Inchkeith

Geography and climateEdit

Although most of the island is of volcanic origin, the island’s geology is surprisingly varied. As well as the igneous rock, there are also some sections of sandstone, shale, coal and limestone. The shale contains a great number of fossils. There are several springs on the island.

The island has the lowest average rainfall in Scotland at 550 millimetres (21.7 in) annually.

The island has an abundance of springs, as noted by James Grant. James Boswell noted two wells on the island during his visit, and speculated as to the former existence of a third within the Castle.

EtymologyEdit

The name "Inchkeith" may derive from the medieval Scottish Gaelic Innse Coit, meaning "wooded island". The latter element coit, in Old Welsh coet, is from the Proto-Celtic *cēto-, "wood". The late 9th century Sanas Cormaic, authored by Cormac mac Cuilennáin, suggests that the word had disappeared from the Gaelic of Ireland by that period, becoming coill; he states "coit coill isin chombric", that is, "coit is Welsh for wood", and explains that the Irish place-name Sailchoit is partly derived from Welsh. Although Scottish Gaelic was closer to Brythonic than Irish was, the Life of St Serf (written before 1180) calls the island Insula Keð, suggesting the possibility that the specific element in Inchkeith was not comprehensible to that hagiography's anonymous author or translator; if we could be sure that the author was Scottish, rather than an English or French incomer, this could be taken to mean that the word was probably not comprehensible even in Fife Gaelic in the 12th century. Since Gaelic had all but disappeared as a language spoken natively in southern Fife by the mid-14th century, there is no continuous Gaelic tradition for the name, but the modern form is Innis Cheith.

Such a rocky and exposed island can however never have supported many trees so it would be reasonable that the derivation may be otherwise. Early associations between Saint Adomnán and the island may indicate that the second element is derived from the name of his contemporary and associate Coeddi (or Céti), bishop of Iona.

Earliest historyEdit

Almost nothing is known about the early history of Inchkeith, and there is no certain reference to the island until the 12th century. In the days when people were compelled to cross the Firth of Forth by boat as opposed to bridge, the island was a great deal less isolated, and on the ferry routes between Leith/Lothian and Fife. Like nearby Inchcolm and the Isle of May, Inchkeith was attacked repeatedly by English raiders in the 14th century. This was the period when the Scottish Wars of Independence were in full swing, and decisive battles were being fought in the Lothians and in the Stirling/Bannockburn region, and so the island was effectively in the route of any supply or raiding vessels.

It is unknown who owned Inchkeith from the 8th century onward, but it is known that it was the property of the Crown until granted to Lord Glamis, an ancestor of the Queen Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

Inchkeith as quarantineEdit

In 1497, the island was (along with Inchgarvie, a few miles away) used as an isolated refuge for victims of the 'Grandgore' (sometimes known as "glandgore" in those days), or modern-day syphilis in Edinburgh. The 'grandgor' was recognised in the 1497 Minutes of the Town Council of Edinborough (Phil. Trans. XLII. 421) "This contagious sickness callit the Grandgor.". The Grandgore Act was passed in September 1497, causing Inchkeith, as well as other islands in the Firth, such as Inchgarvie, to be made a place of "Compulsory Retirement" for people suffering from this disease. They were told to board a ship at Leith and once there, "there to remain till God provide for their health". It is probable that they all died.

In 1589, history repeated itself, and the island was used to quarantine the passengers of a plague ridden ship. More plague sufferers came here from the mainland in 1609. In 1799, again, Russian sailors who died of an infectious disease were buried here.

James IV's linguistic experimentEdit

During the reign of King James IV in the Renaissance, Inchkeith was the site of an extraordinary experiment. According to the historian Robert Lyndsay of Pitscottie, James IV directed in 1493 that a mute woman and two infants be transported to the island, in order to ascertain which language the infants would grow up to speak isolated from the rest of the world, thought to be the 'original' language, or the language of God. According to these accounts, the infants did not speak. James Grant quotes Lyndsay on this topic.

He ordered them to take a mute woman and to put her in Inchkeith, to give her two children, and to provide her with everything she would need for their nourishment. His goal was to discover what language the children would speak when they were old enough to have "perfect" speech. Some say they spoke good Hebrew, but I do not know of any reliable sources for these claims.

Rough Wooing, Reformation, and the 17th centuryEdit

In the 16th century, the island suffered further English depredation during the war of the Rough Wooing. The General Earl of Somerset garrisoned the island in 1547 after the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh. His force of marines were ordered to reinforce the island, and so they built a large square fort, with corner towers, on the site of the present day lighthouse. A French soldier, Jean de Beaugué, described how the building works were visible from Leith in June 1548. De Beaugué wrote that four companies of English soldiers and a company of Italians were ordered to help the English workmen, who were "pioneers" not soldiers.

