Staffa

Staffa, which, in Old Norse, means stave or pillar island, is famous for its magnificent basalt columns and Fingal's Cave. It was certainly an impressive sight as we approached it from the west, though we were surprised that, from a distance, the island seemed much more low-lying than expected.

Staffa is the creation of a series of geological events. Sixty million years ago, a volcano erupted where Mull now is, centred on Beinn Talaidh. As far as Staffa was concerned, the first event was explosive - the laying down of a layer layer of red-hot ash, called tuff, visible in this photo below the columns. The volcano then poured out vast amounts of runny basalt lava - in a similar way to the great volcanoes of the Hawaiian chain today. When this huge flow stopped moving, it cooled very slowly.  

The cooling took place along equally spaced vertical axes, these columns tessellating as hexagonal prisms, which contracted, leaving the separated columns. Hexagonal structures like this occur often in nature, such as in the honeycomb of bees. This lava flow was followed by smaller ones, which formed smaller columns, some of which folded as the lava continued to run. The columns are not all perfect hexagons, varying from three to eight sided, but hexagons are most common.

The final events were severe erosion of the volcano and its lava flows, mostly during the ice age, followed by a rise in sea level which drowned much of the area, leaving Staffa an island. The sea then eroded Staffa's coast, exploiting the weaknesses in the columnar jointing to gouge deep caves, of which Fingal's is the largest.

Fingal was the 3rd Century Irish hero Fionn MacCool (Gaelic fionn na ghal - chief of valour), who defended the Hebrides against the early Viking raids. It was Sir Joseph Banks' visit in 1772 which made the island famous, with the result that the first tourists flocked to see it - including Sir Walter Scott, John Keats, William Wordsworth, Queen Victoria, Jules Verne, David Livingstone and Felix Mendelssohn, who was inspired to write his Hebrides Overture.

The island supported a small population - as little as one in 1772, though this rose to sixteen by 1784 - but it was a dreadful place to live during the great winter storms, so it was abandoned by 1800. The only building we found, shown here, was built to offer some protection to Victorian visitors.

The wildlife on the island seems very limited in comparison to Lunga (see earlier blog here) but, when we visited it in mid-May, we found a pair of eider duck near to the jetty. The female seemed unafraid of us, moving off slowly as we approached.

We travelled out to Staffa on Staffa Tours' MV Islander, which offers a new service to Staffa and Lunga, departing daily at 9.45am from Kilchoan Pier. Islander is a catamaran, very fast and stable, an ideal boat for these waters. The picture shows the Islander at the landing stage at Staffa.

Staffa Tours' website is here.