Английская Википедия:Belnahua

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Belnahua is one of the Slate Islands, in the Firth of Lorn in Scotland, known for its deserted slate quarries. The bedrock that underpins its human history is part of the Scarba Conglomerate Formation and its value has been on record since the 16th century.Шаблон:Sfnp Likely uninhabited before commercial quarrying commenced,Шаблон:Sfnp under the control of the Stevenson family during the 19th centuryШаблон:Sfnp the population expanded to over 150Шаблон:Sfnp before the island was abandoned again in 1914.Шаблон:Sfnp

Living on a remote island in the 19th century came with significant hardships and the lives of the quarry workers have been described in unflattering terms by modern commentators, one describing them as in effect "slaves".Шаблон:Sfnp Today, the ruined buildings and abandoned machinery lie amidst the water filled quarries and are home only to wildlife.Шаблон:Sfnp There are very strong tidal streams in the area and this a potentially hazardous location for shipping. In 1936 the cargo vessel Helēna Faulbaums was wrecked on the island, with the loss of 15 lives.Шаблон:Sfnp

Geography

Belnahua is in the council area of Argyll and Bute and lies Шаблон:Convert west of Luing and Шаблон:Convert east of Dùn Chonnuill in the Garvellachs. The island is roughly Шаблон:Convert in extent. About Шаблон:Convert southeast is the islet of Fladda, the lighthouse on which is a "well-known sea-mark in the Sound of Luing".Шаблон:Sfnp

The island has been considerably denuded by quarrying – a process sometimes described as having broken its back.Шаблон:Sfnp Deep water-filled cuttings and the ruined slate workers cottages remain as a testament to this industry. There was a jetty to the east of the island, but it was worn away within the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Belnahua exists amongst sea lanes that have numerous islands and skerries that "swarm like bees on a branch" amongst the "most treacherous seas and complicated channels of the west coast" of Scotland,Шаблон:Sfnp including the Gulf of Corryvreckan some Шаблон:Convert to the south. The island is part of the Scarba, Lunga and the Garvellachs National Scenic Area.

Geology

The bedrock of Belnahua is in large part a Neoproterozoic age slate, graphitic pelite referred to the Jura Slate Member of the Scarba Conglomerate Formation. The Jura Slates are also found along the east coasts of Scarba and of Jura to the south. Like the Easdale Slates found across the Sound of Luing these slates belong to the Easdale Subgroup of the Dalradian Argyll Group. Three NNW-SSE aligned tracts of metalimestone, assigned to the Ardrishaig Phyllite Formation, are identified in the southern half of Belnahua. A doleritic igneous dyke cuts through the centre of the island and is identified as part of the Mull Dyke Swarm of early Palaeogene age, associated with the central volcanic complex which developed in Mull. In common with other shoreline zones in the region, the relatively flat surface of the island is as a result of marine planation when relative sea levels were higher, the steep sides of the knoll in the west having formed as sea cliffs.

History

Early times

In the 7th century the Cenél Loairn kindred controlled what is today known as Lorn in the kingdom of Dalriada.Шаблон:Sfnp From about the mid-9th century Belnahua would then have become part of the Norse Kingdom of the Isles.Шаблон:Sfnp The first written reference to the island appears in the 1549 Description of the Western Isles of Scotland by Donald Monro.Шаблон:Sfnp He wrote of "Belnachua" or "Belnachna"; "Narrest the Wolfiis iyle layes ane iyllane, callit in Erische Leid-Ellan-Belnachna, quharin ther is fair skailzie aneuche".Шаблон:Sfnp In modern English this brief entry reads as "Nearest the Wolf's Iyle lies an island called in the Scottish Gaelic language "Ellan-Belnachna", where there is good sufficiency of slate". Not all of the islands that Monro mentions have been identified and the location of "Wolf's Iyle" or "Ellan Madie" is uncertain.

Slate quarrying

Файл:Belnahua Ruins.jpg

Ruined cottages on Belnahua

According to the Old Statistical Account, quarrying began on Belnahua in 1632.Шаблон:Sfnp The island was probably uninhabited prior to that.Шаблон:Sfnp By this time the island may have become part of the Netherlorn estates of the Breadalbane family (a branch of Clan Campbell).Шаблон:Sfnp In 1730 Colin Campbell of Carwhin was appointed to oversee their estates in Netherlorn and was tasked with exploiting the area's natural resources. Easdale slate had been used from as early as the 12th century using seasonal labour from the Ardmaddy estate.Шаблон:Sfnp In 1745 Campbell created the Easdale Marble and Slate Company (later shortened to Easdale Slate Company) in order to place extractions from the area on a more commercial basis.Шаблон:Sfnp At that point Easdale was producing 1 million slates per annum and as further quarries were opened this further increased the company's production to 5 million per annum by 1800.Шаблон:Sfnp

