tsunami 1607 bristol channel - same wave altered Monach Islands??

Monach Mystery?

Very interesting thread, and one that has laid bare a mystery. Mr Haswell-Smith is very reliable, but I'd love to know his source. It looks to me that Hamish Haswell-Smith is himself the source of most of the internet references thrown up by Mr Google. Perhaps I've missed earlier references, but the earliest one that I could find was a 1998 extract from HHS's book in the Herald - http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/the-monachs-1.326131.

Dean Donald Munro wrote his "Description of the Western Isles of Scotland" around 1549, in which, according to scholars, he describes the Monach Isles;

Dean Munro said:
“Be aucht mile of sea from this Ile (Uist) towards the west lyis and Ile four mile lang, half mile braid, laich mane lane, callit Helsker na Caillach, pertaining to the Nunnis of Colmkill,gude corn land not well fyrit.”
Click to expand...

If it has been correctly identified, then the Monachs may have been an island or interconnected islands. Heisker is shown as an alternative name on current UKHO charts. However there is no mention of a strand connecting to North Uist.

Again, Martin Martin's similar titled book published 1703 and again in 1716 (I have a facsimile of the 1716 edition) makes no mention of a tidal wave that I can see. A few miles to the north of the Monachs/Heisker is Haskeir. He writes;

Martin Martin said:
About three leagues and a half to the west, lie the small islands called Hawsker-Rocks, and Hawsker-Eggath, and Hawsker-Nimannich, id est. Monks-Rock, which hath an altar in it. The first called so from the ocean, as being near to it; for haw or thau in the ancient language signifies the ocean: the more southerly rocks are six or seven big ones nicked or indented, for eggath signifies so much. The largest island, which is northward, is near half a mile in circumference, and it is covered with long grass. Only small vessels can pass between this and the southern rocks, being nearest to St. Kilda of all the west islands: both of them abound with fowls as much as any isles of their extent in St. Kilda. The coulterneb, guillemot, and scarts, are most numerous here; the seals likewise abound very much in and about these rocks.
Click to expand...

Now it's not clear to me whether he is writing about Haskeir or Heisker as names change and these are transliteration of spoken Gaelic, although I suspect that he perhaps means the much smaller and rockier Haskeir that lies a few miles to the north of Heisker. Is there an expert in the house?
 
Thanks :-)

HHS's first edition talks about a "16thC" tidal wave

Newer edition mentions a specific date - 1607

As you say tho, there seem to be many hyskeir/haskeir/oigh sgeir's (we visited all 3!) so which one?

I think i may be adding 2+2 and getting 5, but i too would love to know his sources for the wave/dates
 
Sgeir said:
Now it's not clear to me whether he is writing about Haskeir or Heisker as names change and these are transliteration of spoken Gaelic, although I suspect that he perhaps means the much smaller and rockier Haskeir that lies a few miles to the north of Heisker.
Click to expand...

Having subsequently looked at the charts, I've revised my non-expert opinion and come to the conclusion that Martin Martin was referring to Heisker/Monachs. Also, looking at the depths, it is quite conceivable that there may well have been a low-water doirlinn.

I'd still like to know HHS's source though.
 
This has been a very interesting thread for me. I've come across this, written in 1969;

Alasdair Alpin MacGregor said:
The sea between the Monach Isles and North Uist is uniformly shallow. From a small boat crossing leisurely on a calm day the sound separating them, one can follow its floor with ease throughout the entire distance. At intervals during the last five centuries the sea has made serious inroads in this neighbourhood. How far the Monachs themselves have actually been affected in this respect, geological investigation reveals. Many official documents show clearly that the sea has made several encroachments upon the land on the west of North Uist, immediately opposite the Monach Isles. It is probable, therefore, that the same marine denudation has also been in operation in the case of these off-lying islands, though perhaps more gradually and imperceptibly. References to the Lost Continent believed to have linked St. Kilda and the Monachs and the Seven Hunters with the main belt of the Outer Hebrides are frequent in Hebridean folk-lore and folk-tales. Allusions to the hunting-ground that intervened between North Uist and St. Kilda, for instance, are common to the legendary of St. Kilda and of Harris. When I was living on St. Kilda in the autumn of 1930, immediately prior to its evacuation, the St. Kildans on more than one occasion entertained me with their versions of the warrior-woman who hunted between Hirta and Harris before the sea separated them. In confirmation of those they assured me, although not entirely relevantly, that stags' antlers had been found on the summit of Oiseval.