The English admiral Edward Fiennes de Clinton anchored his fleet at Inchkeith in August 1548. His task was to prevent sea traffic in the Forth and the security of the English at the siege of Haddington. Clinton reported destroying 38 ships on 9 August 1548. French galleys lay off Burntisland. His duty in the Forth prevented him coming to aid John Luttrell at Broughty Castle

The garrison was ejected by a combined Franco-Scottish force under General D’Essé (André de Montalembert, Sieur de Essé) on 19 or 29 June 1549. Jean de Beaugué describes Monsieur de le Chapelle's injury while leading his German troops against the Italians and English who made a stand on the summit of the hill. On the following day, Mary of Guise, the regent, visited the island, to see the "three and four hundred of her dead foes still unburied". Since 29 June was Fête Dieu in France, she renamed the island "L’Île de Dieu". The soldiers also nicknamed it "L’Île des Chevaux" (The island of horses). Neither name stuck. Seven English banners captured on the island were sent to Henri II of France. On 17 July 1549, he gave the soldiers who brought the banners lifetime pensions. On 22 June Regent Arran's Privy Council ordered that all the towns and burghs on both sides of the Forth should contribute a workforce of 400 men to strengthen the fortifications, and pay their wages of two shillings for 16 days.

After the end of the war of the Rough Wooing, the island was occupied by the French, under Mary of Guise during her period as the Regent of Scotland between 1554 and 1560. The old English fortifications were further strengthened by the Scots and French, who under D’Essé built a larger and stronger fort. Accounts for this rebuilding written in French survive with the names of the Scottish craftsmen and women who worked there in 1555.

During the siege of Leith, the English admiral William Wynter obtained a description of the fortress as it stood on 17 April 1560. The wall and rampart was 30 feet thick, being 14 feet of stone behind 16 feet of earth. There were 140 French soldiers with 70 women, boys and labourers. As Wynter was trying to blockade the island and cut off supplies, the garrison was eating oysters and periwinkles gathered at low water and fish caught with angling rods. After the peace of the Treaty of Edinburgh in September 1560, the English diplomat noted Thomas Randolph noted that Captain Lucinet and his French garrison remained on Inchkeith, but there were now more women than men, and Edinburgh wits called the island "l'Isle des Femmes."

In the 1560s, Mary, Queen of Scots, inspected the French garrison here, and a stone from the original gateway with "MR" (i.e. Maria Regina) and the date still exists, built into a wall below the lighthouse. The guns were used during the rebellion against Mary called the Chaseabout Raid. Lord Darnley was sent to inspect the armaments in August 1565. The English ship, The Aide captained by Anthony Jenkinson arrived in the Forth on 25 September 1565, and was bombarded by the cannon on Inchkeith. Jenkynson had intended to blockade Leith to prevent Lord Seton bringing more munitions for Mary from France.

The fort itself was demolished, or ordered to be "raisit" (razed) in 1567, after Mary had been deposed. Her opponents were anti-French, and did not take too kindly to a French garrison so near the capital. The Captain of the garrison, Robert Anstruther, was rewarded with all the ironwork timber and slates to be salvaged, and ownership of the island was given to John Lyon, 8th Lord Glamis. The remaining buildings were later used as a prison.

James Grant lists subsequent owners of Inchkeith - in 1649, he says, the "eccentric and sarcastic" Sir John Scott of Scotstarvit, going on to be owned by the Buccleuch family, forming part of the property of the Barony of Royston, near Granton.

During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the island was again taken by the English, and fortified.

18th centuryEdit

In the late 18th century, James Boswell's The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson (published in 1785) mentions Inchkeith, upon which Boswell and Dr. Johnson alighted, noting that the now-uninhabited island had a profusion of "luxuriant thistles and nettles", a "strongly built" fort, and "sixteen head of [grazing] black cattle". The fort visited appears to have been built in 1564.

Usually the cynic, Johnson admired the island and said, "I’d have this island; I’d build a house... A rich man of an hospitable turn here, would have many visitors from Edinburgh."

19th century and World War IEdit

In 1803, construction was begun of Inchkeith Lighthouse, designed and built by Thomas Smith and Robert Stevenson. The lighthouse, standing 67 metres high, was first operational by 1804, and is now listed as a building of architectural and historic significance.

Inchkeith continued to be fortified in the subsequent years, both from fear of Napoleonic invasion, and later the two World Wars, like the other islands in the inner Firth of Forth. In 1878, the Royal Engineers built batteries on the three corners of the island, designed as separate fortresses.

Construction upon the island's "South Fort" began in spring of 1878, being completed in 1880. Construction on the West and East forts began in summer of 1878, being completed in 1880 and 1881 respectively. These forts are reported to have had four 10" rifled muzzle loader guns, with two in the South Fort and one each in the east and west. In 1891, the East and West guns were replaced with two 6" disappearing guns.

In 1899, Inchkeith had a Compressed Air Foghorn installed, providing two 3.5 second blasts every 90 seconds during fog. This would remain in place until replaced after the second world war.

