Ronay: a Description of the Islands of North Rona and Sula Sgeir, together with their Geography, Topography, History and Natural History, etc; to which is appended a Short Account of the Seven Hunters, or Flannan Islands

Abstract

FEW people know of the existence of three uninhabited lands off the north-west coast of Scotland almost as isolated as St. Kilda. These are North Rona, Sula Sgeir and the Flannan islands, seven in number with innumerable rocks. North Rona is a cliff-bound island rising up to 355 ft. and about 300 acres in extent; Sgeir is about 30 acres and 229 ft. high; and the Flannan 100 acres between them, with a height of 288 ft. on Eilean Mor where there is a lighthouse. All are formed of horneblende gneiss intersected by pegmatite veins and all probably came under the influence of the quaternary ice, for many fragments of alien rock have been found on each. Sgeir has a gannetry with a population of 8,000 to the south of the island, its other birds consisting of as many razorbills and guillemots as well as puffins, kittiwakes, shags and fulmar; as on all such bird islands, vegetation is very scanty. The islands are visited every year from Lewis, Sgeir for young gannets and eggs, the others mainly for the fattening of a certain number of sheep transported from Lewis.

Ronay: a Description of the Islands of North Rona and Sula Sgeir, together with their Geography, Topography, History and Natural History, etc.; to which is appended a Short Account of the Seven Hunters, or Flannan Islands.

By Malcolm Stewart. Pp. xi + 73 + 17 plates. (London: Oxford University Press, 1933.) 7s. 6d. net.