Rockall, a small, isolated rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean
'Rockall' is a small uninhabited rocky
islet in the North
Atlantic, 424 kilometres / 265 miles off the Irish coast whose ownership is disputed between the
Republic of Ireland, the
United Kingdom,
Denmark (for the
Faroe Islands), and
Iceland. In 1997, the UK ratified
[1] the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and thus relinquished any claim to an extension of its EEZ beyond Rockall. The remaining issue is the status of the
continental shelf rights of surrounding ocean floor. These are the exclusive rights to exploit any resources on or under the ocean floor (
oil,
natural gas, etc.) and should not be confused with the EEZ, as continental shelf rights do not carry any privileges with regard to fisheries.
Name
The origin of the name is debatable but it has been suggested that it derives from the
Scottish Gaelic ''
Sgeir Rocail'' which is often translated as "Roaring Rock" although ''rocail'' can also be translated as "tearing" or "ripping". There may also be an etymological link with the
old Norse ''hrukka''.
The first literary reference to the isle, where it is called ''Rockol'', is found in
Martin Martin's ''A Description of the
Western isles of
Scotland'' published in 1716 where he gives an account of a voyage to
St Kilda where the locals knew the isle as ''Rockabarra'' (''
Rocabarraigh''). The name ''Rocabarraigh'' is also used in Gaelic
folklore for a mythical rock which is supposed to appear three times, the last being at the end of the world.
:''"Nuair a thig Rocabarra ris, is dual gun tèid an Saoghal a sgrios"''.
: (When Rocabarra returns, the world will likely come to be destroyed/ruined)
Geography
The rock is the summit of the eroded core of an extinct
volcano and is located at , with a
diameter of 27 meters, a height of 23 meters and an approximate surface area of 570 m². The surrounding elevated seabed is called Rockall Bank or Rockall Plateau, which is part of the North American continental plate, geologically. It is separated from the British Isles by Rockall Channel (also called Rockall Trough). Anton Dohrn Seamount is a submarine elevation on Rockall Trough about halfway between Rockall and the
Outer Hebrides.
Rockall Bank and Trough
Rockall is 301.4
kilometres (187.3
statute miles or 162.7
nautical miles) west of the uninhabited island of
Soay, St. Kilda, Scotland and 368.7 kilometres (229.1 statute miles) west of the
crofting township of
Hogha Gearraidh, on the island of
North Uist,
Scotland. It is 424 kilometres (265 statute miles) north-west of
Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. The rock is about 25 metres (83 ft) wide at its base and rises sheer to a height of approximately 22 metres (72 ft). It is regularly washed over by large storm waves, particularly in winter. There is a small ledge of 3.5 by 1.3 metres (11 by 4 ft), known as ''Hall's Ledge'', 4 metres (13 ft) from the summit. The rock's only permanent inhabitants are
periwinkles and other marine
molluscs. Small numbers of seabirds, mainly
fulmars,
gannets,
kittiwakes, and
guillemots, use the rock for resting in summer, and gannets and guillemots occasionally breed successfully if the summer is calm with no storm waves washing over the rock. There is no natural source of fresh water.
Rockall is also close to the
Darwin Mounds, deep-water
coral mounds about 185 km (100 nm or 115 mi) north-west of
Cape Wrath.
Geological surveys
The exact position of Rockall and the size and shape of the Rockall Bank was first charted in 1831 by Captain A.T.E. Vidal, a
Royal Navy surveyor.
The first scientific expedition to Rockall was led by Miller Christie in 1896 when the
Royal Irish Academy sponsored a study of the flora and fauna.
[2] They chartered the ''Granuaile''.
[3]
The ''RV Celtic Explorer'' has surveyed the Rockall Bank and North West of
Donegal in 2003.
[4]
The ''ILV Granuaile'' was chartered by the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), on behalf of the
Department of Communications, Marine & Natural Resources (DCMNR), to conduct a seismic survey at the Rockall and Hatton Banks in July 2004.
[ Granuaile carries out seismic survey at Rockall, Dermot Gray, , , Beam, ] The seismic survey was part of the National Seabed Survey which has been ongoing for 4 years.
[.]
Rockall is made of a type of granite that is relatively rich in sodium and potassium. Within this granite are darker bands richer in the alkali pyroxene mineral aegirine and the alkali amphibole mineral riebeckite. The dark bands are a variety of granite commonly known as rockallite. In 1975, a new mineral was discovered on Rockall. The mineral is called bazirite, named after the elements barium and zirconium and has the chemical composition BaZrSi3O9.[5] Rockall was formed approximately 55 million years ago, when the ancient continent of Laurasia was split apart by plate tectonics. Greenland and Europe separated and the north-east Atlantic Ocean was formed between them.[6]
Amateur radio visit
There has been one amateur radio visit to Rockall, in 2005, and the following year a second was planned. Unfortunately the high cost of this visit led to its cancellation. A new expedition is being considered for June, 2008.
