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'Soay' is an uninhabited island in the St Kilda archipelago, Scotland. The island is part of the St Kilda World Heritage Site and home to a primitive breed of sheep.

Contents

Geography

Wildlife

Footnotes

Geography

Soay lies some 40 miles west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic It is about 2 km north-west of Hirta, from which it is separated by the narrow Sound of Soay. Two sea stacks, Soay Stac (61 m) and Stac Biorach (73 m) lie between. Soay covers about 96.8 hectare and reaches a height of 378 m, the cliffs rising sheer from the sea.
The island is formed of a breccia of gabbro and dolerites. It is formed as a single mountain peak rising from the sea-bed, without Ice-Age erosion.
With the rest of the archipelago, Soay is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, managed by Scottish Natural Heritage as a nature reserve and is included it the St Kilda World Heritage Site.^[3] It is unlikely that this island ever had permanent habitation. Men from Hirta would stay for a few days while gathering wool.^[4]

Wildlife

Feral Soay sheep are the most primitive domesticated animal in Europe and are preserved unchanged since Neolithic times. They were first brought to Soay about 5000BC. They were kept for their wool, which was plucked not shorn and made into tweed. Only occasionally were the sheep killed for meat. now also free ranging on Hirta,

Soay, from Hirta

The surrounding cliffs provide nesting space for gannet, fulmar, storm-petrel, Manx Shearwater, razorbill, great skua and Leach's Petrel as well as puffin.

Footnotes

1. 2001 UK Census per List of islands of Scotland
2. Ordnance Survey
3. World Heritage Sites Protected Areas Programme - St Kilda
4. Soay Overview