Inchkeith
Scottish Gaelic name | Innse Coit |
---|---|
Meaning of name | wooded island[1][2] or Coeddi's island[2] |
Location | |
Inchkeith shown within the Firth of Forth | |
OS grid reference | NT293826 |
Coordinates | 56°02′00″N 3°08′06″W / 56.033333°N 3.135°W |
Physical geography | |
Island group | Islands of the Forth |
Area | 22.9 hectares (57 acres)[3] |
Highest elevation | 60 m |
Administration | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Country | Scotland |
Council area | Fife |
Demographics | |
Population | 2[4] |
References | [5][6][7] |
Inchkeith (from the
Inchkeith has had a colourful history as a result of its proximity to Edinburgh, its strategic location for use as a home for Inchkeith Lighthouse, and for military purposes defending the Firth of Forth from attack from shipping and more recently protecting the upstream Forth Bridge and Rosyth Dockyard. Inchkeith has, by some accounts, been inhabited (intermittently) for almost 1,800 years.
Geography, geology and climate
The island lies in the midst of the Firth of Forth, midway between Kirkcaldy to the north and Leith to the south. Due to the undulation of the Fife coast it lies substantially closer to Fife rather than Midlothian, the closest settlement being Kinghorn to the north, with Burntisland to the north-west being only slightly more distant.
Although most of the island is of volcanic origin, the island's geology is surprisingly varied. As well as the igneous rock, there are also some sections of sandstone, shale, coal and limestone. The shale contains a great number of fossils. There are several springs on the island.[10]
The island has the lowest average rainfall in Scotland at 550 millimetres (21.7 in) annually.[11]
The island has an abundance of springs, as noted by James Grant. James Boswell noted two wells on the island during his visit, and speculated as to the former existence of a third within the Castle.
History
Etymology
The name "Inchkeith" may derive from the medieval Scottish Gaelic Innse Coit, meaning "wooded island".
Such a rocky and exposed island can however never have supported many trees so it would be reasonable that the derivation may be otherwise.[2] Early associations between Saint Adomnán and the island may indicate that the second element is derived from the name of his contemporary and associate Coeddi (or Céti), bishop of Iona.[2]
Earliest history
Almost nothing is known about the early history of Inchkeith, and there is no certain reference to the island until the 12th century. In the days when people were compelled to cross the Firth of Forth by boat as opposed to bridge, the island was a great deal less isolated, and on the ferry routes between
It is unknown who owned Inchkeith from the 8th century onward, but it is known that it was the property of the Crown until granted to Lord Glamis.
Inchkeith as quarantine
In 1497, the island was (along with Inchgarvie, a few miles away) used as an isolated refuge for victims of 'grandgore' (also spelled 'glandgore'), an old Scots name for 'syphilis', in Edinburgh.[16] The 'grandgor' was recognised in the 1497 Minutes of the Town Council of Edinborough (Phil. Trans. XLII. 421) "This contagious sickness callit the Grandgor.". The Grandgore Act was passed in September 1497, causing Inchkeith, as well as other islands in the Firth, such as Inchgarvie, to be made a place of "Compulsory Retirement" for people suffering from this disease.[17] They were told to board a ship at Leith and once there, "to remain till God provide for their health". It is probable that they all died.
In 1589, history repeated itself and the island was used to quarantine the passengers of a plague-ridden ship. More plague sufferers came here from the mainland in 1609. In 1799, Russian sailors who died of an infectious disease were buried here.[5]
James IV's linguistic experiment
During the reign of
"And also the king gart tak ane dum woman and pat hir in Inchekeytht and gaif hir tua young bairnes in companie witht hir, and gart furnische them of all necessar thingis pertening to thair nourischment that is to say, meit, drink, fyre and candell, claithis, with all uther kynd of necessaris quhilk (is) requyrit to man or woman, desyrand the effect heirof to come to knaw quhat langage (or, "leid") thir bairnes wald speik quhene they cam to lauchfull aige. Some sayis they spak goode hebrew bot as to myself I knaw not bot be the authoris reherse."