From the 1890s until the early 1900s, the fort at Inchkeith underwent a sequence of gun improvements and replacements, with the shore being covered in Barbed Wire, and the island being made ready in August 1914 for the first world war. It was also augmented with guns taken from other forts - two 4.7" MK1 quick-firing guns from Fort Paull on the north bank of the Humber (which was disarmed, being deemed to be too close to Hull), and what appears to be a 6" B.L. Mark VII gun from Yaverland Battery of the antiquated Palmerston Forts on the Isle of Wight in February 1915.

During World War I, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Britannia, at the time a part of the 3rd Battle Squadron in the Grand Fleet, ran aground at Inchkeith on 26 January 1915, suffering considerable bottom damage. She was refloated after 36 hours and was repaired and refitted at Devonport Dockyard.

The Second World WarEdit

In the 1930s, the fort appears to have undergone another program of replacement and augmentation, culminating in 1937 with the installation of several Lewis Guns and a pair of 12 Pdr QF guns, presumably for anti-aircraft defence. In 1938, following the Munich Crisis, the island was further mobilised, and had more Nissen Huts installed, presumably for equipment and personnel. In that year, during a practice firing of the guns on Inchkeith, a practice shell landed on a building on Salamander Street in Leith.

In conjunction with the other islands in the forth, Inchgarvie (foundation for the Forth Rail Bridge, and nearby the Rosyth Dockyard), and Inchcolm off Leith, Inchkeith formed an important part of the defence strategy for the Firth of Forth. Further out, 8 miles (13 km) NE of North Berwick on the South Coast and 5 miles (8.0 km) SE of Anstruther on the North, the Isle of May had Induction loops and ASDIC equipment designed to detect ships and submarines.

From this point on, Inchkeith's defensive capabilities were continually upgraded. In May 1940, the island was issued with 40 "Board of Trade, Rocket Flares, Red", for alerting in the event that an invasion was attempted (or spotted). In late 1941, the island appears to have been chosen as the site for a Radar installation.

By 1942, the island had one "Major Full Time Battery" of two 6" guns covering the North side of the island, two 6" guns covering the South side and the water between the island and Leith, a further two 6" guns in the West Fort, and two 9.2" guns, tasked to defend the dockyards further upstream against naval bombardment. The island would go on to have Bren and Bofors guns added for anti-aircraft defence. The island appears to have had around 160 troops stationed there, with dozens of buildings, emplacements, fire control centers, and nissen huts, many of which remain in varying states of repair. The island had several bomb shelters for use in the event of aerial attack, one of which within a cave in the cliffs.

Operation Fortitude NorthEdit

Operations Fortitude North and Fortitude South were related to a wider deception plan called Operation Bodyguard. Operation Bodyguard was the overall Allied strategic deception plan in Europe for 1944, carried out as part of the build-up to the Invasion of Normandy. The major objective of this plan was to lead the Germans to believe that the invasion of northwestern Europe would come later than was actually planned, and to threaten attacks at other locations than the true objective, including the Pas de Calais, the Balkans, southern France, Norway, and Soviet attacks in Bulgaria and northern Norway.

Operation Fortitude North's fictional British Fourth Army were based in Edinburgh, and spoof radio traffic and Double agents were used as means to disseminate the misinformation. On 3 March 1944, members of a "Special RS (Royal Signals) Unit" from the British Fourth Army landed on Inchkeith, with a detachment of 22 men and 4 officers, with two radio vans. At the beginning of April, a further 40 men arrived, and proceeded to stage mock attacks of the Inchkeith defences via the cliffs, until their departure in September.

The aim of this ruse, unknown to the participants, was to make German High Command believe that a raid in Norway or elsewhere was being planned. Although Operation Fortitude was a great success, Inchkeith appears not to have been overflown by German Reconnaissance planes until October 7. Examination of the footage taken in 1945 appeared to indicate that the plane flew too high to ascertain anything meaningful.

Post-war era to present dayEdit

Post-war, defences were dismantled commencing late 1945. By early January 1946, only a small number of troops with a "nucleus" of coastal guns remained, and finally in 1956/7, all military use of the island ceased, and ownership passed over to the Northern Lighthouse Board, who performed a variety of renovations on the island from the early 1960s onwards.

The island, like Cramond Island, was previously worked as a farm. It is now abandoned, and unkempt.

In 1958, an experimental foghorn was installed, replacing the previous 19th century system. A diaphone system providing 4 blasts of 1.5 seconds once every minute was installed on Inchcolm, operated by radio telephone from Inchkeith. This was replaced with an electrically operated system controlled by an automatic fog detector in 1986.

In 1986 the lighthouse was automated, allowing it to be remotely managed by a telephone connection. The Northern Lighthouse Board removed the permanent lightkeepers, and sold the island to businessman Tom Farmer (founder of Kwik-Fit). Under Farmer's ownership, permission is needed to land at Inchkeith; he himself lives in Barnton in Edinburgh. The current lighthouse is powered by nickel-cadmium batteries, "charged on a time cycle of three times per week by one of two (12.5 KVA) markon alternators with TS3 Lister diesel engines."