Rona


(North Rona; Ronaidh)

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Rona, a small triangular island of Barvas parish, Outer Hebrides, Ross-shire, 45 miles NNE of the Butt of Lewis, in lat. 59 7' N and long. 5 50' W. It has an utmost length and breadth of 7 and 6 furlongs, and rises at its south-eastern corner to a height of 355 feet above sea-level. It was formerly inhabited by several families, who maintained themselves partly by agriculture, partly by fishing; and about 1850 it was offered gratis by the late Sir James Matheson to Government for a new penal settlement. It contains remains of a very ancient oratory built of uncemented stone, and the ruinous shells of five or six huts.—Ord. Sur., sh. 113, 1882.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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