In modern English: "The king ordered a mute woman to be put on Inchkeith and gave her two young children in company with her, and provided them with everything they would need for their nourishment, food, drink, fire and candle, clothes, and all other kinds of necessities needed by man or woman. He was desirous to discover what language the children would speak when they came of proper age. Some say they spoke good Hebrew, but I myself know no more than my sources say.[18]
However, there are no contemporary sources or documents describing such an experiment, and modern historians consider the story implausible.[19] James IV took a boat from Leith to the island on 20 June 1502 and went on to Kinghorn.[20]
Rough Wooing, Reformation, and the 17th century
In the 16th century, the island was the subject of fighting during the war of the
The English admiral Edward Fiennes de Clinton anchored his fleet at Inchkeith in August 1548. His task was to prevent sea traffic in the Forth and the security of the English at the siege of Haddington. Clinton reported destroying 38 ships on 9 August 1548. French galleys lay off Burntisland. His duty in the Forth prevented him coming to aid John Luttrell at Broughty Castle[22]
The garrison was ejected by a combined Franco-Scottish force under General D’Essé (
After the end of the war of the Rough Wooing, the island was occupied by the French, under Mary of Guise, during her period as the Regent of Scotland between 1554 and 1560.[29] The old English fortifications were further strengthened by the Scots and French, who under D’Essé built a larger and stronger fort. The works may have been directed by the Italian architect and military engineer Lorenzo Pomarelli.[30] Accounts for this rebuilding written in French survive with the names of the Scottish craftsmen and women who worked there in 1555.[31] The French-born gunner and carpenter Andrew Mansioun supervised a team of twenty three horses on the island.[32] Further construction work in 1558 was supervised by the master of work, William MacDowall.[33]
During the
In July 1561, Mary, Queen of Scots made Robert Anstruther captain of the island, in succession to the French Captain Lussaignet.[36] She inspected the garrison, and a stone from the original gateway with "MR" (i.e. Maria Regina) and the date still exists, built into a wall below the lighthouse. The guns were used during the rebellion against Mary called the Chaseabout Raid. Lord Darnley was sent to inspect the armaments in August 1565. The English ship, The Aide captained by Anthony Jenkinson arrived in the Forth on 25 September 1565, and was bombarded by the cannon on Inchkeith. Jenkynson had intended to blockade Leith to prevent Lord Seton bringing more munitions for Mary from France.[37] The cannon were repaired in Edinburgh Castle by David Rowan, "master melter" of the artillery, who was paid for cleaning out the rusty touch holes in February 1566.[38]
The fort itself was demolished, or ordered to be "raisit" (razed) in 1567, after Mary was deposed. Her opponents were anti-French and did not take too kindly to a French garrison so near the capital. The Captain of the garrison, Robert Anstruther, was rewarded with all the ironwork timber and slates to be salvaged, and ownership of the island was given to John Lyon, 8th Lord Glamis.[39] The remaining buildings were later used as a prison.
During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the island was again taken by the English, and fortified.[citation needed]
18th century
In the late 18th century, James Boswell's The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson (published in 1785) mentions Inchkeith, upon which Boswell and Dr. Johnson alighted, noting that the now-uninhabited island had a profusion of "luxuriant thistles and nettles", a "strongly built" fort, and "sixteen head of [grazing] black cattle".[40] The fort visited appears to have been built in 1564.
Usually the cynic, Johnson admired the island and said, "I’d have this island; I’d build a house... A rich man of an hospitable turn here, would have many visitors from Edinburgh."
19th century and World War I
In 1803, construction was begun of Inchkeith Lighthouse, designed and built by Thomas Smith and Robert Stevenson. The lighthouse, standing 67 metres high, was first operational by 1804, and is now listed as a building of architectural and historic significance.[41][42]
Inchkeith, unlike some of the other islands, was not fortified in the Napoleonic Wars but, with Kinghorn, was the site of the first modern defences, manned from 1881 until 1956. A memorial on the island notes the role of Lord Herbert of Lea in advocating the fortification of the island.[43] In 1878, the Royal Engineers built batteries on the three corners of the island, designed as separate fortresses.
Construction upon the island's "South Fort" began in spring of 1878, being completed in 1880. Construction on the West and East forts began in summer of 1878, being completed in 1880 and 1881 respectively. These forts were armed with four 10" rifled muzzle loader guns, with two in the South Fort and one each in the east and west. In 1891, the East and West guns were replaced with two 6" BL (breech loading) disappearing guns. A 9.2" Mk I gun, also on a disappearing mounting, was installed in 1893, in the southern part of the island.
A controlled minefield was controlled from Inchkeith, and the 'test room' for the Submarine Miners was created in an artificial cave, closed off by a granite wall, on the north side of the island. This was later used as a Small Arms Ammunition store.
In 1899, Inchkeith had a Compressed Air Foghorn installed, providing two 3.5 second blasts every 90 seconds during fog.[41] This would remain in place until replaced after the second world war.
