Belnahua
Scottish Gaelic name | Beul na h-Uamha |
---|---|
Meaning of name | The mouth of the cave |
Belnahua from the south | |
Location | |
OS grid reference | NM713127 |
Coordinates | 56°15′N 5°41′W / 56.25°N 5.69°W |
Physical geography | |
Island group | Slate Islands |
Highest elevation | 22 m (72 ft) |
Administration | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Country | Scotland |
Council area | Argyll and Bute |
Demographics | |
Population | 0 |
References | [1][2][3][4] |
Belnahua is one of the Slate Islands, in the Firth of Lorn in Scotland, known for its deserted slate quarries. The bedrock that underpins its human history is part of the Scarba Conglomerate Formation and its value has been on record since the 16th century.[5][6] Likely uninhabited before commercial quarrying commenced,[7] under the control of the Stevenson family during the 19th century[8] the population expanded to over 150[9] before the island was abandoned again in 1914.[10]
Living on a remote island in the 19th century came with significant hardships and the lives of the quarry workers have been described in unflattering terms by modern commentators, one describing them as in effect "slaves".[11] Today, the ruined buildings and abandoned machinery lie amidst the water filled quarries and are home only to wildlife.[12] There are very strong tidal streams in the area and this a potentially hazardous location for shipping. In 1936 the cargo vessel Helēna Faulbaums was wrecked on the island, with the loss of 15 lives.[13]
Geography
Belnahua is in the council area of Argyll and Bute and lies two kilometres (1+1⁄4 miles) west of Luing and three kilometres (two miles) east of Dùn Chonnuill in the Garvellachs.[3] The island is roughly 6 hectares (15 acres) in extent.[14] About 500 metres (550 yards) southeast is the islet of Fladda,[3] the lighthouse on which is a "well-known sea-mark in the Sound of Luing".[2]
The island has been considerably denuded by quarrying – a process sometimes described as having broken its back.[15] Deep water-filled cuttings and the ruined slate workers cottages remain as a testament to this industry.[16] There was a jetty to the east of the island,[3][17] but it was worn away within the last quarter of the twentieth century.
Belnahua exists amongst sea lanes that have numerous islands and skerries that "swarm like bees on a branch" amongst the "most treacherous seas and complicated channels of the west coast" of Scotland,[15] including the Gulf of Corryvreckan some ten kilometres (six miles) to the south.[3] The island is part of the Scarba, Lunga and the Garvellachs National Scenic Area.[18]
Geology
The bedrock of Belnahua is in large part a
History
Early times
In the 7th century the
Slate quarrying
According to the
In the 1790s Belnahua was leased out by the landowners to the Stevenson brothers whose aim was to supply slate for the developing town of Oban.[Note 3] Cottages were constructed for the workers in the south east corner of the island and there was a school and company store. Virtually all the provisions had to be supplied from Luing, including drinking water. Rainwater was collected in reservoirs but it was used to power the steam engines that drove the quarries' pumps. By the early 19th century the Stevenson family were shipping slate from both Belnahua and Fladda to Campbeltown in Kintyre.[8] Their lease was eventually passed on to the Shaw family of Luing who hired a quarry master that lived on a 2-storey house on the island. At the height of the activity there were 30 quarry workers and their families living there and a total population of over 150.[27][9] With the commencement of World War I in 1914 quarry work ceased and the island was completely abandoned and it has been uninhabited ever since.[10]
The Breadalbane estates were sold off in the 1930s[10] and as of 2004 Belnahua was owned by the Carling family.[2]
Life on the island
Living on a remote island in the 19th century came with hardships. Quarry workers sought employment from around Scotland, some arriving in an area where they would have had few friends or family to support them in times of difficulty. There is no protection from the wind and it can be a "harsh and desolate" location, especially in winter.[9] One writer has gone so far as to suggest that although some islands can suggest a lifestyle of peace and tranquility, that Belnahua "buffeted by the sea and the winds, overshadowed from the south by the lowering cliffs of Scarba, and dominated by the threatening deep maws of the slate quarries at its heart, could surely have engendered little more than tension, fear, agitation and anxiety."[8]
Paul Murton took a similar view of the islanders' circumstances: "They were paid poorly and forced to rent their homes and buy all their supplies from their feudal superior, the Campbell Marquis of Breadalbane, who kept the workforce in a state of permanent debt and poverty. Effectively, the people of Belnahua were slaves."[11]
Shipwrecks
On 15 August 1900 the 310-tonne (340-short-ton) iron steamship Apollo ran aground on Bono Reef two kilometres (1+1⁄4 mi) north of Belnahua. She was carrying a cargo of granite cobble stones from Aberdeen to Newport. The wreck lies in a gully some 10 metres (35 ft) down amidst thick kelp.[13]
The 1,770-tonne (1,950-short-ton) unladen
The wreck lies in 60 metres (195 ft) of water. There are very strong tidal streams in the area and diving is only possible at slack water.[13]
Wildlife
Otters and seals are regular visitors to the coast of Belnahua, the latter fishing for
The soils are very poor in quality so horticultural options are "limited or non-existent" and the ruined buildings and abandoned machinery lie amidst "waist high grasses".[12] The aim of the Slate Islands Heritage Trust is to record the island's history but otherwise leave it untouched.[34]
Notes
- ^ R. W. Munro offers no suggestion for this island's identity.[22] A derivation of Ulva is from the Old Norse ulvøy meaning "wolf island".[23] The tidal Ulva Islands in Loch Sween at NR727824 are thus a possibility for "the Wolfiis iyle" although they are by no means "nearest" to Belnahua.