Disasters
There have been disasters on the neighbouring Hasselwood Rock and Helen's Reef (Helen's Reef was not named until 1830)
★ 1686 — a Spanish merchant ship, bound for the New World ‘ran on the rocks’ on 22 August 1686; 250 people lost their lives.
★ 1812 — survey vessel ''Leonidas'' foundered on Helen's Reef
★ 1824 — brigantine ''Helen'' of Dundee, bound for Quebec, foundered at Hasselwood Rock; "the crew left most of the passengers to drown, including seven women and six children".
★ 1904 — DFDS steamer SS ''Norge, 3,318 tons with 727 emigrants and a crew of 68, bound for New York on 28 June 1904; 635 lost
There have also been reports in national newspapers in both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom that at least two unexploded bombs from World War II lie within a 250-metre radius of Rockall. At present, no attempts have been made to remove them.
Law of the Sea
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states, “Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.” The Republic of Ireland, Denmark, and Iceland all acceded to the convention. The United Kingdom acceded to the convention on 25 July 1997. The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland have agreed to a delineation which ignores Rockall's existence and have granted exploration rights.
History and conflicting claims
Irish claims to areas around Rockall
The Republic of Ireland does not have formal claim to Rockall, regarding it as merely an uninhabitable rock without any territorial waters and thus irrelevant when determining the boundaries of the exclusive economic zones of Denmark, the Republic of Ireland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom. More populist claims to the island are based, in part, on the fact that Rockall is 424 kilometres (265 miles) from Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.[7]
According to a Written Parliamentary Answer from the Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs on June 14 1990, an agreement[8] was reached between the British and Irish governments on delimitation of the continental shelf between the two countries and that this included a line of delimitation across the Rockall Plateau.[9] As a result, a very extensive area under Irish jurisdiction, including part of the Rockall Trough and Plateau, is undisputed by the United Kingdom. No further negotiations were taking place in relation to the rock at the time.
More recently, on June 11 2003, the Irish Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources gave a Written Parliamentary Answer, stating: "Ireland claims an extended continental shelf … up to more than 500 nautical miles (926 km), particularly in the Hatton–Rockall area".[10]
As the United Nations[11] has no mandate regarding issues of delimitation between neighbouring states and cannot consider an area under dispute without the agreement of all the parties concerned, the Republic of Ireland has participated in informal discussions with Iceland and the Faroe Islands in an attempt to resolve the dispute before making its submission to the Commission.
Populist claims
Independent Irish politician Seán Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus (1927 – ), a former Lord Mayor of Dublin (1995–1996), has long advocated that the Republic of Ireland make a territorial claim on Rockall, and enthusiastically supported Greenpeace's occupation. Loftus, who had changed his name by deed poll to "Seán Dublin Bay Loftus" to highlight his campaign for the protection of the environment of Dublin Bay, changed it again, adding "Rockall" to demonstrate his commitment to an Irish claim on the islet.
The Wolfe Tones, an Irish rebel music band, released a song ''Rock on Rockall'' that supports an Irish claim.[12]
The United Kingdom's claims to the island
Rockall is 461.5 km (286.7 miles) from Ardnamurchan Point (approximately WGS84 Latitude North 56 Degrees 43 Minutes 38.3 Seconds, Longitude West 6 Degrees 13 Minutes 38.1 Seconds), the nearest point on the Scottish mainland; and 301.4 km (187.3 miles) from the St Kilda archipelago (approximately WGS84 Latitude North 57 Degrees 49 Minutes 40.8 Seconds, Longitude West 8 Degrees 38 Minutes 59.7 Seconds), the nearest (undisputed) Scottish islands, which are 53 miles west of the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Also, Rockall is 367.0 km (228.0 statute miles) (198.1 nautical miles) from Aird an Runair on the island of North Uist (approximately WGS84 Latitude North 57 Degrees 36 Minutes 9.7 Seconds, Longitude West 7 Degrees 32 Minutes 56.4 Seconds), Outer Hebrides, the nearest inhabited island of Scotland after St Kilda was evacuated in 1930.