From the 1890s until the early 1905, the fort at Inchkeith underwent a sequence of gun improvements and replacements. In 1893-95 two 4.7" MK1 quick-firing guns were installed. (These had been removed from
During
The Second World War
Between the wars the fort and its guns were maintained. In 1937 several
Inchkeith was the HQ of the Outer Defences of the Firth of Forth in both wars, in conjunction with batteries at
In the Second World War new batteries were established further east at
In May 1940, the island was issued with 40 "Board of Trade, Rocket Flares, Red", for alerting in the event that an invasion was attempted (or spotted).
The gun strength of the island in the Second World War was the same as at the end of the First World War: one "Major Full Time Battery" of two 6" guns covering the North side of the island, two 6" guns covering the South side and the water between the island and
Operation Fortitude North
Operations Fortitude North and Fortitude South were related to a wider deception plan called
Operation Fortitude North's fictional
The aim of this ruse, unknown to the participants, was to make German High Command believe that a raid in Norway or elsewhere was being planned. Although Operation Fortitude was a great success, Inchkeith appears not to have been overflown by German Reconnaissance planes until 7 October. Examination of the footage taken in 1945 appeared to indicate that the plane flew too high to ascertain anything meaningful.[47]
Post-war era to present day
Post-war, defences were dismantled commencing late 1945. By early January 1946, only a small number of troops with a "nucleus" of coastal guns remained, and finally in 1956/7, all military use of the island ceased, and ownership passed over to the Northern Lighthouse Board, who performed a variety of renovations on the island from the early 1960s onwards.
The island, like Cramond Island, was previously worked as a farm. It is now abandoned, and unkempt.
In 1958, an experimental foghorn was installed, replacing the previous 19th century system. A diaphone system providing 4 blasts of 1.5 seconds once every minute was installed on Inchcolm, operated by radio telephone from Inchkeith. This was replaced with an electrically operated system controlled by an automatic fog detector in 1986.
In 1971 the lighthouse and associated buildings became Category B listed buildings,[42] and in 1976 the island and its fortifications became a scheduled monument.[48]
In 1986 the lighthouse was automated, allowing it to be remotely managed by a telephone connection. The Northern Lighthouse Board removed the permanent lightkeepers, and sold the island to businessman
In 2017, the British army used Inchkeith during a nighttime exercise involving chinook helicopters.[50]
See also
- List of islands of Scotland
- List of lighthouses in Scotland
- List of Northern Lighthouse Board lighthouses
References
- ^ a b William J. Watson, Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, (Edinburgh, 1926), new ed. (Edinburgh, 2004), p. 382.
- ^ ISBN 1900289776.
- ^ a b "Overview of Inchkeith". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 28 December 2007.
- ^ National Records of Scotland (15 August 2013). "Appendix 2: Population and households on Scotland's Inhabited Islands" (PDF). Statistical Bulletin: 2011 Census: First Results on Population and Household Estimates for Scotland Release 1C (Part Two) (PDF) (Report). SG/2013/126. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7.
- ^ Ordnance Survey. OS Maps Online (Map). 1:25,000. Leisure.
- ^ Mac an Tàilleir, Iain (2003) Ainmean-àite/Placenames. (pdf) Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
- ^ Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Southeastern Scotland". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
- ^ Inchkeith Archived 13 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Northern Lighthouse Board. Retrieved 15 May 2016
- ^ Grant, James (1880s). "Old and new Edinburgh". 6. London: Cassells: 290.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ISBN 9781445648859. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ^ William J. Watson, Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, p. 381.
- ^ The work contains a number of place-names with good Gaelic orthography; see Alan Macquarrie, "Life of St Serf", in the Innes Review, vol. 44, no. 2 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 122-52.
- ^ Simon Taylor, "Babbet and Bridin Pudding or Polyglot Fife in the Middle Ages", in Nomina, 17 (1994), pp. 99–118.
- ^ See Stòr-dàta Briathrachais Gàidhlig - Rùrachadh, sv "Innis Cheith".
- PMID 9576552.
- ^ a b Samuel Lewis (topographer) (1846). "Inchkeith". A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland. pp. 555–584. Retrieved 28 December 2007.
- ^ Aeneas James George Mackay, Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, Historie and Chroniclis of Scotland, vol. 1 (Scottish Text Society: Edinburgh, 1899), p. 237.
