Gruinard Island

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Gruinard Island is a small Scottish island, located in Gruinard Bay, about halfway between Gairloch and Ullapool.

In 1942, it was the site of a highly successful biological warfare test by British military scientists from Porton Down. At that time, there was an investigation by the British government into the feasibility of an attack using anthrax; to test the vulnerability of Britain against a German attack and to check on the feasibility of attacking Germany with a biological weapon.

The anthrax strain chosen for the Gruinard bioweapons trials was a highly virulent type called "Vollum 14578" - named after R.L. Vollum, Professor of Bacteriology at Oxford University, who supplied it. Eighty sheep were taken to the island, and bombs filled with anthrax spores were exploded close to where selected groups were tethered. The sheep became infected with anthrax and began to die within days of exposure. Some of the experiments were recorded on 16 mm colour movie film, which has recently been declassified. One sequence shows the actual detonation of an anthrax bomb fixed at the end of a tall pole supported with guy ropes. When the bomb is detonated, a brownish aerosol cloud drifts away towards the target animals. A later sequence shows anthrax-infected sheep carcases being burned in purpose-made incinerators, following the successful conclusion of the experiment.

After all the tests were completed, British scientists concluded that a large scale release of anthrax spores would thoroughly pollute German cities, rendering them uninhabitable for decades afterwards.

Subsequent decontamination attempts on the island were unsuccessful due to the durability of anthrax spores. As a result, Gruinard Island was quarantined and remained a no-go area for many years afterward. Visits to the island were strictly prohibited, except by Porton Down personnel for the purpose of checking the level of contamination.

Starting in 1986, a determined effort was made to decontaminate the island, with 280 tonnes of formaldehyde solution diluted in seawater being sprayed over all 520 acres (2 km²) of the island, and the worst-contaminated topsoil around the dispersal site being removed. A flock of sheep was then placed on the island. The flock remained healthy. On April 24, 1990, after 48 years of quarantine, the then-junior defence minister, Michael Neubert, visited the island and announced its safety by removing the warning signs. As of January 2002, there have been no cases of anthrax in the island flock.

[edit] Appearances in Literature

The island is mentioned by Frederick Forsyth in his novel "The Fist Of God" (1994).

In issues 187-188 of the comic book Hellblazer, in a story titled 'Bred in the Bone', the protagonist's niece finds herself on Gruinard surrounded by flesh-eating children. The issues were released in 2003 and were written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Doug Alexander Gregory.