Sule Skerry is a remote skerry in the North Atlantic off the north coast of Scotland.
Geography
Sule Skerry lies west of the
Orkney Mainland at . Sule Skerry's sole neighbour,
Sule Stack, lies to the southwest; the remote islands of
North Rona and
Sula Sgeir lie approximately further west. Sule Skerry and Sule Stack are both a part of the
Orkney Islands council area.
Sule Skerry is in area and about long.[ SPA description] It reaches a height of .[ National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency: Sailing Directions (Enroute), Pub. 141, Scotland.] It is formed of Lewisian complex.
Flora and fauna
The island is treeless, since few trees would withstand the high winds of winter and salt spray environment. The dominant plant is maritime mayweed (
Tripleurospermum maritimum).
Sule Skerry together with Sule Stack are listed as a Special Protection Area as they are home during the breeding season to thousands of Atlantic puffin and northern gannet and smaller numbers of the rarer Leach's storm petrel and . Note that Leach's petrel visit the island but breeding is not proved. Since the first visiting birds in 2003 there is now a large breeding population of gannets; a possible overflow from nearby Sule Stack.
Every three years the puffins and other seabirds on Sule Skerry are monitored by a team of birders called the Sule Skerry Ringing Group. They have been monitoring the seabirds on the island since 1975.
Important Bird Area
The island (along with Sule Stack) has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports breeding populations of several species of
.
Lighthouse
There is a
lighthouse at the centre high point of the island and a number of small
around the periphery.
According to the
Guinness Book of Records, the Sule Skerry lighthouse was the most remote manned lighthouse in Great Britain from its opening in 1895 to its automation in 1982. Its remote location meant that construction could only take place during the summer, thus it took from 1892–94 to complete.
A meteorological buoy used in Met Office's Marine Automatic Weather Station (MAWS) Network is located off Sule Skerry. Results from the buoy are used in the Shipping Forecast.
Folklore
"The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" is a story of a
Selkie who lives on Sule Skerry.
See also
-
List of islands in Scotland
-
List of lighthouses in Scotland
-
List of Northern Lighthouse Board lighthouses
-
List of outlying islands of Scotland
External links
