Sule Stack

This article is about the small sea stack north of the Scottish mainland. For the larger nearby island, see Sule Skerry. For the island north of the Hebrides, see Sula Sgeir.

Sule Stack
Meaning of nameGannet Stack, from sùlaire (Scottish Gaelic for northern gannet), and Stack (originally Norse) Norse[1]
Location
Sule Stack is located in Scotland
Sule Stack
Sule Stack
Sule Stack shown within Scotland
OS grid referenceHX561179
Coordinates59°01′N 4°31′W / 59.02°N 4.51°W / 59.02; -4.51
Physical geography
Island groupNorth Atlantic
Area2.9 ha (7+1⁄4 acres)
Highest elevation36 m (118 ft)
Administration
Council areaOrkney
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Demographics
Population0
Lymphad
References[2][3][4]

Sule Stack or Stack Skerry is an extremely remote island or stack in the North Atlantic off the north coast of Scotland. It is formed of Lewisian gneiss.[5]

Sule Stack lies 49 kilometres (26+1⁄2 nautical miles) north of the Scottish mainland, and 66 km (35+1⁄2 nmi) west of the Orkney mainland, at grid reference HX561179. Sule Stack's sole neighbour, Sule Skerry, lies 10 km (5+1⁄2 nmi) northeast and the remote islands of Rona and Sula Sgeir lie further to the west. Sule Stack and Sule Skerry are home to thousands of gannets and as a result are listed as a special protection area; the island falls within the administrative region of the Orkney Islands.

The island (along with Skule Skerry) has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports breeding populations of several species of seabirds.[6]

From the west, Sule Stack appears like a double rock

Bird species nesting on the stack include:[7]

  1. ^ Stewart 1938, p. 283.
  2. ^ National Records of Scotland 2013.
  3. ^ Haswell-Smith 2004.
  4. ^ Orkney (Mainland) 2014.
  5. ^ Kirton & Hitchen 1987.
  6. ^ "Sule Skerry and Sule Stack". BirdLife Data Zone. BirdLife International. 2024. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  7. ^ EEA n.d.