Jump to content

Eigg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Isle of Eigg)

Eigg
An Sgùrr
An Sgùrr
Location
Eigg is located in Small Isles
Eigg
Eigg
Eigg shown within the Small Isles
Eigg is located in Lochaber
Eigg
Eigg
Eigg shown within Lochaber
OS grid referenceNM476868
Coordinates56°54′N 6°09′W / 56.9°N 6.15°W / 56.9; -6.15
Name
Gaelic pronunciationEnglish: /ɛɡ/ EG
Scottish Gaelic: [ˈekʲə] ⓘ
Name meaningScottish Gaelic for 'notched island' (eag)
Physical geography
Island groupSmall Isles
Area3,049 ha (11.8 sq mi)
Area rank28 [1]
Highest elevation
An Sgùrr, 393 m (1,289 ft)
Administration
Council areaHighland
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Demographics
Population95[2]
Population rank46= [1]
Population density23.1 people/km2[3][2]
Largest settlement
Cleadale
References[3][4]

Eigg (/ɛɡ/ EG; Scottish Gaelic: Eige [ˈekʲə] ⓘ) is one of the Small Isles in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. It lies to the south of the island of Skye and to the north of the Ardnamurchan peninsula. Eigg is nine kilometres (5+1⁄2 miles) long from north to south, and five kilometres (three miles) east to west. With an area of just over 3,000 ha (11.6 sq mi) it is the second-largest of the Small Isles after Rùm. The highest eminence on Eigg is An Sgùrr, which is formed from the Sgurr of Eigg Pitchstone Formation, which erupted into a valley of older lavas during the Eocene epoch.

There are numerous archaeological sites dating from the prehistoric period of human occupation with the earliest written references relating to the Irish monk Donnán who arrived on Eigg around 600 AD. Commencing in the early 9th century, Norse settlers established the Kingdom of the Isles throughout the Hebrides. The 1266 Treaty of Perth transferred the territories of the Kingdom of the Isles to King Alexander III of Scotland. From the late 14th century, the island became a possession of Clanranald, during which time a notorious massacre took place during a period of clan warfare. After more than four centuries in Clanranald's hands, the island was sold during the 19th century, and the new laird evicted many of his tenants en masse and replaced them with herds of sheep.

There were then a series of owners until the island was purchased by the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust in 1997. The trust is a form of community ownership and another stakeholder, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, manages the island as a nature reserve.[5] Eigg now generates virtually all of its electricity using renewable energy.[6][7] In April 2019, National Geographic discussed the island in an online article, estimating the average number of annual visitors at 10,000.[8]

Geology

[edit]
Geological map of Eigg

The larger part of the island is formed from olivine-phyric basalt flows erupted during the Palaeocene epoch. Together with flows of hawaiite and mugearite, these form the Eigg Lava Formation. The Sgùrr is formed from the Sgurr of Eigg Pitchstone Formation, a porphyritic rhyolitic pitchstone that erupted into a valley eroded into the older lavas during the Eocene epoch. It displays columnar jointing formed as the lava cooled.[9]

In the north of the island are a series of sedimentary rocks of Middle Jurassic and Upper Cretaceous age. The oldest of these, and hence lowest from a stratigraphic perspective is the fossiliferous Bearreraig Sandstone which is calcareous in nature. It is overlain by the Lealt Shale which consists of a lower and an upper grey shale (respectively the Kildonnan and Lonfearn members) separated by a thin band of algal limestone. The shale is overlain by the thicker Valtos Sandstone which contains concretions. It is found along the east coast northwards from Poll nam Parlan and around the northern end and down the eastern side of the Bay of Laig. This in turn is overlain by the bivalve-rich limestone and shale of the Duntulm Formation and lastly the dark shales and ostracod-bearing limestones of the Kilmaluag Formation. A fossilised limb bone, considered most likely to be from a Middle Jurassic stegosaurian dinosaur, was discovered at a coastal exposed Valtos Sandstone Formation in 2020; it is the first confirmed dinosaur fossil to be found in Scotland away from the Isle of Skye.[10][11] The Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) age Strathaird Limestone Formation is the youngest part of the Mesozoic sequence preserved beneath the unconformity at the base of the Eigg lavas and its found in a strip along the coast just west of the bay of Laig.[12]

Both the igneous and the sedimentary rocks are cut through by a swarm of Palaeocene age dykes generally aligned NW-SE. A handful of faults are mapped on the same alignment, the two most significant ones stretching SE from Bay of Laig. A band of microsyenite stretches around the hillside southeast of the Sgùrr. Isolated pockets of peat of postglacial origin are to be found behind Bay of Laig whilst to its north are areas of hummocky moraine. Landslips occupy the whole coastal strip in the northeast of the island and the embayment behind Bay of Laig and effectively mask much of the outcrop of the Mesozoic sediments.[12]

Geography

[edit]
An 1892 map of Eigg.[13]