In the 1790s Belnahua was leased out by the landowners to the Stevenson brothers whose aim was to supply slate for the developing town of Oban. Cottages were constructed for the workers in the south east corner of the island and there was a school and company store. Virtually all the provisions had to be supplied from Luing, including drinking water. Rainwater was collected in reservoirs but it was used to power the steam engines that drove the quarries' pumps. By the early 19th century the Stevenson family were shipping slate from both Belnahua and Fladda to Campbeltown in Kintyre.Шаблон:Sfnp Their lease was eventually passed on to the Shaw family of Luing who hired a quarry master that lived on a 2-storey house on the island. At the height of the activity there were 30 quarry workers and their families living there and a total population of over 150.Шаблон:Sfnp With the commencement of World War I in 1914 quarry work ceased and the island was completely abandoned and it has been uninhabited ever since.Шаблон:Sfnp

The Breadalbane estates were sold off in the 1930sШаблон:Sfnp and as of 2004 Belnahua was owned by the Carling family.Шаблон:Sfnp

Life on the island

Living on a remote island in the 19th century came with hardships. Quarry workers sought employment from around Scotland, some arriving in an area where they would have had few friends or family to support them in times of difficulty. There is no protection from the wind and it can be a "harsh and desolate" location, especially in winter.Шаблон:Sfnp One writer has gone so far as to suggest that although some islands can suggest a lifestyle of peace and tranquility, that Belnahua "buffeted by the sea and the winds, overshadowed from the south by the lowering cliffs of Scarba, and dominated by the threatening deep maws of the slate quarries at its heart, could surely have engendered little more than tension, fear, agitation and anxiety."Шаблон:Sfnp

Paul Murton took a similar view of the islanders' circumstances: "They were paid poorly and forced to rent their homes and buy all their supplies from their feudal superior, the Campbell Marquis of Breadalbane, who kept the workforce in a state of permanent debt and poverty. Effectively, the people of Belnahua were slaves."Шаблон:Sfnp

Shipwrecks

Файл:Cullipool from the east - geograph.org.uk - 168978.jpg

Belnahua and Fladda from Cullipool on Luing with the Garvellachs in the distance.

On 15 August 1900 the Шаблон:Convert iron steamship Apollo ran aground on Bono Reef Шаблон:Convert north of Belnahua. She was carrying a cargo of granite cobble stones from Aberdeen to Newport. The wreck lies in a gully some Шаблон:Convert down amidst thick kelp.Шаблон:Sfnp

The Шаблон:Convert unladen Latvian vessel Helēna Faulbaums left the Mersey on 26 October 1936 en route for Blyth. Encountering a storm, she headed for the Firth of Lorn seeking shelter although the light load meant that the propeller was ineffective in the high seas. At 7pm her steering failed and captain ordered the anchors to be deployed but they could not hold in the deep waters.Шаблон:Sfnp The radio operator sent out SOS messages but the storm had disrupted communications and the local coastguards could not make contact with the lifeboat station at Port Askaig. The lifeboat was finally launched when a message was broadcast by the BBC.Шаблон:Sfnp There is an extensive drying reef to the north of Belnahua and at 10pm that night the Helēna Faulbaums struck it broadside and foundered, sinking within ten minutesШаблон:Sfnp with the loss of 15 lives including two 18-year-old boys. Four sailors managed to scramble ashore and were rescued the next day by the Islay lifeboat and taken to Crinan. The bodies of the other crew members were washed ashore on Luing.Шаблон:Sfnp Seven of the perished were later buried in a widely attended ceremony in Cullipool cemetery on Luing, but the captain of the ship Nikolajs Cughauss was repatriated to Latvia by the wish of his brother. A small monument has also been built at the gravesite.

The wreck lies in Шаблон:Convert of water. There are very strong tidal streams in the area and diving is only possible at slack water.Шаблон:Sfnp

Wildlife

Otters and seals are regular visitors to the coast of Belnahua, the latter fishing for ling, saithe and cod which get trapped in the sea-flooded quarries at low tide. The only land mammal on the island is the field vole.Шаблон:Sfnp

The soils are very poor in quality so horticultural options are "limited or non-existent" and the ruined buildings and abandoned machinery lie amidst "waist high grasses".Шаблон:Sfnp The aim of the Slate Islands Heritage Trust is to record the island's history but otherwise leave it untouched.Шаблон:Sfnp

References

Bibliography

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