Sule Skerry

Sule Skerry
Location
Sule Skerry Sule Skerry shown within Scotland
OS grid reference	HX621244
Physical geography
Island group	North Atlantic
Area	16 ha
Highest elevation	12 m
Administration
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	Scotland
Council area	Orkney
Demographics
Population	0

References	^[1]^[2]^[3]

Sule Skerry Lighthouse
Coordinates	59°05′05″N 4°24′26″W / 59.084713°N 4.407325°W / 59.084713; -4.407325
Year first constructed	1895
Automated	1982
Construction	masonry tower
Tower shape	cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern
Markings / pattern	white tower, black lantern, ochre trim
Height	27 metres (89 ft)
Focal height	34 metres (112 ft)
Original lens	"hyperradiant" Fresnel lens
Light source	solar power
Range	21 nautical miles (39 km; 24 mi)
Characteristic	Fl (2) W 15s.
Admiralty number	A3868
NGA number	3568
ARLHS number	SCO-231
Managing agent	Northern Lighthouse Board^[4] ^[5]

Sule Skerry is a remote skerry in the North Atlantic off the north coast of Scotland.

Geography

Sule Skerry lies 60 kilometres west of the Orkney Mainland at grid reference HX621244. Sule Skerry's sole neighbour, Sule Stack, lies 10 km to the southwest. The remote islands of Rona and Sula Sgeir lie approximately 80 km further to the west. Sule Skerry and Sule Stack are both a part of the Orkney Islands council area.

Sule Skerry is 16 ha in area and about 0.8 kilometres long along its length.^[6] It reaches a height of 12 meters.^[7] It is formed of Lewisian gneiss.^[8]

Biology

Sule Skerry together with Sule Stack are listed as a Special Protection Area as they are home during the breeding season to thousands of puffins and gannets and smaller numbers of the rarer Leach's storm petrel and storm petrels. 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 year 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.

The island is tree-less, since few trees would withstand the high winds of winter and salt spray environment. The dominant plant is maritime mayweed (Tripleurospermum maritimum).

Lighthouse

Sule Skerry with lighthouse from the south (drawing)

Landing Place, July 15, 1967

There is a lighthouse at the centre high point of the island and a number of small cairns 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 Silkie who lives on Sule Skerry.

References

↑ National Records of Scotland (15 August 2013) (pdf) Statistical Bulletin: 2011 Census: First Results on Population and Household Estimates for Scotland - Release 1C (Part Two). "Appendix 2: Population and households on Scotland’s inhabited islands". Retrieved 17 August 2013.
↑ Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7.
↑ Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 6 Orkney (Mainland) (Map). Ordnance Survey. 2014. ISBN 9780319228128.
↑ Sule Skerry The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 12 May 2016
↑ Sule Skerry Northern Lighthouse Board. Retrieved 12 May 2016
↑ SPA description
↑ National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency: Sailing Directions (Enroute), Pub. 141, Scotland.
↑ Kirton, S.R.; Hitchen, K. (1987). "Timing and style of crustal extension N of the Scottish mainland". In Coward M.P., Dewey J.F. & Hancock P.L. Continental Extensional Tectonics. Special Publications. 28. London: Geological Society. pp. 501–510. ISBN 978-0-632-01605-1.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sule Skerry.

Lighthouses of the Northern Lighthouse Board

Scotland (except principal island groups)	Ailsa Craig Ardnamurchan Bass Rock Bell Rock Buchan Ness Cape Wrath Chanonry Corsewall Covesea Skerries Crammag Head Davaar Duncansby Head Dunnet Head Fidra Fife Ness Girdle Ness Holy Island (Outer) Inchkeith Isle of May Kinnaird Head Mull of Galloway Mull of Kintyre North Rona Noss Head Pladda Rattray Head Rubh Re St Abbs Head Sanda Scurdie Ness Stoer Head Strathy Point Stroma Sule Skerry Tarbat Ness Turnberry Minor lights

The Hebrides	Barra Head Butt of Lewis Dubh Artach Eilean Glas Flannan Islands Haskeir Hyskeir Lismore Monach Neist Point Ornsay Rinns of Islay Rona Ruvaal Scarinish Skerryvore Tiumpan Head Ushenish Minor lights

Orkney	Auskerry Brough of Birsay Cantick Head Copinsay Hoy Sound (High) Hoy Sound (Low) North Ronaldsay Noup Head Pentland Skerries Start Point Tor Ness Minor lights

Shetland	Bressay Eshaness Fair Isle North Fair Isle South Firths Voe Foula Hoo Stack Muckle Flugga Out Skerries Point of Fethaland Sumburgh Head Ve Skerries Minor lights

Isle of Man	Chicken Rock Douglas Head Langness (minor light) Maughold Head Point of Ayre Thousla Rock (minor light)

Coordinates: 59°05′03″N 4°24′29″W / 59.08412°N 4.40813°W / 59.08412; -4.40813

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