Craigleith
Encyclopedia
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
in the Firth of Forth
Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
off North Berwick
North Berwick
The Royal Burgh of North Berwick is a seaside town in East Lothian, Scotland. It is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, approximately 25 miles east of Edinburgh. North Berwick became a fashionable holiday resort in the 19th century because of its two sandy bays, the East Bay and the...
in East Lothian
East Lothian
East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Its name comes from the Scottish Gaelic Creag Lìte meaning "rock of Leith". It is 24 m at its highest point.
Geography and geology
Craigleith makes up the chain of islands near North Berwick along with Bass RockBass Rock
The Bass Rock, or simply The Bass, , is an island in the outer part of the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland. It is approximately offshore, and north-east of North Berwick. It is a steep-sided volcanic rock, at its highest point, and is home to a large colony of gannets...
, Fidra
Fidra
Fidra is an uninhabited island in the Firth of Forth, north-west of North Berwick, on the east coast of Scotland.-Geography:...
and The Lamb
The Lamb (island)
The Lamb, sometimes called Lamb Island or just Lamb, is a small , uninhabited island between the islands of Fidra and Craigleith in the Firth of Forth, off the south-east coast of Scotland...
. Of the four islands it is the closest to the town's harbour. Like the other nearby islands, Craigleith is a bird colony. Divers often explore the area around the island.
Craigleith is a laccolith
Laccolith
A laccolith is a sheet intrusion that has been injected between two layers of sedimentary rock. The pressure of the magma is high enough that the overlying strata are forced upward, giving the laccolith a dome or mushroom-like form with a generally planar base.Laccoliths tend to form at relatively...
, a lava dome
Lava dome
|250px|thumb|right|Image of the [[rhyolitic]] lava dome of [[Chaitén Volcano]] during its 2008–2009 eruption.In volcanology, a lava dome is a roughly circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano...
. The Lothians are dotted with evidence of ancient volcanic activity, such as the Bass Rock
Bass Rock
The Bass Rock, or simply The Bass, , is an island in the outer part of the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland. It is approximately offshore, and north-east of North Berwick. It is a steep-sided volcanic rock, at its highest point, and is home to a large colony of gannets...
and Arthur's Seat
Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh
Arthur's Seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of Holyrood Park, described by Robert Louis Stevenson as "a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design". It is situated in the centre of the city of Edinburgh, about a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle...
. It is made up of essexite
Essexite
Essexite , also called nepheline monzogabbro , is a dark gray or black holocrystalline plutonic igneous rock. Its name is derived from the type locality in Essex County, MA.Modern petrology identifies rocks according to mineralogical criteria...
which is popular for making curling
Curling
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...
stones.
History and wildlife
Historically, Craigleith was a rabbitRabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
warren, where the animals were deliberately bred for food. Rabbits were wiped out by myxomatosis
Myxomatosis
Myxomatosis is a disease that affects rabbits and is caused by the Myxoma virus. It was first observed in Uruguay in laboratory rabbits in the late 19th century. It was introduced into Australia in 1950 in an attempt to control the rabbit population...
in the 1950s. They were mysteriously re-introduced onto the island in 2008.
In 1814, Sir Hew Dalrymple purchased the island from North Berwick Town Council.
Puffin
Puffins are any of three small species of auk in the bird genus Fratercula with a brightly coloured beak during the breeding season. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among...
colony on Craigleith, once one of the largest in Britain with 28,000 pairs became endangered from 1999 onwards, due to an invasion of the non-endemic plant tree mallow, thriving with warmer winters, which choked the puffins' burrows, preventing from rearing their chicks, or "pufflings". A five year project, SOS Puffin, led by the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick, was launched early in 2007 after one of the Centre's volunteers, Maggie Sheddan noticed the ever decreasing numbers of puffins. Since then, hundreds of volunteers have been working hard to rid the island of the problem, ferried out by boat from the Seabird Centre during the winter months, when the puffins are out at sea. Initial results show that there are signs that the puffins are starting to return to the island to breed. Cormorants, shags and guillemots breed here.
The Scottish Seabird Centre
Scottish Seabird Centre
The Scottish Seabird Centre is a visitor attraction in North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland. Opened by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2000 and funded by the Millennium Commission, the showpiece of the centre is the network of cameras which beam back live pictures from the bird colonies on islands such...
has solar powered cameras on the islands which transmit images of the puffins and other wildlife on the island via live webcams at www.seabird.org. Daily boat trips will be sailing around the island as from 2008.