Eigg
Eigg 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 long from north to south, and east to west. With an area of just over 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. Eigg now generates virtually all of its electricity using renewable energy. In April 2019, National Geographic discussed the island in an online article, estimating the average number of annual visitors at 10,000.
Geology
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.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 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. The Turonian 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.
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.
Geography
Eigg measures and is by sea from the nearest port of Mallaig. The centre of the island is a moorland plateau, rising to at An Sgùrr, a dramatic stump of pitchstone which is the "most memorable landmark in the Hebridean seas". Walkers who reach the top can, in good weather, take in views of Mull, Coll, Muck, the Outer Hebrides, Rùm, Skye, and the mountains of Lochaber on the mainland.The plateau in the northern part of the island, at Beinn Buidhe, drops to a fertile coastal plain on its western side, containing Cleadale, the main settlement on Eigg. At the southern end of the plain, in the centre of the island, lies the bay of Laig, known for its quartz beach, called the "singing sands" on account of the squeaking noise it makes if walked on when dry. The first written description of this effect was penned by Hugh Miller in the 19th century:
I struck it obliquely with my foot, where the surface lay dry... elicited a shrill sonorous note... I walked over it, striking it obliquely with each step and with every blow the shrill note was repeated.
The plateau is cleaved by a central valley, stretching from the vicinity of Laig, in the north, to Galmisdale at its southeastern end, which forms the main port. Beyond the southeast coast lies the small islet of Eilean Chathastail.
Etymology
calls the island Egea insula in his Vita Columbae. Other historical names have been Ega, and Ego. The Gaelic Eige means "notch" probably with reference to "the marked depression that runs across the middle of the island". A 2013 study also suggested a possible Norse origin.Eigg was also known as Eilean nam Ban Móra - "the island of the great women". Martin Martin reported in 1703 that "the natives dare not call this isle by its ordinary name of Egg when they are at sea, but island Nim-Ban-More."
Some of the island settlement names are of Norse origin. Cleadale may mean "valley of the ridged slope". The first element of Galmisdale is possibly a personal name. Laig may derive from "muddy bay". Grulin is of Gaelic origin, meaning "stony land".
History
Early history
At Rubh' An Tangaird, near Glamisdale on the southern coast, there are the remains of an oval house, with thick walls, and an upright stone at each side of the doorway. There are comparable structures in Shetland such as at Scord of Brouster, which suggests a Neolithic date.Evidence for the island having been occupied in the Bronze Age includes two axes and a cache of flints, one of them being thumbnail scraper found near Galmisdale, together with significant metalworking debris. A barbed-and-tanged flint arrowhead of uncertain date was found to the south of Kildonnan.
Iron Age
Early Iron Age hut circles are found throughout the island. One located near the northeast coast near Sron na h-Iolaire is close to a cave to which walls have been artificially added; several hammerstones are located in the cave and surrounding vicinity, some with concretions of crushed shells stuck to them. The cave site is difficult to reach leading archaeologists to speculate that the site may have been used for hermitic purposes.Later in the Iron Age, the inhabitants of Eigg chose to fortify the island. Small fortifications restrict access to rocky knolls at Garbh Bealach west of Galmisdale and Poll Duchaill on the northwest coast and on the promontory of Rudha na Crannaig south of Kildonnan. More substantial duns existed at Galmisdale Point, and at Loch nam Ban Mora, the latter of which is located on an island.
Early Christianity
The Irish missionary activity which caused Columba to found a monastery on Iona also brought the Irish monk Donnán to Eigg around 600 AD, where he established a monastery, at Kildonnan. Columba had warned him of the dangers of settling in Pictish territory and Donnan was murdered on Eigg along with 52 of his monks in 617.By the following century, the monastery was significant enough for the death of its superior, Oan, to be mentioned in the Annals of Ulster. The monastery, which was excavated in 2012, was located within an oval enclosure, surrounded by a ditch, housing a rectangular chapel in the centre, and with a handful of smaller buildings either side. A handful of early inscribed stone slabs were located there, of which one bears a Pictish design, comprising a hunting scene, with a cross on its obverse.
On the coast at the opposite side of the island, are 16 or more quare cairns, lined up neatly into groups; they are each between square, most being bordered by a stone kerb, and some having upright cornerstones. This form of cairn is usually associated with the Pictish kingdoms of the first millennium AD. The site may thus have some connection with the contemporary monastery at Kildonnan.
Kingdom of the Isles
Commencing in the early 9th century Norse settlers established the Kingdom of the Isles throughout the Hebrides. A silver/bronze sword handle from the beginning of this period was found in 1830, buried in a field named Dail Sithean near Kildonnan, together with an iron axehead, leather belt, buckle, wollen cloth, and a whetstone. Wetlands near Laig, appear to have been used for storing partly finished boat parts, as was common in Viking Scandinavia. A few oak posts, in length, for the stern of a longship were found there. A simple bronze brooch was found at a nearby site.File:Kingdom of the Isles, circa 1200.png|thumb|left|The Suðreyjar in about 1200: the lands of the Crovan dynasty and the descendants of Somerled
By the late 11th century the Isles were controlled by the Crovan dynasty but the dictatorial style of Guðrøðr Óláfsson appears to have made him very unpopular with the Islesmen, and the ensuing conflicts were the beginning of the end for Mann and the Isles as a coherent territory under the rule of a single magnate. The powerful barons of the isles began plotting with an emerging and forceful figure – Somerled, Lord of Argyll. Godred engaged Somerled's forces in the naval Battle of Epiphany in 1156. There was no clear victor, but it was subsequently agreed that Godred would remain the ruler of Man, the northern Inner Hebrides and the Outer Hebrides, whilst Somerled's young sons would nominally control the southern Inner Hebrides, Kintyre and the islands of the Clyde under their father's supervision.
By the mid 13th century the Small Isles were in Lordship of Garmoran, a possession of Clan MacRory founded by Somerled's grandson Ruaidhrí mac Raghnaill. At this point the islands was nominally subject to Norway but in 1266, the Treaty of Perth transferred the territories of the Kingdom of the Isles to Alexander III of Scotland and Dubhghall mac Ruaidhrí, Lord of Garmoran, found that he had a new overlord. He, and others who had supported the Norse, had the opportunity to emigrate under the terms of the treaty and Dubhghall died in 1268, possibly in exile.
By 1337 the sole MacRory heir was Amy of Garmoran, who in that year married John of Islay, Lord of the Isles, leader of the MacDonalds, the most powerful group among Somerled's heirs. Circa 1350 they divorced and John deprived his eldest son, Ranald, of the ability to inherit the MacDonald lands. As compensation, John granted Lordship of the Uists to Ranald's younger brother Godfrey, and made Ranald Lord of the remainder of Garmoran, including Eigg.