Seaforth Island

There is also a Seaforth Island in the Whitsunday Islands of Queensland, Australia
Seaforth Island
Location
Seaforth Island
Seaforth Island shown within the Outer Hebrides
OS grid reference NB207111
Names
Gaelic name Eilean Shìophoirt or Mulag
Norse name Múli
Meaning of name Norse for 'craggy ridge between fjords'.
Area and summit
Area 273 hectares (1.05 sq mi)
Area rank 93
Highest elevation 217 metres (712 ft)
Population
Population 0
Groupings
Island group Outer Hebrides
Local Authority Outer Hebrides
References [1][2][3]
If shown, area and population ranks are for all Scottish islands and all inhabited Scottish islands respectively. Population data is from 2001 census.
Seaforth Island
Elevation 217 m (712 ft)
Prominence 217 m (712 ft)
Listing Marilyn
Location
Location Loch Seaforth between Harris and Lewis, Scotland
Topo map OS Landrangers 13, 14
OS grid NB207111

Seaforth Island (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Shìphoirt/Shìophoirt or Mulag) is an uninhabited island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Unlike other islands of the Outer Hebrides which are mainly surrounded by open sea, Seaforth Island lies in a narrow fjord-like sea loch named Loch Seaforth, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from the open waters of the Minch. Of the two variant Gaelic names, one is from the Old Norse name which describes its geographical location and the other is for Francis MacKenzie, Lord Seaforth, who inherited the island in 1783.[3]

The island has poor soil which only supports rough grazing.

History

Although the island is not thought to have been inhabited in the past, the loch area was the subject of border disputes in the 19th century. In 1851, these were resolved by the unusual decision to allocate the whole of Seaforth Island to both counties, Ross and Cromarty and Inverness-shire, which at the time controlled Lewis and Harris respectively. This situation continued until the 1975 county reorganisation.

Footnotes

  1. ^ 2001 UK Census per List of islands of Scotland
  2. ^ Ordnance Survey
  3. ^ a b Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 1841954543.