Haskeir (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Hasgeir), also known as Great Haskeir (Scottish Gaelic: Hasgeir Mhòr) is a remote, exposed and uninhabited island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It lies 13 kilometres (7 nautical miles) west-northwest of North Uist. One kilometre (1⁄2 nautical mile) southwest lie the skerries of Haskeir Eagach, made up of a colonnade of five rock stacks, and 40 km (22 nmi) northwest is St Kilda.
Geography, geology and botany
There is no anchorage or shelter and access via the steep rocky cliffs may be difficult, even in calm conditions. There are several natural rock arches and a high cliff on the northern end of the island called Castle Cliff. Various small skerries lie immediately to the north and south. There is very little vegetation save for a few sea-pinks, campion, plantain and orache that can survive the salt spray.[3]
Skilðar or Skilðir (meaning shields) may have been the Old Norse name for Haskeir.[1][2]Skildar certainly appears on a map by Nicholas de Nicolay from 1583. There are various theories that somehow the transposition of this name to nearby St Kilda may have created the name for this latter archipelago, whose origins are otherwise obscure.[8][9]
^ abMaclean, Charles (1977) Island on the Edge of the World: the Story of St. Kilda Canongate. ISBN0-903937-41-7. Page 33.
^ abFleming, Andrew (2005) St. Kilda and the Wider World: Tales of an Iconic Island. Windgather Press. ISBN1-905119-00-3. Page 27. Maclean does not state which island caused the confusion, but Fleming equates 'Skilðir' with Haskeir.
^ abHaswell-Smith, Hamish. (2004) The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh. Canongate.
^Quine, David (2000) St Kilda. Grantown-on-Spey. Colin Baxter Island Guides. ISBN1-84107-008-4. Page 21. Quine, for example, suggests that Skildar was transcribed in error by Lucas J. Waghenaer in his 1592 charts without the trailing r and with a period after the S, creating S.Kilda. This was in turn assumed to stand for a saint by others, creating the form that has been used for several centuries, St Kilda.