The Isle of the seabirds

Continuing my enjoyment of islands in general and my nearest ones, those in the Firth of Forth, in particular, I took a trip out to the Isle of May.        (Blogs 6/9/2015, 1/5/2017)

The island is so far out in the mouth of the firth that it is part of Fife. The name probably means the Island of Seabirds - ma'a or maw is Scots for a gull. The word is Scandinavian in origin.

It certainly lived up to its eponym. Terns, puffins, guillemots, razorbills, shags, eider duck, fulmars kittiwakes and herring gulls all nesting in their own environmental niche. The black-back gulls patrolled the island looking for prey. Woe betide any inattentive parent or nestling.

Arctic Tern

Terns are very aggressive when nesting. We were advised to hold something up as they attack the highest point of any intruder. Holding my sun-hat on an extended finger was a mistake as tern beaks are very sharp and my cloth- covered finger became the target for a pin-point assault. With their staccato machine-gun calls, it was like being strafed by a squadron of miniature fighter planes.

They also have another weapon. They can bomb you with excrement which is no fun if you are already hatless !

I suppose if you have flown halfway in a 50,000 mile round trip from the Antarctic to Scotland and back, you are entitled to get a bit grumpy with folk gawping at you.

The puffins are altogether more amiable and seem to enjoy posing for visitors with cameras. The Isle of May has the biggest single colony in the UK. They could be seen waddling about near their burrows, their beaks stuffed with small fish. They are the most lovable of birds with their massive parrot beaks and their sad-eyed clown faces.

Razorbill, Shag and Eider Duck

The island has been a place of sanctity since the seventh century when St Ethernan (Adrian), an obscure Irish bishop or possibly a Scot trained in Ireland, died there in 669 A.D.

He is often conflated with Adrian also called St Adrian, the abbot of the monastery killed by Vikings in 875 A.D.

St Adrian's Priory

The Benedictine monastery, endowed by David I in the 13th century, became a place of pilgrimage along the route of holy sites from St Andrews to Holy Island. Many of the topographical features have an ecclesiastical ring to their names - Alterstanes, Bishops Cove, Pilgrim's Haven, rocks called The Angel and The Pilgrim.

The Angel and The Pilgrim

Holy men expelled the demons and wild beasts from the island of the May and there made a place of prayer*

The abbey was built on the site of a massive prehistoric burial mound dating as far back as the Bronze Age which might explain the "demons" but what wild beasts could there be on the island? Seals perhaps?

A carpet of sea campion

The oldest lighthouse in Britain, a coal burning flame called the Beacon was built on the island in 1635 and there is a light-house there to this day though now completely automatic.

The Beacon now undergoing conservation

Monks and pilgrims, royalty and commoners, fishermen and light-house keepers, soldiers and sailors have all lived on the island over the centuries from as far back as the Bronze Age and, in all that time, the puffins and the terns have returned to breed every year. It is somehow satisfying that apart from a few nosey folk like me, they have it all to themselves again.

The return trip included an approach to the Bass Rock, the largest breeding colony of the Northern Gannet in the world - 150,000 birds crammed on to its bare slopes, a truly amazing sight.

Leaving the Bass and the gannets

* Aberdeen Breviary 1510