Mingay is an islet in the Inner Hebrides

Inner Hebrides

The Inner Hebrides is an archipelago off the west coast of Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which enjoy a mild oceanic climate. There are 36 inhabited islands and a further 43 uninhabited Inner Hebrides with an area greater than...

 off Skye

Skye

Skye or the Isle of Skye is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillin hills...

 and Isay

Isay

Isay is an uninhabited island in the Inner Hebrides of the west coast of Scotland. It lies in Loch Dunvegan, off the northwest coast of the Isle of Skye. Two smaller isles of Mingay and Clett lie nearby. The name originated from the Old Norse ise-øy meaning porpoise island...

.

Together with Isay

Isay

Isay is an uninhabited island in the Inner Hebrides of the west coast of Scotland. It lies in Loch Dunvegan, off the northwest coast of the Isle of Skye. Two smaller isles of Mingay and Clett lie nearby. The name originated from the Old Norse ise-øy meaning porpoise island...

 and Loch Dunvegan

Loch Dunvegan

Loch Dunvegan, is a sea loch on the west coast of the island of Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Dunvegan, the village it was named after is located by its southern shore. The settlements of Galtrigill, Borreraig, Uig and Colbost are located on its western shore. Claigan is located on its...

, it is designated as a Special Area of Conservation

Special Area of Conservation

A Special Area of Conservation is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive , also known as the Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora...

 owing to the breeding colonies of the common seal.

Geography and geology

The island's rock is basalt

Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

ic lava with shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

 and quartzite

Quartzite

Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...

.

Mingay is in eastern part of Loch Dunvegan. It is due south of Ardmore Point and west of Waternish

Waternish

Waternish or Bhatairnis/Vaternish is a peninsula approximately long on the island of Skye, Scotland, situated between Loch Dunvegan and Loch Snizort in the northwest of the island, and traditionally inhabited and owned by Clan MacLeod whose clan seat is at the nearby Dunvegan Castle. The current...

, both on Skye. It also looks south to the Skye mountain Beinn Bhreac, and to the south east, Sgeir nam Biast.

History

The island's name is Old Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

 in origin, which is in turn the origin of many of the placenames on nearby Skye, as well as the name of Isay, and the neighbouring Clett (Scottish Gaelic: Cleit from Old Norse klettr, meaning a rock.)