- ^ Robin N Campbell & Robert Grieve (12/1981). Royal Investigations of the Origin of Language. Historiographia Linguistica 9(1-2):43-74 DOI: 10.1075/hl.9.1-2.04cam
- ^ James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 151.
- ^ Abercromby, trans, Jean de Beaugué's History of the Campagnes in Scotland, (1707), p.114
- ^ Cameron, Annie, Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine (Edinburgh, 1927), pp. 264-7
- ^ a b "The story of Leith - XXII. The Siege of Leith". electric scotland. Retrieved 22 June 2007.
- ^ Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings (Tuckwell, 2000), p. 341.
- ^ "Capture of Inchkeith". (pdf) Electric Scotland.com. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
- ^ Abercromby, trans, Jean de Beaugué's History of the Campagnes in Scotland (1707), pp. 123-4.
- ^ Calendar State Papers Spain, vol. 9 (London, 1912), p. 404.
- ^ Register of the Privy Council, Addenda, vol. 14, p. 8
- ^ "The Story of Leith - XXIV. Leith after The Union of the Crowns". electric scotland. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
- ^ Amadio Ronchini, 'Lorenzo Pomarelli' in Atti e memorie delle RR. Deputazioni di storia patria per le provincie Modenesi e Parmensi (Modena, 1868), pp. 264-5.
- ^ National Archives of Scotland, "E34/21 Weekly accounts of expenditure at "Lisle Dieu", 24 June-25 October 1555, signed by De Villemore (Comptroller) and Bellenden (Justice-Clerk)".
- ^ Michael Pearce, 'A French Furniture Maker and the 'Courtly Style' in Sixteenth-Century Scotland', Regional Furniture vol. XXXII (2018), p. 131.
- ^ James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1913), pp. 431-4.
- ^ Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1547-1563, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 365 no. 737.
- ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 481-2 no. 906.
- ^ Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1547-1563, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 544: James Beveridge & Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal: 1556-1567, 5:1 (Edinburgh, 1957), p. 196 no. 826.
- ^ Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 197, 220-1: Aeneas James George Mackay, Chroniclis of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 185-6: Early voyages and travels to Russia and Persia, by Anthony Jenkinson and other Englishmen (New York, 1967), pp. 167-176
- ^ Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), p. 496.
- ^ Gordon Donaldson ed., Register of the Privy Seal, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1963), p. vi, 20 no. 86, 31 no. 130.
- ^ Boswell, James (1785). The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL. D.
- ^ a b c "Inchkeith Lighthouse - History". Northern Lighthouse Board. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
- ^ a b Historic Environment Scotland. "Inchkeith Lighthouse... excluding scheduled monument SM3838 (Category B Listed Building) (LB9707)". Retrieved 20 December 2018.
- ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Inchkeith Island, Memorial to Lord Herbert of Lea (LB9708)". Retrieved 7 October 2021.
- ISBN 0-8317-0302-4, p. 9
- ^ Finlayson, C 1983 'Just the kitchen sink', University of Edinburgh Journal 31.2, 46-8
- ^ Fife Free Press, 24 February 1940
- ^ UK Fortifications Club - Fort of the Quarter - Inchkeith
- ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Inchkeith Island and fortifications (SM3838)". Retrieved 20 December 2018.
- ^ "Uninhabitable island, no pier, busy shipping lane..yours for over £75k". Edinburgh Evening News. 21 October 2008.
- ^ "Forth helicopter mystery: Chinooks and loud bangs at Inchkeith? - Edinburgh Evening News". 9 September 2017. Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
Sources
- Grant, James (1890). Old and New Edinburgh. Cassell & Co, London, Paris, New York.
- Samuel, Lewis (1846). A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland. Lewis.
- UKFC. "UK Fortifications Club - Fort of the Quarter - Inchkeith". UK Fortifications Club (UKFC). Archived from the original on 2 September 2006. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
- "Scottish History - Renaissance and Reformation - Historical Oddities". BBC. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
- Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7.
External links
- UKFC. "UK Fortifications Club - Fort of the Quarter - Inchkeith". UK Fortifications Club (UKFC). Archived from the original on 2 September 2006. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
- "Scottish History - Renaissance and Reformation - Historical Oddities". BBC. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
- Description of the 1555 building work on Inchkeith for Mary of Guise, based on National Records of Scotland E34/21.
- Inchkeith Island and fortifications, SM3838, Scheduled Monument, Historic Environment Scotland.
- The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson on Project Gutenberg
- Northern Lighthouse Board
- Victorian Forts data sheet on Yaverland battery Archived 3 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine