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Little Cumbrae

Coordinates:55°43′17″N4°57′18″W/ 55.72131°N 4.95503°W/55.72131; -4.95503
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Little Cumbrae
Scottish GaelicnameCumaradh Beag
Little Cumbrae Island from Portencross, Ayrshire
Little Cumbrae Island fromPortencross,Ayrshire
Location
Little Cumbrae is located in North Ayrshire
Little Cumbrae
Little Cumbrae
Little Cumbrae shown within North Ayrshire
OS grid referenceNS148517
Coordinates55°43′N4°57′W/ 55.72°N 4.95°W/55.72; -4.95
Physical geography
Island groupIslands of the Clyde
Area313 hectares (1.21 sq mi)
Area rank84 [1]
Highest elevationLighthouse Hill 123 metres (404 ft)
Administration
Council areaNorth Ayrshire
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Demographics
Population0
Lymphad
References[2][3][4]

Little Cumbrae(Scottish Gaelic:Cumaradh Beag) is an island in theFirth of Clyde,inNorth Ayrshire,Scotland. It lies south ofGreat Cumbrae,its larger neighbour. The underlying geology is igneous with limited outcrops of sedimentary rock. Little Cumbrae House is of 20th century construction, although the island has no permanent inhabitation at present, its population having peaked at 23 in the late 19th century.[3]There is a lighthouse on the western coast.

Etymology

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The Cumbraes take their name from theOld NorseKumreyjar,meaning "islands of theCymry"(referring to theCumbric-speaking inhabitants of southern Scotland). They are referred to under this name in the NorseSaga of Haakon Haakonarson.[5][6]

Little Cumbrae was recorded as "Litill Comeray" in 1515[7]and later in that century as "Cumbray of the Dais".[8][Note 1]In modern Gaelic these the island is known asCumaradh Beag.[13]In former times it was also known as Lesser or Wee Cumbrae.[3]

Geography

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Little Cumbrae in 1828

Little Cumbrae lies barely a kilometre to the south of Great Cumbrae, a few kilometres distant from the mainland town ofLargs.The islands are collectively referred to asThe Cumbraes.In stark contrast to its neighbour, green and fertileGreat Cumbrae,Little Cumbrae is a rough and rocky island. With its many cliffs and rockyoutcrops,Little Cumbrae bears more of a resemblance to aHebrideanisland than to some of its neighbours in the Clyde.

A number of uninhabited islets skirt the island's east coast,Castle Isle,the Broad Islands and Trail Isle.

Today the island's main settlement is at Little Cumbrae House on the eastern shore, facing the Scottish mainland.

Geology

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Unlike its larger neighbour, Little Cumbrae is formed almost entirely from extrusiveigneous rocks.These are a mix ofCarboniferousagebasalts,mugeariteandhawaiitelava flows cut by a similarly aged WSW-ENE aligneddykeof alkaliolivinediorite.A later northwest–southeast aligned swarm of dykes ofPalaeogeneage intrude these rocks whilst severalgeological faultsrun generally NW-SE. There are limited outcrops of sedimentary rock in the east, these being of the Eileans Sandstone assigned to the Clyde Sandstone Formation of the Carboniferous ageInverclyde Group. Araised beachis developed along the lower-lying east coast of the island on which have accumulated marine deposits and blown sand.Glacial striationsbetray the broadly north–south movement of a glacier over the island during the last ice age. Small pockets ofpeathave accumulated during the post-glacial period.[14]

History

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Little Cumbrae seen from Haylie Brae on the mainland. NoteGreat Cumbraein the foreground at the right andArranbeyond.
Cumbrae Lighthouse
Little Cumbrae Lighthouse
Map
LocationFirth of Clyde
Coordinates55°43.2179′N4°58.0236′W/ 55.7202983°N 4.9670600°W/55.7202983; -4.9670600
Tower
Constructed1793
ConstructionTraditional white tower (inoperative)
hexagonal/cylindrical tower
Automated1977
OperatorClyde Port AuthorityEdit this on Wikidata
Light
First lit1997 (current tower)
Focal height92 feet (28 m)
Rangenautical miles
CharacteristicFl. W 6 sec

The Cumbraes were one of the remote locations that early Irish monks settled. There are six or more known caves on the island. A submarine passage was said to run from Monks' Cave (now known as Kings Cave) at Storrils cliff to Kingarth on theIsle of Bute.[15]

Walter Stewartis said to have built a castle or hunting lodge on Little Cumbrae.[16]His son,Robert IIspent time there hunting the deer, however the site of the "Auld Castle" is unknown. It was occupied during hunting expeditions by Robert II in 1375 and 1384,[17]and was demolished byCromwell's soldiers in 1653.[18]

Little Cumbrae Castle,a small square keep, was built in the 16th century onCastle Islandoff Little Cumbrae. It was similarly occupied.

In the early 20th century, under the ownership of Evelyn Stuart Parker, a new 'mansion house' was created from the original single storey farmhouse, the gardens were laid out to a plan by Gertrude Jekyll, the renowned garden designer, and substantial repairs were undertaken to the castle and the original lighthouse. The original work commenced in 1913, with subsequent alterations made between 1926 and 1929 when the square tower and top floor were added.

Little Cumbrae is the birthplace ofJames Archbald,the first mayor ofCarbondale,Pennsylvania.

Cumbrae lighthouses

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Little Cumbrae Lighthouse Act 1756
Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Citation29 Geo. 2c. 20

James Ewing built the first Little Cumbraelighthouseon the top of Lighthouse Hill in 1757. This was the second lighthouse in Scotland.[19]An open coal fire was lit at the top of a circular stone tower. Remains of this old structure can still be seen and are designated ascheduled monument.[20]

The traditional Cumbrae Lighthouse was designed and built in 1793 byThomas Smithunder commission from theCommissioners of the Northern Lights.The lighthouse lies on a broadraised beachon the western shore of the island looking out into the Firth, 0.5 km from the first light. It had a foghorn, slipway, jetty, and boathouse. The original oil lamps were replaced byArgand lampsin 1826. In 1865, the foghorn was installed; the first in Britain. The tower was restored in 1956 and asolar-poweredlight was installed in 1974.[19]The 1793 tower has been unused since 1997, with the light on a 36-foot (11-metre) hexagonal/cylindrical tower adjacent to the old generator house.

Ownership

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Little Cumbrae was privately purchased in 2003 and there were plans for its development as a memorial park, nature reserve and corporate escape.

The island was sold again in July 2009 for £2 million.[21]The buyers of the island, a Scottish millionaire couple ofIndian origin,Sarwan and Sunita Poddar, opened ayogaandmeditationcentre there with the help of yoga guruSwami Baba Ramdev.[22][23]There have also been rumours of the new owners planning to rename it "Peace Island", but those have been denied.[24][25]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Monro wrote that the name “Cumbray of the Dais” arose “because there is mony Dais in it”. This has been interpreted to mean that the derivation of “Dais” is fromScots:Dae,a femalefallow deer.[9][10]HoweverScottish Gaelic:deasmeans “south”[11]and as Little Cumbrae is just 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) south of its larger neighbour and Monro’s grasp of Gaelic is known to have been weak[12]it is possible that the name simply meant “South Cumbrae”.

Footnotes

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  1. ^Area and population ranks: there arec. 300islands over 20 ha in extent and93 permanently inhabited islandswere listed in the2011 census.
  2. ^2001 UK Census perList of islands of Scotland
  3. ^abcHaswell-Smith (2004) pp. 17-18
  4. ^"Ordnance Survey".Archivedfrom the original on 16 October 2003.Retrieved12 November2007.
  5. ^Morgan, Ailig (2013).Ethnonyms in the Place-Names of Scotland and the Border Counties of England(PhD thesis). St Andrews University. p. 45.
  6. ^James, Alan (2019)."The Brittonic Language in the Old North: A Guide to the Place-Name Evidence (Volume 2)"(PDF).Scottish Place-Name Society. p. 85.
  7. ^Johnston, p. 93
  8. ^Munro (1961) p. 48, quoting the Sibbald Manuscript of Monro (1549)
  9. ^Da, DaeDictionaries of the Scots Language/’’Dictionars o the Scots Leid’’ DSL. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  10. ^Munro (1961) p. 160
  11. ^deas“Am Faclair Beag’’. Faclair.com. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  12. ^Smith 1894.
  13. ^Mac an Tàilleir p. 36
  14. ^British Geological Survey 2008.Dunoon and Millport,Scotland sheet 29E with part of 21E. Bedrock and superficial deposits. 1:50,000. (Keyworth, Nottingham: BGS)
  15. ^Downie, R. Angus (1934).Bute and the Cumbraes.Glasgow & London: Blackie & son Ltd. Page 53
  16. ^"Overview of Little Cumbrae".Gazetteer for Scotland.Archivedfrom the original on 16 March 2011.Retrieved11 November2007.
  17. ^Lytteil, W (1986).Guide book to the Cumbraes.p. 132.
  18. ^Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)."Cumbraes, The".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 628.
  19. ^ab"Little Cumbrae".Secret Scotland.Archivedfrom the original on 18 September 2010.Retrieved17 January2011.
  20. ^Historic Environment Scotland."Little Cumbrae,lighthouse tower & associated buildings (SM418)".Retrieved22 February2019.
  21. ^"Little Cumbrae".HLL Humberts Leisure. 10 July 2009. Archived fromthe originalon 29 October 2006.Retrieved12 July2009.
  22. ^"'Gay cure' yoga guru to set up centre on Scottish island ".Pink News.Archivedfrom the original on 11 September 2009.Retrieved17 September2009.
  23. ^Blakely, Rhys (8 September 2009)."Yoga guru sets up base on Scottish isle".Times Online.London.Archivedfrom the original on 5 October 2021.Retrieved27 September2009.
  24. ^"Plans about Little Cumbrae".Bramble & Bug Ltd. Archived fromthe originalon 13 October 2009.Retrieved10 November2009.
  25. ^"Little Cumbrae not to be renamed".Largs and Millport News. 16 September 2009. Archived fromthe originalon 8 December 2009.Retrieved10 November2009.

References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toLittle Cumbrae Island.

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