- ^ Withall states that Belnahua was "probably uninhabited" prior to the formation of the Easdale Marble and Slate Company in 1730,[7] but Pallister quotes the significantly earlier date of 1632.[8]
- ^ Pallister states that as Belnahua was part of the parish of Jura rather than Kilbrandon and Kilchattan that it never became part of the Breadalbane estates and implies that the Stevensons had set up an independent commercial "empire".[8]
- ^ Haswell-Smith has the loss of life at 16.[2]
- ^ See Talk:Belnahua#Latvian sources and the Helēna Faulbaums for a translation of this article from Brīvā Zeme into English.
References
Footnotes
- ^ 2001 UK Census per List of islands of Scotland
- ^ a b c d Haswell-Smith (2004), p. 67.
- ^ a b c d e f Ordnance Survey. OS Maps Online (Map). 1:25,000. Leisure.
- ^ Iain Mac an Tailleir. "Placenames" (PDF). Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2007.
- ^ a b "Kilmartin, Scotland sheet 36, Bedrock and Superficial deposits". BGS large map images. British Geological Survey. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
- ^ a b c Monro (1549), 27.
- ^ a b c d Withall (2013), p. 5.
- ^ a b c d e f Pallister (2007), Slated.
- ^ a b c Withall (2018), Early Days in the Easdale Practice.
- ^ a b c Withall (2013), p. 11.
- ^ a b Murton (2017), p. 32.
- ^ a b Withall (2013), pp. 50, 69.
- ^ a b c Baird (1995), p. 115.
- ^ Estimate from Ordnance Survey maps.
- ^ a b Murray (1977), p. 124.
- ^ "Overview of Belnahua". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 28 July 2007.
- ^ "Belnahua slate quarries". Canmore. Retrieved 7 June 2020
- ^ "National Scenic Areas of Scotland: overview map". (pdf) Scottish Government. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
- ^ "Onshore Geoindex". British Geological Survey. British Geological Survey. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
- ^ Fraser (2009), pp. 245–46.
- ^ Woolf (2007), pp. 99–100, 286–89.
- ^ Munro (1961), p. 116.
- ^ Haswell-Smith (2004), p. 102.
- ^ Withall (2013), p. viii.
- ^ Withall (2013), p. 6.
- ^ Withall (2013), p. 7.
- ^ "Belnahua". Slate Islands Heritage Trust. Retrieved 7 June 2020
- ^ a b Baird (1995), p. 113.
- ^ a b Baird (1995), p. 114.
- ^ "Helena Faulbaums: Belnahua, Sound Of Luing". Canmore - Quoting the Oban Times of 31 October 1936. Retrieved 7 June 2020
- ^ a b "Luing recalls tragedy that claimed sailors". The Oban Times. 10 November 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2020 – via PressReader.
- ^ "Šodien gulda Skotijas zemē 7 latvju jūrniekus" [Today 7 Latvian sailors are buried on Scottish soil]. Brīvā Zeme. 2 November 1936. Archived from the original on 8 January 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ Withall (2013), p. 50.
- ^ Withall (2013), p. 69.
Bibliography
- Baird, Bob (1995), Shipwrecks of the West of Scotland, Glasgow: Nekton Books, ISBN 1897995024
- ISBN 978-0-7486-1232-1
- Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004), The Scottish Islands, Edinburgh: Canongate, ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7
- Monro, Donald (1549), A Description Of The Western Isles of Scotland, Appin Regiment/Appin Historical Society, archived from the originalon 13 March 2007, retrieved 3 March 2007. First published by William Auld, Edinburgh 1774.
- Munro, R. W. (1961), Monro's Western Isles of Scotland and Genealogies of the Clans, Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd
- ISBN 0002168138.
- ISBN 978-1-78027-467-6
- Pallister, Marian (2007), Argyll Curiosities, Edinburgh: Birlinn, ISBN 978-1841585314
- Withall, Mary (2013), Easdale, Benbecula, Luing & Seil: The Islands that Roofed the World, Edinburgh: Luath Press, ISBN 978-1-908373-50-2
- Withall, Mary (2018), The Easdale Doctor, Edinburgh: Birlinn, ISBN 978-1912476268
- Woolf, Alex (2007). From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748612345.