Tour Scotland travel video clip, with Scottish music, of Handa Island on visit off the West coast and waters of the Sutherland Scottish Highlands. The island's name is of mixed Gaelic and Norse origin and means " island at the sandy river " It had a population of 65 in 1841, but following the 1847 potato famine the inhabitants emigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada. In some ways this is surprising, since it is recorded that the islanders had a fairly varied diet including oats, fish and seabirds, rather than depending heavily on a potato crop. The islanders had a parliament, similar to that of St Kilda, which met daily, and the oldest widow on the island was considered its Queen. Anciently the island was used as a burial place, and there are still the remains of a chapel in the south east, commemorated in the name Tràigh an Teampaill. The use of Handa as burial place is thought to be due to the fact that wolves would dig up graves on the mainland so frequently that the inhabitants of Eddrachillis resorted to burying their dead on the island. Puffins annually migrate to Scotland, settling all over the country's rugged coastline from North Berwick in the Southeast to Handa off the coast of Sutherland and the Shetland Islands. Known affectionately by some Scot as the clowns of the sea, puffins typically arrive in Scotland in late March or early April. Scotland’s smallest and most distinctive breeding auk species with black upper parts and white under parts. Adults have a distinctive rainbow coloured deep bill as well as white cheeks and a conspicuous, clown like black stripe down over each red ringed eye. They nest underground in borrows.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.
No comments:
Post a Comment