Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 21 on 10/07/2005.

This article is 38 months old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

Jewel of the North

The Inches are islands in the Forth close to Edinburgh. David McVey visited Inchcolm and found it soaked in history

You sometimes get the impression that all of Scotland’s offshore islands are found in Orkney and Shetland and off the West Coast. Certainly, most of them are.

Yet not only does the East Coast have islands of its own, but it can offer up a few genuine gems. Some of the best of them are found around the Firth of Forth.

Out towards the North Sea, the likes of the Isle of May and the Bass Rock are impressive enough for any tastes, while nearer to Edinburgh there are the Forth Inches. Three of these – Inchmickery, Inchkeith and, right below the Forth Bridge itself, Inchgarvie – are rather tawdry, with the ruins of defensive structures from two World Wars.

The fourth of the Forth Inches, Inchcolm, has plenty of similar remains, but also an enduring beauty and a lengthy history that make it a must-visit. And, happily, it is the only one of the Forth Inches on which the ordinary visitor can set foot.

‘Inch’ is a corruption of the Gaelic ‘Innis’ meaning ‘island’. ‘Colm’, though, is a Gaelic rendering of ‘Columba’. This helps to explain why the island is sometimes known as ‘the Iona of the East’, and why it is still dominated by the remains of an Augustinian abbey.

Actually, the spiritual origins of Inchcolm are quite obscure. The island’s St Colm has been identified with Columba since medieval times, but there’s no evidence that they are the same person. The Forth is also some distance from Columba’s usual haunts. If he was his own man, though, St Colm is someone we know nothing.....

To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue or subscribe to Scotland Magazine to have every issue delivered direct to your door.

By David McVey

Section : Scottish Islands

Page number : 62