Rinns of Islay

As Rhinns of Islay ( Gaelic: Na Roinn Ileach ), also written Rinns of Islay, a peninsula of the Scottish island of Islay is called. Your name is derived from Gaelic Roinn for Cape advantage. The highest point of the island is 232 m high hill Beinn Tart a'Mhill. Along the west coast there are the bays Lossit Bay, Kilchiaran Bay and Machir Bay.

• 3.1 Tourism
• 3.2 Whisky
• 3.3 generation

Geography

Location

The Rhinns of Islay occupies the southwestern part of the Hebridean island of Islay. It extends about 17 km in the north-south direction and a maximum of about seven kilometers in east-west direction. About an isthmus between the gulfs Indaal hole and hole Gruinart in the northeast it is connected to the main part of the island. From sea side of the Atlantic Ocean, the peninsula is bordered on the west, while hole Indaal limits the peninsula to the east. The southern tip is called Rhinns Point. About 500 meters off the coast of Portnahaven is the small island Orsay, on which the Rhinns -of- Islay lighthouse stands, the father of the author Robert Louis Stevenson in 1825 built.

Administratively the Rhinns of Islay is associated as part of the unitary authority Islay Argyll and Bute. Historically, it was part of the traditional county of Argyllshire today.

Settlements

The island of Islay is with 3457 inhabitants (as of 2001) only sparsely populated with an area of ​​615 km2, the Rhinns of Islay is no exception. For this reason, no towns are there to find, but well with Port Charlotte and Portnahaven two major settlements. In addition, several smaller hamlets along the coast. Coastal areas, however, are far largely uninhabited.

Traffic

With the A847, a road runs along the east coast of Bridgend after Portnahaven. Up Port Charlotte is expanded two-track, while all other roads are only one lane. The most important include the continuation of the A847 along the west coast north to Kilchiaran, the east leads back from there to Port Charlotte, and thus is the only east- west connection of the peninsula. Railroads are not present.

Flora and Fauna

The landscape is changing episodes of moor, heath and dunes, marsh and farmland. Parts of the Rhinns are used intensively for Weidung of sheep and cattle. As a result of bird richness, particularly in the United Kingdom rare species Rhinns of Islay is recognized as European bird sanctuary. In 1998, 31 breeding pairs of chough ( pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax ) were counted, which corresponds to 9.1% of the total population in the United Kingdom; 62 pairs, which corresponds to 9% of the population in winter, spend the winter there. In addition, 1600 copies winter ( 11.4% of the total British population in winter) Greenland White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons flavirostris ) in the Rhinns of Islay.

Geology

From a geological point of view, a large part is assigned to the Rhinns complex. This consists of about 60 % of syenite with embedded gabbro ( about 35 %), which occurs in layers of up to nearly ten kilometers in length with a thickness of up to one kilometer. The remaining five percent make mafic and felsic mainly of minerals. On the basis of isotope studies, the age of the complex was determined to be about 1.8 billion years. The Rhinns complex also occurs on parts of the islands of Colonsay and Inishtrahull and off the north coast of Ireland. Large parts are submarine.

Economy

Tourism

Tourism is a not insignificant economic factor on the Rhinns of Islay dar. There are several hotels and holiday homes, mainly in Port Charlotte and surrounding areas. There is also a Youth exists, also the Museum of Islay Life, which shows the history of the island up to the present time.

Whiskey

On Islay whiskey production was of great importance since the 19th century. This is done even as Islay malt whiskey region. Of the two now eight active distilleries on the island are the Rhinns of Islay - the Bruichladdich distillery in Bruichladdich and the young Kilchoman distillery. Historically, it was with Lochindaal (also known as Port Charlotte ) and Octomore two other nationally important distilleries, which were, however, in 1929 or 1860 closed.

Power generation

About 1.3 kilometers north- west of the village Portnahaven went with the investment Limpet 500, the first wave power plant in the world in operation, which is operated commercially and fed into the public power grid. It was completed in November 2000 and provides up to 150 MW. However, the originally planned capacity of 500 MW could not be reached. Operator is Voith Hydro Wavegen, a wholly owned subsidiary of the German Voith Hydro.