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One of the most beautiful of all the birds, the Golden Eagle, the magnificent bird of prey is often to be seen soaring high in the Western Isles skies. Retrieved 21 February 2008. Lewis and Harris has an area of 217,898 hectares 841 sq mi and is the largest island in Scotland and the third largest in theafter Great Britain and Ireland. We have been helping singles find dates local to them for over 10 elements. Hedgehogs are not native to the islands, but were introduced in the 1970s to reduce garden pests. The tiny Beasts of Holm off the east coast of Lewis were the site of the sinking of during the first few hours of 1919, one of the worst maritime elements in United Kingdom waters during the 20th century. Main article: The Kingdom of the Isles also known as the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles was a that existed dating western isles the from 1079 until 1266.

The were settled early on in the , perhaps as early as the , around 8500-8250 BC, after the climatic conditions improved enough to sustain human settlement. There are examples of structures possibly dating from up to 3000 BC, the finest example being the standing stones at , but some archaeologists date the site as. Little is known of the people who settled in the Hebrides but they were likely of the same stock that had settled in the rest of. The earliest written mention of the Outer Hebrides was by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in 55 BC. Pomponius Mela, a Roman-Spanish writer of the first century, refers to a group of seven islands to which he gave the name Haemodae Hebrides??? Other ancient writers such as , the Egyptian astronomer , and Solinus 3 AD all seem to mention the Hebrides, attesting to some contact of the peoples there with the Roman world. Little is known of the history of the peoples of the Hebrides before the 6th century as they, like the rest of Scotland, were in the depths of what centuries later became known as the. The first written records of the islands come with the arrival of in the 6th century. It was this Irish-Scottish saint who first brought Christianity to the islands, founding several churches. Main article: The Kingdom of the Isles also known as the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles was a that existed in the from 1079 until 1266. The kingdom was formed by when he seized the Isle of Man from other Vikings, probably from Dublin in 1079. In the first two attempts at capturing the island Godred was defeated; it was only with his third try that he was victorious near. Previously, the islands had been taken between c. Up until the arrival of Godred the islands had been administered by the Norse Kingdoms of and. The later Kingdom of Mann was centred around the Isle of Man but also contained the Outer Hebrides, the Inner Hebrides forming the Kingdom of the Hebrides. Known as Suðreyar or southern islands in. The Scottish acceptance of Magnus III as King of the Isles came after the Norwegian king had conquered the , the Hebrides and the in a swift campaign earlier the same year, directed against the local Norwegian leaders of the various islands. By capturing the islands Magnus III subdued the who had seized the islands centuries earlier and imposed a more direct royal control. The Norwegian control of both the Inner and Outer Hebrides would see almost constant warfare until being ultimately resolved by the partitioning of the Western Isles in 1156. The Outer Hebrides would remain under the while the Inner Hebrides broke out under , the Norse-Celtic kinsman of both and the Manx royal house. Although the Inner Hebrides, from 1156 known as the Kingdom of the Hebrides, was still nominally under the sovereignty of Norway, the leaders were Scottish in language and Gaelic in culture rather than Norse. Two years after his victory of 1156 Somerled went on to seize control over the Isle of Man itself and become the last King of the Isle of Man and the Isles to rule over all the islands that the kingdom had once included. After Somerled's death in 1164 the rulers of Mann would no longer be in control of the Inner Hebrides. An illustration of Hákon, King of Norway, and , from In 1262 there was a Scottish raid on Skye, causing , King of Norway, to set sail for Scotland to settle the issue. Late in 1263 Haakon headed for Scotland with a large invasion force consisting of 200 ships and 15,000 men. The storms around the coast of Scotland took their toll on the Norwegian fleet, which at one point meant dragging forty ships overland to Loch Lomond. In the end a minor skirmish took place at the where the Norwegians and their Manx allies under failed to achieve anything more than a minor tactical victory against the Scots led by Alexander Stewart. After the battle, bad weather forced the Norwegian-Manx fleet to sail back to the Orkney Islands. After arriving in , Haakon decided to winter in before resuming his campaign the following summer. This failed to occur as the king was struck by illness and died in his palace in December that same year. The death of Haakon left the crown to his son , who considered peace with the Scots more important than holding on to the Norwegian possessions off western Scotland and in the. The of 1266 left the Hebrides and the Isle of Man to Scotland for 4,000 marks and an annual payment of 100 marks. The treaty also included that Scotland confirmed Norwegian sovereignty over Shetland and Orkney. Still, Scottish rule over the Isle of Man was finally confirmed only after the Manx under were decisively defeated in the 1275. It is located on an island in the bay, so giving the village its name. Other places of interest on the island include a museum, a ruined church and museum at , a number of such as those at Dùn Chuidhir and An Dùn Bàn, and a whole range of other Iron Age and later structures which have recently been excavated and recorded. Flannan Isles The lighthouse on Eilean Mòr. The Chapel of St Flannan can be seen on the slope to the right of the lighthouse. As the name implies, Eilean Taighe, in the , hosts a ruined stone shelter. Eilean Mòr is home to the lighthouse and a ruined dedicated to St Flannan, which the lighthouse keepers refer to as the 'dog kennel' because of its very small size. It is not entirely clear which St. Flannan the chapel honours. It is likely that he was either the 7th century Abbot of in or alternatively the half brother of the 8th century who gave his name to the nearby island of. There was also a certain Flann, son of an Abbot of called Maol-duine who died in 890, and who may have loaned his name to these isolated isles. The is also known as 'The Seven Hunters', and in the Middle Ages they may also have been called the 'Seven Haley Holy Isles'. It is possible that the saint or his acolytes lived on Eilean Mòr and perhaps Eilean Taighe as well. However, it is unlikely that there were permanent residents on the islands once the fell into decline in the as a result of 9th century invasions , until the construction of the lighthouse and its occupation very shortly before the dawn of the 20th century. Bernera is also known for its or possibly settlement at Bostadh, discovered in 1992 and now covered by sand to preserve it. A replica Iron Age house matching those now buried is sited nearby. The island was also the location of the , where resisted the. At that time, people began to settle in permanent farms rather than following their herds. The small houses of these people have been found throughout the , in particular, at in Lewis. The more striking great monuments of this period are the temples and communal burial cairns at places like. The buildings became larger and more prominent, resulting in the which were circular dry-stone towers belonging to the local chieftains, the best example of which in Lewis is at. At this time, most buildings changed their forms from round to rectangular, following the Scandinavian style. At this time, Lewis was part of the and officially part of. The , which were found on the island in 1831, date from the time of Viking rule. The Lords of the Isles were based on , but controlled all of the. They were descended from Somhairle Mac Gillibride, a Gall-Gaidheil lord who had held the Hebrides and West Coast two hundred years earlier. Emigration to the New World increasingly became an escape for those who could afford it during the latter half of the century. Lewis was the site of numerous 'land struggles' which have recently been commemorated in modern cairn-style monuments in various villages. Again, many lives were lost. Following the war, many more inhabitants emigrated to the Americas and mainland Scotland. Infighting between rival clans continued throughout the and resisted an attempt by to colonise Lewis in 1597. The castle was destroyed by 's forces in the mid 17th century, and the ownership of Lewis passed from the MacKenzies of Kintail through the Seaforth family and and his descendants to. North Uist Looking west to Nicolson's Leap. In the background are on the left, and on the right. South Uist is home to the housing the 16th century and the ruins of the house where was born. The SEARCH project Sheffield Environmental and Archaeological Research Campaign in the Hebrides on South Uist has been developing a long-term perspective on changes in settlement and house form from the to the 19th century. Organisation within appears to have been very different from 19th century blackhouses in which the dwelling was shared with stock. Stock sharing living space with people is often regarded as a traditional Hebridean arrangement reflecting influence. An excavation at Bornais on the Isle of South Uist revealed what is probably the largest Viking settlement in Scotland. The site of on South Uist is the only site in the British Isles where prehistoric have been found. St Kilda Main article: St Kilda was continuously inhabited for two millennia or more, from the Bronze Age to the 20th century. However, little is known of the early history, the first written record of which dates from the late 14th century. The islands were historically part of the domain of the of whose steward was responsible for the collection of rents in kind and other duties. The first report of a visit to the islands dates from 1549. Macaulay 1764 reports the existence of five druidic altars including a large circle of stones fixed perpendicularly in the ground, by the Stallir House on. The schoolroom on the right of the photo was added to the side of the church in 1884. Visiting ships in the 18th century brought and and in 1727 the loss of life was so high that there were not enough men to man the boats and new families were brought in from to replace them. By 1758 the population had risen to 88 and reached just under 100 by the end of the century. This figure remained fairly constant until 1851 when 36 islanders emigrated to Australia on board the Priscilla, a loss from which the island never fully recovered. The interior of the church at Oiseabhal, St Kilda Tourism had a destabilising impact on St Kilda. During the 19th century steamers began to visit Hirta, enabling the islanders to earn money from the sale of and birds' eggs but at the expense of their self-esteem as the tourists clearly regarded them as curiosities. By the turn of the 20th century formal schooling had become a feature of the islands and in 1906 the church was extended to make a schoolhouse. All the children now learned English in addition to their native Gaelic. Improved skills reduced the problems of childhood tetanus. There had been some talk of an evacuation in 1875 but despite occasional food shortages and a 'flu epidemic in 1913 the population was stable at 75 to 80 people, and there was no obvious sign that within a few years the millennia-old occupation of the island was to end. World War One Early in the erected a signal station on Hirta and daily communications with the mainland were established for the first time in St Kilda's history. In a belated response, a German submarine arrived in Village Bay on the morning of 15 May 1918 and after issuing a warning, started shelling the island. Seventy two shells in all were fired and the wireless station was destroyed. The manse, church, and jetty storehouse were also damaged. As a result of this attack a Mark II QF gun was erected on a promontory overlooking Village Bay, but it was never. Of greater long-term significance to the islanders was the introduction of regular contact with the outside world and the slow development of a money-based economy, both of which made life easier but less self-reliant. These were both factors in the evacuation of the island only a little more than a decade later. Evacuation , Stac Lee, and Stac an Armin left from the heights of Conachair The advent of tourism and the presence of the military in World War One had enabled the islanders to understand that there were alternatives to the privations they had routinely suffered. Despite the provision of a small jetty in 1902 the islands remained at the mercy of the weather. The authorities were unable to do much to assist them, although reliable radios and other infrastructure denied to the civilian islanders were later to be provided for the military base at a cost of millions of pounds. After World War One most of the young men left the island and the population fell from 73 in 1920 to 37 in 1928. After the death of four men from in 1926, and a succession of crop failures in the 1920s, the last straw came with the death from of a young woman, Mary Gillies, in January 1930. On 29 August 1930, the last 36 inhabitants were evacuated to on the Scottish mainland at their own request. Later military events In 1955 the British government decided to incorporate St Kilda into a missile tracking range based in , where test firings and flights are carried out. Thus in 1957 St Kilda became permanently inhabited once again. A variety of new military buildings and masts have since been erected, including the island's first licensed premises, the 'Puff Inn'. The leases St Kilda from the National Trust for Scotland for a nominal fee. The main island of Hirta is still occupied all year round by a small number of civilians working in the military base there. Reconstructing house activity areas pp 249-270. In Albarella, U ed Environmental Archaeology: Meaning and Purpose.

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