In 1997 the United Kingdom ratified the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. In doing so it relinquished its right to claim an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 200 nautical miles (370 km) extending onward from the rock, as the agreement states that ''"Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf"''. However, as Rockall lies within 200 nautical miles (370 km) of both St Kilda and North Uist, the island itself remains within the EEZ of the United Kingdom and as such, under international law the UK can claim ''"..the sovereignty of the coastal state in relation to the exploitation, conservation and management of natural and living resources fishery and mineral resources"'' of the rock itself and an area of territorial waters extending for 12 nautical miles around it. Furthermore, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland have signed a boundary agreement which includes Rockall in the United Kingdom area.
Rockall, and a large sea area around it, was declared as coming under the jurisdiction of Scots law under the Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundaries Order (map) in 1999.
The earliest recorded landing on the island was on 8 July 1810 when a Royal Navy officer called Basil Hall led a small landing party from the frigate HMS ''Endymion'' to the summit. The frigate was taking depth measurements around Rockall when it drifted away in a haze. The expedition made a brief attempt to find the frigate in the haze, but soon gave up and returned to Rockall. After the haze became a fog, the lookout sent to the top of Rockall spotted the ship again, but it turned away from Rockall before the expedition in their boats reached it. Finally, just before sunset, the frigate was again spotted from the top of Rockall, and the expedition was able to get back on board. The crew of the ''Endymion'' reported that they had been searching for five or six hours, firing their cannon every ten minutes. Hall related this experience and other adventures in a book entitled ''Fragment of Voyages and Travels Including Anecdotes of a Naval Life''.
The next landing was accomplished by a Mr Johns of HMS ''Porcupine'', whilst the ship was on a mission, from June and August of 1862, to make a survey of the sea bed prior to the laying of a transatlantic cable. Johns managed to gain foothold on the island, but failed to reach the summit.
On 18 September 1955 at precisely 10.16 am, in what would be the final territorial expansion of the British Empire, the island was officially annexed by the UK when Lieutenant-Commander Desmond Scott RN, Sergeant Brian Peel RM, Corporal AA Fraser RM, and James Fisher (a civilian naturalist and former Royal Marine), were deposited on the island by a Royal Navy helicopter from HMS ''Vidal'' (coincidentally named after the man who first charted the island). The team cemented in a brass plaque on Hall's Ledge and hoisted the Union Flag to stake the UK's claim.
The inscription on the plaque reads:
:''"By authority of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, and in accordance with Her Majesty's instructions dated the 14th day of September, 1955, a landing was effected this day upon this island of Rockall from HMS Vidal. The Union flag was hoisted and possession of the island was taken in the name of Her Majesty. [Signed] R H Connell, Captain, HMS Vidal, 18 September 1955."''
The formal annexation of Rockall was announced by the Admiralty on 21 September 1955.
The initial incentive for the annexation of Rockall had little to do with any territorial claim to rights of exploitation of the seas around the island. It was the test firing of the UK's first guided nuclear weapon, the American-made Corporal missile. The missile was to be launched from South Uist and over the North Atlantic. The Ministry of Defence was concerned that the unclaimed island would provide a unique opportunity for Soviet Union to spy on the test by placing surveillance equipment on the island; and so in April of 1955 a request was sent to the Admiralty to seize the island, and declare UK sovereignty lest it become an outpost for foreign observers.
On 10 February 1972 the Island of Rockall Act received Royal Assent to make the island administratively part of the Isle of Harris (St Kilda being administratively part of Harris), in what was then Inverness-shire, fully incorporating it into the United Kingdom. A navigational beacon was later installed on the island and the UK declared that no ship would be allowed within a 50-mile radius of the rock. In United Kingdom law, it now falls administratively under the Outer Hebrides.
Former SAS member and survival expert Tom McLean lived on the island from 26 May 1985 to 4 July 1985 to affirm the UK's claim to the island.[13]
Icelandic claims in the area
Iceland does not claim the rock itself, considering it irrelevant as far as delimitation of EEZs and continental shelf is concerned. Iceland however claims an extended continental shelf in the Hatton-Rockall area.
Iceland ratified UNCLOS in 1985; it was the first Western country to do so. A regulation was issued by the government in that same year outlining the area where Iceland claimed continental shelf rights for itself; the regulation was based on legislation from 1979 claiming for Iceland the exclusive right to research and exploitation of continental shelf-based resources within the limits of the Icelandic continental shelf. Regarding the Hatton-Rockall area, it claims the area within 60 nautical miles from the foot of the continental shelf and assumes that the UK and the Republic of Ireland can not claim a continental shelf outside their EEZs. To its fullest extent, this area reaches about 700 nautical miles to the south from Iceland's coast, which is further south than the United Kingdom's southernmost point.
