Garbh Eileach
United Kingdom · Europe
About
Garbh Eileach is an uninhabited island in the Inner Hebrides of the west coast of Scotland that lies in the Firth of Lorn between Mull and Argyll. With an area of 142 ha (351 acres) it is the largest of the Garvellachs and reaches a maximum elevation of 110 m (361 ft) above sea level.
The name is Gaelic for "the rough rocks". The Anglicised version of the name gives the whole group of islands its name of the Garvellachs (Scottish Gaelic: Na Garbh Eileacha). The archipelago is part of the Scarba, Lunga and the Garvellachs National Scenic Area, one of 40 such areas in Scotland.
A 2024 study by researchers at University College London regarding the relationship of some of its bedrock to the Sturtian glaciation suggests the archipelago "may be the only place on Earth to have a detailed record of how the Earth entered one of the most catastrophic periods in its history."
There are scattered birchwoods and a small herd of red deer on Garbh Eileach.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.