Stac Biorach
Scottish Gaelic name | Stac Biorach |
---|---|
Meaning of name | "pointed stack" |
Location | |
Stac Biorach Stac Biorach shown within the Outer Hebrides | |
OS grid reference | NA071013 |
Coordinates | 57°49′44″N 8°37′19″W / 57.829°N 8.622°W |
Physical geography | |
Island group | St Kilda |
Highest elevation | 73 m (240 ft) |
Administration | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Country | Scotland |
Council area | Outer Hebrides |
Demographics | |
Population | 0 |
References | [1][2][3] |
Stac Biorach (Scottish Gaelic: "the pointed stack") is a sea stack, 73 metres tall, situated between Hirta and Soay (in the "Sound of Soay") in the St Kilda archipelago of Scotland. It lies west of (Soay Stac) (61 metres).[3]
Coordinates: 57°49′44″N 8°37′18″W / 57.82889°N 8.62167°W
History[]
The stack has never been permanently inhabited, but has contributed considerably to the local economy by supplying the St Kildans with sea birds and their eggs. Rev. Neil MacKenzie, a Church of Scotland minister who resided on St Kilda from 1830 to 1844, observed the islanders collecting eggs from here in baskets like flat-bottomed bee hives, each basket holding about 400 eggs.[citation needed]
Like the other islands in the St Kilda archipelago, Stac Biorach is extraordinarily rich in birdlife, and boasts the highest colony of guillemots in the archipelago.[4]
Recreational climbing on the stack seems to have started in the early 1880s. It appears that the first non-St Kildan to climb the stack was Richard Manliffe Barrington; he ascended Stac Biorach in 1890,[5][6][7] calling it the most dangerous climb he ever undertook.[8] Today climbing in all of the St Kilda archipelago is subject to the permission of the National Trust for Scotland[9] (which rarely, if ever, grants it), The stack is quite difficult to climb, "one which only a few of the natives could lead."[10][11]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ 2001 UK Census per List of islands of Scotland
- ^ Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Ordnance Survey
- ^ Maclean, Charles (1992). St. Kilda: Island on the Edge of the World. Canongate Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-86241-388-0.
- ^ Barrington, R.M. "The Ascent of Stack na Biorach". Alpine Journal. 27: 195.
- ^ St Kilda Management Plan 2003-2008 (PDF). National Trust for Scotland. 2003. p. 102.
- ^ The following account seems less reliable: Mellor, Chris (2002). Stack Rock: An Illustrated Guide to Sea Stack Climbing in the UK and Ireland (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-12.
- ^ Heathcote, Norman (1901). "Climbing in St Kilda". Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal. Scottish Mountaineering Club. 6: 146–151. Retrieved 8 February 2009. p. 148.
- ^ St Kilda Management Plan 2003-2008 (PDF). National Trust for Scotland. 2003. p. 103.
- ^ Steven, Campbell Rodger (1975). The Story of Scotland's Hills. R. Hale. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-7091-4975-0.
- ^ According to one source, the stack was climbed by an "outsider," R.M. Barrington, only once, in 1929. Maclean, St. Kilda: Island on the Edge of the World, 103.
- St Kilda, Scotland
- Landforms of the Outer Hebrides
- Stacks of Scotland
- Western Isles geography stubs