In 2001, Iceland began working on its submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf; it is scheduled to finish in 2007. The most important aspect of this work is to survey the entire ocean floor in the areas claimed outside the EEZ and, in Iceland's case, a part of the area inside the EEZ as well. In all, 1.3 million square kilometres (500,000 sq mi) have been surveyed by Icelandic marine research institutions for this purpose, an area 13 times larger than the land area of Iceland. The commission does however not make proposals regarding areas that are claimed by two or more states unless they have already reached an agreement on its division. Therefore Iceland's submission is expected to deal only with the area that just Iceland has claimed and not the Hatton-Rockall area. Iceland also hosted an informal meeting of all parties to the dispute in 2001. It was the first such meeting regarding the dispute where all four countries participated.
Danish/Faroese claims in the area
The Faroe Islands are an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark. Since 1948 they have had self-government in almost all matters except defence and foreign affairs. Consequently their interests in Rockall are represented by Denmark. On their behalf, Denmark claims continental shelf rights in the Hatton-Rockall area. It does not claim the islet itself — their position is the same as is the Republic of Ireland's and Iceland's.
Waveland and the Greenpeace occupation
In 1997 the environmentalist organisation Greenpeace occupied the islet for a short time,[14] calling it Waveland, to protest against oil exploration under the authority of the British. Greenpeace declared the island to be a “new Global State”, and offered citizenship to anyone willing to take their pledge of allegiance. The British Government's response was simply to give them permission to be there, and otherwise ignore them. Indeed the Home Office when asked, responded that since Rockall was part of the United Kingdom, and since the UK was a free country, Greenpeace were perfectly entitled to be at Rockall.
The project continued until 1999, when the company sponsoring it collapsed and the experiment ended.
See also
★ Okinotorishima, a Japanese atoll in the Pacific Ocean but claimed by People's Republic of China as being only rock, denying its EEZ.
★ Senkaku Islands, five small islands currently under Japanese control, but claimed by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan).
★ Rocabarraigh, a phantom island which appears to have been partly conflated with Rockall.
★ Imia/Kardak, two small uninhabited islets in the Aegean Sea, which were the object of a dispute over sovereignty between Turkey and Greece in 1996.
★ Socotra Rock, a submerged rock in the East China Sea. Sovereignty is disputed between South Korea and the People's Republic of China.
★ Hans Island, a small island in the Nares Strait between Greenland and Ellesmere Island, disputed between Canada and Denmark.
Notes
1. Statutory Instrument 1997 No. 1750 - The Fishery Limits Order 1997
2. Brochure
3. Granuaile - Not the Irish Lights tender..., John Hamilton, , , BEAM Magazine,
4. Irish National Seabed Survey
5. ''Minerals of Scotland'' by Alec Livingstone, 2002, National Museums of Scotland
6. ''Igneous Rocks of the British Isles'' edited by D.S. Sutherland, 1982, Wiley
7. "The significant fact is that the island is 300 miles west of Scotland and 250 miles north-west of the coast of Donegal." [1]
8. Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the Republic of Ireland concerning the delimitation of areas of the continental shelf between the two countries
9. Written Answers - Rockall Ownership, , , , Dáil Éireann,
10. Written Answers - Exploration Rights, , , , Dáil Éireann,
11. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
12. Rock On Rockall
13. Written Answers - Rockall Island, , , , Dáil Éireann,
14. SchNEWS issue 131, Justice?, Brighton, 22 August 1997; see also ''SchNEWS Annual'', Justice?, Brighton, 1998, ISBN 0-9529748-1-9
References
★ Fraser MacDonald, 'The last outpost of Empire: Rockall and the Cold War', ''Journal of Historical Geography'', 32 (2006),627-647. available in pdf
★ Martin Martin ''A Description of the Western isles of Scotland'' (1716)
★ Birds breeding on Rockall. ''British Birds'' '86': 16–17, 320–321 (1993).
★ Oral Questions to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Dáil Éireann, November 1, 1973
★ Written Answer from the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Dáil Éireann, June 14, 1990
★ Written Answer from the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources in the Dáil Éireann, June 11, 2003
External links
★ by James A. Macintosh, published 1945. Includes Basil Hall's description of his Rockall landing.
★ Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs map showing all parties' claims to the continental shelf around Rockall.
★ ''Waveland'' site
★ 'The Rockall Times', a surreal news site.
★
★ Pictures of Rockall
★
★ Description of a successful landing on Rockall in June 2005.
★ British journalist Ben Fogle attempts to claim Rockall
★ A Rockall datasheet
★ 1955: Britain claims Rockall, ''On This Day'' story from BBC website.
★ MSØIRC/p radio amateur expedition (16 June 2005)
★ 2008 amateur radio expedition
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