Soay, St Kilda

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Soay (Gaelic:Soaigh, from the Old Norse so-øy meaning sheep island) is an uninhabited island in the St Kilda archipelago (Outer Hebrides, Scotland, ) in the North Atlantic, about 2 km northwest of Hirta. The National Trust for Scotland is the current owner and the island is part of the St Kilda World Heritage Site. Soay covers about 96.8 hectare (968,000 square metres) and reaches a height of 378 m, the cliffs rising to this height sheer from the sea. The island is formed of a breccia of gabbro and dolerites. It is separated from Hirta by the narrow Sound of Soay with two sea stacks, Soay Stac (61 m) and Stac Biorach (73 m), in between.

The first recorded instance of what may have been recreational stack climbing occurred in 1883 when Charles Barrington ascended Stac Biorach. It was described in the Alpine Club Journal and was very different from most mountaineering feats at that time. Barrington also made the first ascent of the Eiger.

The feral Soay sheep, now also free ranging on Hirta, is the most primitive domesticated animal in Europe and has been preserved unchanged since Neolithic times.

Note: there is also an island called Soay off the south coast of Skye.