Summer Isles

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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Summer Isles, a group of islets at the entrance of Loch Broom, on the W coast of Ross and Cromarty. Only one of them, Tanera More, is inhabited, and only nine or ten are of sufficient size to be occupied as pastures. They lie at from 5 furlongs to 4 miles distance from the coast, and are composed of Old Red Sandstone. Tanera More- is 1¾ mile long and 1 road; and has an irregular rocky surface, rising to the height of 406 feet above sea-level. The other islets are all similarly rocky, but of much less elevation. The whole group are bare; and except where their bluff coasts are worked into caverns and points by the incessant action of the sea, they possess not one feature of picturesqueness or beauty. ' Why they are called the Summer Islands,' says Dr Macculloch,' I- know not; as they have a most wintry aspect, as much from their barrenness and rocky outlines, as from the ugly red colour and the forms of their cliffs.' Pop. of Tanera More (1871) 114, (1881) 119.—Ord. Sur., sh. 101, 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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