In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Summer Isles like this:
Summer Isles, a group of islets at the entrance of Loch Broom, on the W coast of Ross and Cromarty. Only one of them, Tanera More, is inhabited, and only nine or ten are of sufficient size to be occupied as pastures. They lie at from 5 furlongs to 4 miles distance from the coast, and are composed of Old Red Sandstone. ...
Tanera More- is 1¾ mile long and 1 road; and has an irregular rocky surface, rising to the height of 406 feet above sea-level. The other islets are all similarly rocky, but of much less elevation. The whole group are bare; and except where their bluff coasts are worked into caverns and points by the incessant action of the sea, they possess not one feature of picturesqueness or beauty. ' Why they are called the Summer Islands,' says Dr Macculloch,' I- know not; as they have a most wintry aspect, as much from their barrenness and rocky outlines, as from the ugly red colour and the forms of their cliffs.' Pop. of Tanera More (1871) 114, (1881) 119.—Ord. Sur., sh. 101, 1882.
Summer Isles through time
Summer Isles is now part of Highland district. Click here for graphs and data of how Highland has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Summer Isles itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Summer Isles, in Highland and Ross and Cromarty | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/21957
Date accessed: 24th April 2024
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