Inchcailloch

Inchcailloch (Scottish Gaelic: Innis na Cailleach) is an island on Loch Lomond in Scotland. It is 85 m at its highest point.

Its name means "island of the old woman" in the Scottish Gaelic language.

Inchmurrin, Creinch, Torrinch, and Inchcailloch all form part of the Highland boundary fault.Worsley, Harry "Loch Lomond: The Loch, the Lairds and the Legends" ISBN 978-1-898169-34-5 Lindsay Publications (Glasgow) 1988] Inchcailloch forms part of a nature reserve, owned and run by Scottish Natural Heritage.cite web| url=http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/features/featurefirst1905.html| title=Overview of Inchcailloch| publisher=Gazetteer for Scotland| accessdate=2008-09-24]

There is a passenger ferry across the short channel separating it from Balmaha on the mainland. As a result it receives more visitors than most of the Loch Lomond islands, currently 20,000 visitors per year. There is a camp site in the south at Port Bawncite web| url=http://www.loch-lomond.net/islands/inchcailloch.html| title=Inchcailloch| publisher=Loch Lomond Net| accessdate=2008-09-24] and a nature trail.

History

Inchcailloch has been used as a hunting forest since the reign of Robert the Bruce. Deer still roam the island. The island was farmed until c. 1770, and the ruins of the farm can still be seen.cite book| author=Worsley, Harry| title=Loch Lomond: The Loch, the Lairds and the Legends| isbn=978-1-898169-34-5| publisher=Lindsay Publications| location=Glasgow| date=1988] For around 130 years, Inchcailloch was an oak plantation. The resulting timber was processed at Balmaha (on the site of the Highland Way Inn), for making wood vinegar (pyroligneous acid), wood tar, and dye.

Inchcailloch had a church dedicated to St Kentigern, which was the parish church until 1621, but the graveyard was used until 1947. The Clan MacGregor burial ground includes some of Rob Roy's ancestors.

Literary References

Inchcailloch is mentioned in Dr William Fraser's "The Lennox" (1874).

The travel writer, H.V. Morton visited in the 1930s, and remarked:

:"The isle is sacred to the MacGregors, and in the tangled brances and amongst the green trees is their ancient burial ground. It was on the halidom of him 'who sleeps beneath the grey stone of Inchcailloch' that members of this vigorous clan used to take their oaths." [cite book| author=Morton, H. V.| title=In Scotland Again| date=1933| publisher=Methuen| location=London| page=145| isbn=]

Walter Scott refers to the island in his poem, "The Lady of the Lake" -:A slender crosslet formed with care:A cubit's length in measure due:The shafts and limbs were rods of yew:Whose parents in Inch Cailliach wave:Their Shadows o'er Clan Alpine's grave,:And, answering Lomond's breezes deep,:Soothe many a chieftain's endless sleep.

References

External links

* http://www.lochlomond-islands.com/pag54.html