Weathered Torridonian sandstone formation near Kilmory Bay, north-east Rum (Walk 3, Day 3 and Walk 7)
Magma, ash and rock erupted into the caldera, along with gas clouds known as pyroclastic flows which formed rocks known as rhyodacites, found around the margins of the Rum Cuillin and on the ridge between the summits of Ainshval and Sgùrr nan Gillean.
The western hills, including Orval and Ard Nev, are predominantly composed of coarse-grained granites formed from magma that crystallised below the Earth’s surface. The Rum Cuillin is mostly composed of layers of pale, hard gabbro interspersed with brown, crumbly peridotite, rocks created from cooling magma at the base of the magma chamber, especially on Hallival and Askival. There are some outcrops of the pre-volcanic Lewisian gneiss near Dibidil in the south-east corner of the island, and extensive Torridonian sandstone is found in the north and east.
Basalt dikes are found on the north-west coast between Kilmory and Guirdil: erosion of the less-resistant rock into which they are intruded has left them exposed as natural walls. They tend to radiate out from a point in Glen Harris, which suggests that this was the centre of volcanic activity. Bloodstone Hill was formed by lava flowing away from this volcanic centre; gas bubbles in the rock filled with heated silica, which cooled to form green agate flecked with red, hence the name ‘bloodstone'.
The last major glaciation of the Quartenary Ice Age began about 30,000 years ago, when glaciers covered the island and the tops of the highest mountains protruded through the ice as ‘nunataks'. Frost-shattering created scree slopes on these summits, and freeze-thaw processes have sorted rock particles into remarkable regular patterns such as the stone stripes and polygons near the summit of Orval.
The ice sheets retreated around 10,000BC. During glacial periods sea levels dropped, rising again when the glaciers melted. The landmass sank under the weight of the ice cap, then rose again as the ice retreated. The land continued to rise beyond the maximum increase in sea level, forming the raised beaches found around the coastline 12–30m above the present sea level, especially between Harris and A'Bhrideanach.
Tundra vegetation gave way to forest. The climate warmed 6000 years ago, encouraging forestation to a higher altitude than at present, before becoming cooler and damper around 1000BC, and peat expanded at the expense of woodland. A dearth of cultivable land also led to woodland clearance by early farming communities.
History
Kinloch Castle
Mankind probably first reached parts of Scotland during the mild phases of the last glacial periods of the Quartenary Ice Age, but retreated as the climate deteriorated. All traces of Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) settlement were obliterated by the ice sheets during the subsequent glaciation. Archaeological evidence established the existence of Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) settlement in some areas of Scotland from around 6500BC, with hunter-gatherers in seasonal occupation as early as 10,500BC on the fringes of the retreating ice sheet.
Traces of the earliest known human settlement in Scotland were found on Rum at a site near Kinloch. Concentrations of bloodstone microliths indicated the manufacture of stone tools and roasted hazlenut shells were radiocarbon dated to 6500BC. A shell midden at Papadil, cave middens at Bagh na h-Uamha and Shellesder and tidal fish traps at Kinloch and Kilmory are also characteristic of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.
The Stone Age to St Columba
Peat core samples from Kinloch revealed soil erosion and a decline in tree pollen, suggesting that woodland clearance for cultivation occured during the Neolithic (New Stone Age), from around 2700BC. Bronze Age traces on Rum are limited to hut circle sites and finds of barbed and tanged bloodstone arrow heads. Like many marginal Bronze Age settlements, Rum may have been abandoned during a period of harsh climatic conditions prevailing in northern Europe after the eruption of the Icelandic volcano, Hekla, about 1150.
Iron-working skills and characteristic structures including brochs, duns, wheelhouses, crannogs and souterrains were introduced to Scotland around the middle of the first millenium BC by Celtic people migrating from continental Europe. Rum possesses only a few crude promontory fort sites at Kilmory, Papadil and Shellesder. Decorated pottery sherds are the only other Iron Age artefacts retrieved on the island.
The first written references to the early Caledonian people come from the Romans, following Agricola’s expedition north in AD81. References to the ‘Picti’ first appeared in Roman accounts around AD300, though it is probable that the Picts were an assortment of racial and cultural groups – including the aboriginal Bronze Age peoples – bound together by the threat of the Romans. It is likely that the population of Rum at this time was Pictish in origin.
Early in the third century an Irish tribe – Scotti of Dál Riata – began the colonisation of Kintyre and the Inner Hebrides. The process of conquering and colonisation continued until late in the fifth century when the kingdom of Dalriada established its capital at Dunadd, following the decisive invasion of Argyll. St Columba came from Ireland to Iona around 563 and established a monastery that became an important centre of learning and spirituality. Columba’s followers, the early Celtic Christian missionaries, set about converting the populations of the islands and the mainland. One of their number, Beccan the Solitary, became a monk at Iona in 623 and then a hermit – probably on Rum.
The Viking era
In 794 Iona suffered the first of many Viking raids, which gradually forced the monastery into decline. In common with many Hebridean islands, Rum came within the Norse sphere of influence. The Norsemen ruled the Small Isles from 833 until the Treaty of Perth in 1266, when the Isle of Man and all the Hebrides were ceded to Scotland. The only tangible evidence of a Norse presence on Rum to date is a piece of carved narwhal ivory unearthed at Bagh na h-Uamh in 1940.
The Norse legacy is most obvious in the toponymy of the island, whose name may itself derive from the Old Norse rõm-øy, meaning ‘wide island', or the Gaelic ì-dhruim, meaning ‘isle of the ridge'. The name ‘cuillin’ also comes from the Norse kiolen, meaning ‘high rocks'. Several of the principal peaks have Norse names, with ‘-val’ deriving from fjall, meaning ‘hill': Askival (812m) and Ainshval (781m) ('spear-shaped hill’ and ‘rocky ridge hill’ respectively), Hallival (722m), Trollaval ('mountain of the trolls', 700m), Barkeval ('precipice hill', 591m), Ruinsival ('stone-heap hill', 528m): Gaelic names are Sgùrr nan Goibhrean ('goat hill', 759m) and Sgùrr nan Gillean ('peak of the young men', 764m). The place-names Dibidil and Papadil are Norse.
The Middle Ages to the Macleans
During the 13th century the island was in the possession of the powerful Macruari clan for a brief period until 1346, when Rum was chartered to Clanranald – known as the Lords of the Isles – who ruled much of the Hebrides from Finlaggan on Islay for 150 years. The Lordship came to an end after John MacDonald II’s duplicitous treaty with Edward IV of England against the Scottish Crown, which led to the forfeiture of all MacDonald land.
From the early Medieval period Rum was noted for its deer and ‘excellent sport’ and was probably used as a hunting reserve by the nobility. By the mid-16th century Rum was in the possession of the MacLeans of Coll, then in 1588 the Small Isles were assaulted when Lachlan Maclean of Duart led a raiding party including 100 Spanish marines from a galleon of the defeated Armada anchored at Tobermory. The islands’ settlements were torched and their inhabitants murdered. In 1593 King James VI received a report indicating that Clanranald had re-occupied the island, but despite these temporary setbacks the Macleans of Coll kept possession of Rum for more than three centuries.
By the late 17th century Rum’s status
