Staffa
Staffa (Norse for staff, column, or pillar island) is an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.
Staffa lies about 10 km (6 mi) from the nearest point of Mull, and 9 km northeast of Iona. It lies almost due north and south, is a kilometre long by about half a kilometre wide, is almost 3 km (1¾ mi) in circumference, has an area of 71 acres (287 000 m²), and its highest point is 42 m (135 ft) above sea level.
In the northeast it shelves to a shore, but otherwise the coast is rugged and much indented, numerous caves having been carved out by rain, stream and ocean. There is enough grass on the surface to feed a few cattle, and the island contains a spring, but it has been uninhabited since 1800. During the tourist season it is visited every weekday by boats from Oban and from Fionnphort. The island is of volcanic origin, a fragment of an ancient stream of lava. In section, the isle is seen to possess a threefold character: there is first a basement, of tufa, from which rise, secondly, colonnades of basalt in pillars forming the faces and walls of the principal caves, and these in turn are overlaid, thirdly, by a mass of amorphous basalt.
Only the chief caves have been named. On the southeast coast is the Clam-shell or Scallop Cave. It is 10 m (30 ft) high, about 6 m (18 ft) wide at the entrance, some 45 m (130 ft) long, and on one side of it the ridges of basalt stand out like the ribs of a ship. Near this cave is the rock of Am Buachaille (Scots Gaelic, The Herdsman, from a supposed likeness to a shepherd’s cap), a pile of columns, fully seen only at low tide. On the southwest shore are the Boat Cave and Mackinnon’s or the Cormorants’ Cave. Staffa's most famous cave, however, is Fingal's Cave, a huge sea-cave formed from hexagonal basalt that inspired Felix Mendelssohn's overture.
Boat trips to Staffa also allow visitors to view the migratory puffins that settle on the island in the summer months, between May and September.
The island was gifted to the National Trust for Scotland by John Elliot, Jr, of New York in 1986 as an imaginative way to honour the birthday of his wife, Elly.
According to legend, the Swiss town of Stäfa was named after the island of Staffa by a monk from Iona.
In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, Staffa was named as the 8th greatest natural wonder in Britain.
External Links
- The Wrath of Staffa - video blog about a rainy expedition to Staffa
