
  • Map of Eigg 1892, with Eilean Chathastail to its Southeast

Eilean Chathastail protects the only harbour on Eigg at Galmisdale. It is roughly 1 kilometre (1,100 yd) in length and lies only 100 metres (110 yd) off the south-east coast of the island of Eigg. Eigg lighthouse was built on the island in 1906 by brothers David A. and Charles Alexander Stevenson.

History

In July 1884 the geologist and writer Hugh Miller arrived at the Eilean Chathastail anchorage on board the yacht Betsey. He had just begun his journey at Tobermory and he produced a diary of his travels in the Hebrides for the newspaper Witness, of which he was the editor. His contributions were later collated and published as The Cruise of the Betsey in 1856.[3]

He wrote that: "We passed the Isle of Muck, with its one low hill; saw the pyramidal mountains of Rum looming tall in the offing; and then, running along the Isle of Eigg, with its colossal Scuir rising between us and the sky, as if it were a piece of Babylonian wall, or the great wall of China, only vastly larger, set down on the ridge of a mountain, we entered the channel which separates the isle from one of its dependencies, Eilean Chathastail, and cast anchor in the tideway."[4]

Robert Lawrie Thomson, a former laird of Eigg, is buried at the southern end of Eilean Chathastail. This is marked by a burial enclosure on Maol an Eilean, the island's highest point.[5]

gollark: What?
gollark: A lot of the time explanations are basically just rationalised after the fact to justify something you're already doing.
gollark: The purpose written down somewhere doesn't really matter if people with different preferences try and shape it in their way, or if it doesn't actually work well at satisfying that purpose.
gollark: There are those who'd say it should be to punish criminals, or who say it's just the state enforcing its power.
gollark: Also, I don't think people agree on that being the point.

See also

Notes
  1. Rick Livingstone’s Tables of the Islands of Scotland (pdf) Argyll Yacht Charters. Retrieved 12 Dec 2011.
  2. Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7.
  3. Bray (1996) pp. 222-24, 233
  4. Bray (1996) p. 226, quoting The Cruise of the Betsey
  5. Historic Environment Scotland. "Eigg, Eilean Chathastail (305951)". Canmore. Retrieved 14 August 2012.

References
The Cruise of the Betsey - title page (1858)
  • Bray, Elizabeth (1996) The Discovery of the Hebrides: Voyages to the Western Isles 1745-1883. Edinburgh. Birlinn.

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