Owing to the sea's encroachments, the valued rental of North Uist was reduced in 1542 by about three merk-lands. This is borne out by that year's entries in the Exchequer Rolls with reference to devastation wrought by the sea somewhere about 1540. That similar encroachments were taking place approximately two centuries later is shown by the following document, dated 1721, and addressed from North Uist to the Forfeited Estates Commissioners:
"We, the wadsetters, tacksmen, and possessors undersubcrivers attest and deliver-That in regarde of the extreme povertie reigning amongst the haill tennants and possesors within the Barony of North Uist occasioned by a murain in our cattle first in 1717 but more especially this year by a second murain whereby a great many of our cattle have perished to the number of seven hundred and fourtie five cows, five hundred and seventy three horse, eight hundred an twentie sheep...And moreover we attest and deliver that about Candlemass last the sea overflow'd severall pairts of the countrie breaking down many houses to the hazard of some lives which hase impaired the lands to such a degree as its possible it may happen more and more that they cannot answer to the worst sett in former tymes." The signatures to this attestation prove that the devastation alluded to in 1721 occurred along the west and north-west shores of North Uist.

- http://www.northuist.net/heiskeir.html
Click to expand...
 
bikedaft said:
Have not yet read martin martin, best stop putting it off then...
Click to expand...

Along with Haswell-Smith, it's a nice book to have on the boat when you are visiting the places that he described. Some of it is inaccurate and I suspect that he may hot have visited every place but recorded the comments of others. He may also have been a little bit credulous as he records, without comment, some very strange bits of folklore.

His book is available from the usual sources, but there are also online editions which are handy for reference:

1. http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usebooks/martin-westernislands/section01.html;

2. Facsimile of the 1716 edition - https://archive.org/stream/descriptionofwes00mart#page/n3/mode/2up
 
Thanks

Have taken the plunge and bought it for kindle at £1.08.

Those links are good tho, thanks

(Finding kindle great onboard for reference material, as it takes up almost no space)
 
Have fun with it - it is both informative and entertaining. Although we have a facsimile edition published by Jimmy Thin, I've just purchased, as the result of this thread, another paperback version because it also includes Dean Munro's Description of the Western Isles of Scotland Called Hybrides written around 1549.

There are abbreviated versions online;

1. http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usebooks/monro-westernislands/index.html and
2. http://www.scotsites.co.uk/ebooks/descriptionwesternisles.htm
 
Last edited:
It's interesting how often fairly similar place names occur near to each other. I strongly suspect that this is due to cartographers asking the local for names, mishearing different accents and then attributing the different names they thought they heard to different places. For example, "Walton" in Milton Keynes is right next to "Woughton". I expect this was even more of an issue for english speaking surveyors in gaelic speaking areas.

A related effect is the vast and unimaginative numbers of "Big Islands" and "Dark Rocks" around the western highlands - the result, I strongly suspect, of surveyors asking the question "What is that called?" and the locals answering the question "What is the gaelic word for that thing"?"
 
Thread drift but the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 caused a small tsunami which is recorded as flooding the low areas of Kinsale in Cork but I can't find much more about it.
Incidentally I was in Majorca,Cala D'or about 15 years ago when we were hit by the tsunami caused by the Algerian earthquake.
Plenty of boats sunk by hitting the bottom.
It wasn't one wave but went on for several hours.
We were alongside rising up and down about 6'.
Wierd no one knew what it was until we heard it on the news.
It was late evening.
 
Last edited:
Mad Pad said:
Thread drift but the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 caused a small tsunami which is recorded as flooding the low areas of Kinsale in Cork but I can't find much more about it.
Incidentally I was in Majorca,Cala D'or about 15 years ago when we were hit by the tsunami caused by the Algerian earthquake.
Plenty of boats sunk by hitting the bottom.
It wasn't one wave but went on for several hours.
We were alongside rising up and down about 6'.
Wierd no one knew what it was until we heard it on the news.
It was late evening.
Click to expand...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunamis_affecting_the_British_Isles

(Mentions lisbon earthquake)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top