Inchkeith (from the ) is an island in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, administratively part of the Fife council area.
Inchkeith has had a colourful history as a result of its proximity to Edinburgh, its strategic location for use as a home for Inchkeith Lighthouse, and for military purposes defending the Firth of Forth from attack from shipping and more recently protecting the upstream Forth Bridge and Rosyth Dockyard. Inchkeith has, by some accounts, been inhabited (intermittently) for almost 1,800 years.
Geography, geology and climate
The island lies in the midst of the Firth of Forth, midway between Kirkcaldy to the north and Leith to the south. Due to the undulation of the Fife coast it lies substantially closer to Fife rather than Midlothian, the closest settlement being Kinghorn to the north, with Burntisland to the north-west being only slightly more distant.
Although most of the island is of volcanic origin, the island's geology is surprisingly varied. As well as the igneous rock, there are also some sections of sandstone, shale, coal and limestone. The shale contains a great number of fossils. There are several springs on the island.
The island has the lowest average rainfall in Scotland at annually.
The island has an abundance of springs, as noted by James Grant. James Boswell noted two wells on the island during his visit, and speculated as to the former existence of a third within the Castle.
History
Etymology The name "Inchkeith" may derive from the medieval Scottish Gaelic Innse Coit, meaning "wooded island".William J. Watson, Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, (Edinburgh, 1926), new ed. (Edinburgh, 2004), p. 382. The latter element coit, in Old Welsh coet, is from the Proto-Celtic *cēto-, "wood". The late 9th century Sanas Cormaic, authored by Cormac mac Cuilennáin, suggests that the word had disappeared from the Gaelic of Ireland by that period, becoming coill; he states "coit coill isin chombric", that is, "coit is Welsh for wood", and explains that the Irish place-name Sailchoit is partly derived from Welsh.William J. Watson, Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, p. 381. Although Scottish Gaelic was closer to Brythonic than Irish was, the Life of St Serf (written before 1180) calls the island Insula Keð, suggesting the possibility that the specific element in Inchkeith was not comprehensible to that hagiography's anonymous author or translator; if we could be sure that the author was Scottish, rather than an English or French incomer, this could be taken to mean that the word was probably not comprehensible even in Fife Gaelic in the 12th century.The work contains a number of place-names with good Gaelic orthography; see Alan Macquarrie, "Life of St Serf", in the Innes Review, vol. 44, no. 2 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 122-52. Since Gaelic had all but disappeared as a language spoken natively in southern Fife by the mid-14th century,Simon Taylor, "Babbet and Bridin Pudding or Polyglot Fife in the Middle Ages", in Nomina, 17 (1994), pp. 99–118. there is no continuous Gaelic tradition for the name, but the modern form is Innis Cheith.See Stòr-dàta Briathrachais Gàidhlig - Rùrachadh, sv "Innis Cheith".
Such a rocky and exposed island can however never have supported many trees so it would be reasonable that the derivation may be otherwise. Early associations between Saint Adomnán and the island may indicate that the second element is derived from the name of his contemporary and associate Coeddi (or Céti), bishop of Iona.
Earliest history Almost nothing is known about the early history of Inchkeith, and there is no certain reference to the island until the 12th century. In the days when people were compelled to cross the Firth of Forth by boat as opposed to bridge, the island was a great deal less isolated, and on the ferry routes between Leith/Lothian and Fife. Like nearby Inchcolm and the Isle of May, Inchkeith was attacked repeatedly by English raiders in the 14th century. This was the period when the Scottish Wars of Independence were in full swing, and decisive battles were being fought in the Lothians and in the Stirling/Bannockburn region, and so the island was effectively in the route of any supply or raiding vessels.
It is unknown who owned Inchkeith from the 8th century onward, but it is known that it was the property of the Crown until granted to Lord Glamis.
Inchkeith as quarantine In 1497, the island was (along with Inchgarvie, a few miles away) used as an isolated refuge for victims of 'grandgore' (also spelled 'glandgore'), an old Scots name for 'syphilis', in Edinburgh. The 'grandgor' was recognised in the 1497 Minutes of the Town Council of Edinborough (Phil. Trans. XLII. 421) "This contagious sickness callit the Grandgor.". The Grandgore Act was passed in September 1497, causing Inchkeith, as well as other islands in the Firth, such as Inchgarvie, to be made a place of "Compulsory Retirement" for people suffering from this disease. They were told to board a ship at Leith and once there, "to remain till God provide for their health". It is probable that they all died.
In 1589, history repeated itself and the island was used to quarantine the passengers of a plague-ridden ship. More plague sufferers came here from the mainland in 1609. In 1799, Russian sailors who died of an infectious disease were buried here.
James IV's linguistic experiment During the reign of James IV of Scotland, Inchkeith was allegedly the site of a language deprivation experiment. Robert Lyndsay of Pitscottie wrote in a chronicle that in 1493, James IV directed that a mute woman and two infants be transported to the island, to ascertain which language the infants would grow up to speak isolated from the rest of the world. This speech, in contemporary theory, would be the "original" language, or the "language of God". Pitscottie's version of the story was:
However, there are no contemporary sources or documents describing such an experiment, and modern historians consider the story implausible.Robin N. Campbell & Robert Grieve (December 1981). "Royal Investigations of the Origin of Language". Historiographia Linguistica 9(1–2):43–74. . James IV took a boat from Leith to the island on 20 June 1502 and went on to Kinghorn.James Balfour Paul (1900). Accounts of the Treasurer. Vol. 2. Edinburgh. p. 151.
Rough Wooing, Reformation, and the 17th century
In the 16th century, the island was the subject of fighting during the war of the Rough Wooing. A fort on the island was damaged by an English force in May 1544.Pacal de Gayangos, Calendar State Papers Spain, 7 (London, 1899), p. 158 no. 95. The English commander Duke of Somerset garrisoned the island in 1547 after the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh. His force of marines was ordered to reinforce the island, so they built a large square fort, with corner towers, on the site of the present day lighthouse. A French soldier, Jean de Beaugué, described how the building works were visible from Leith in June 1548. De Beaugué wrote that four companies of English soldiers and a company of Italians were ordered to help the English workmen, who were "pioneers" not soldiers.Abercromby, trans, Jean de Beaugué's History of the Campagnes in Scotland, (1707), p.114
The English admiral Edward Fiennes de Clinton anchored his fleet at Inchkeith in August 1548. His task was to prevent sea traffic in the Forth and the security of the English at the siege of Haddington. Clinton reported destroying 38 ships on 9 August 1548. French galleys lay off Burntisland. His duty in the Forth prevented him coming to aid John Luttrell at Broughty Castle.Cameron, Annie, Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine (Edinburgh, 1927), pp. 264-7
The garrison was ejected by a combined Franco-Scottish force under General D’Essé (André de Montalembert, Sieur de Essé) on 19 or 29 June 1549.Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings (Tuckwell, 2000), p. 341."Capture of Inchkeith". (pdf) