ILANNAN ISLES. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



THE FLANNAN. ISLES.* 



THESE islands are seven in number and lie seventeen 

 miles to the north-west of the Gallan Head in Lewis, 

 to which estate they belong. The largest appears to 

 contain about 80 acres, the second perhaps 20, and 

 the rest are of much smaller dimensions. The two 

 first are fully stocked with sheep, although the traveller 

 who has found some difficulty in climbing to the surface, 

 may be at a loss to conjecture by what means they are 

 .carried up the cliffs or removed. The smaller are 

 unoccupied, a circumstance rare in the Highlands, and 

 arising here, only from their inconvenient situation. The 

 annual rent of the whole is 10, a price paid rather 

 for the birds by which they are inhabited than for the 

 grass they produce. Various sea fowl of the species 

 usually found in these seas have here established 

 their colonies, but the most numerous is the puffin. 

 These literally pover the ground, so that when on the 

 arrival of a boat they all come out of their holes, the 

 green surface of the island appears like a meadow 

 thickly enamelled with daisies. The soil is so perforated 

 by these burrows that it is scarcely possible to take a 

 step on solid ground. On any alarm, a concert of a 

 most extraordinary nature commences. Those who 

 have not frequented similar coasts will perhaps smile 

 when the effect produced by the united cries of the 

 various sea fowl, is called harmonious. Separately 

 considered, the individuals cannot be esteemed peculiarly 

 melodious, yet the total effect is no less pleasing than 

 extraordinary ; and may not unaptly be compared to 



* Flann, Gaelic, red, or blood ; possibly from the reddish colour of 

 the clifts of gneiss. It was also the name of bume Irish chicftuinu. See 

 the general Map, 



