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Stac an Armin (Scottish Gaelic: ''Stac an Àrmainn''), based on the proper Scottish Gaelic spelling (formerly ''àrmuinn''), is a sea stack in the St Kilda archipelago. It is 196 metres (643 ft.) tall, qualifying it as a Marilyn. It is the highest sea stack in Scotland and the British Isles.〔The National Trust for Scotland has 191 m. 〕 The name Stac an Armin means stack of the soldier/warrior, and evidence remains showing it was used by people living nearby as a hunting grounds. It is not believed to have been inhabited year round, but has hosted some (involuntary) extended stays. Climbing the rocks was once done to collect eggs and has continued in the form of recreational sport. The island was once home to the now extinct great auk, and rules exist to protect the bird habitats and breeding grounds. Stac an Armin is 400 metres (¼ mi) north of Boreray and near the 172-metre-high (564 ft) Stac Lee. Stac an Armin is separated from Boreray by a channel "so littered with rocks" that it should not be sailed, though sailors write passionately about the views. ==History and people== The first written account of the island was Martin Martin's description in the early 18th century. Martin wrote about the island after the Scottish writer had visited St Kilda in 1697 and included a few anecdotes about the stack in his ''A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland'' published in 1703. It was the first comprehensive book on the archipelago, to which was appended "A Late Voyage to St Kilda". Martin calls the island "Stack-Narmin."〔"A Late Voyage to St. Kilda," chapter 2, in 〕 It was never inhabited full-time, but hunting its bird population helped sustain the way of life of the population of St Kilda, as evidenced by the buildings they left behind. There are no fewer than 78 storage cleitean on Stac an Armin and a small bothy, built by the St Kildans. Martin describes these cleitean as "pyramids" and wrote they were used to "preserve and dry" birds, especially the "solan goose" (northern gannet). Martin observed one harvest that brought in 800 birds.〔 In addition to the geese, the islanders used Stac an Armin for harvesting great auks, gannets, and puffins, as well as their eggs. The numerous birds that lived on the island were an important source of sustenance for the people of St Kilda. The longest recorded period anyone ever spent on the island was about nine months. Three men and eight boys from Hirta were marooned here from about 15 August 1727 until 13 May 1728. As luck would have it, Hirta suffered a smallpox outbreak while the eleven were on the stack, and thus the islanders were unable to man a boat and retrieve them until the next year. Such temporary accidental occupation of the island may have been a regular event, since Martin Martin also relates, in an anecdote in ''A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland'', how a group of some twenty men were stranded on the island for a couple of days after the rope that held their boat broke. They survived by fishing, and communicated to their wives that they were alive and well by lighting "as many fires on the top of an eminence as there were men in number." Martin adds, curiously, that the wives were so overjoyed that they managed to produce a record harvest of corn that year.〔Martin, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland.〕 The archipelago as a whole was evacuated in 1930, and bequeathed to the National Trust for Scotland in 1957. Hunting birds is no longer allowed, and the stack is visited only occasionally by scientists, journalists and climbers. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stac an Armin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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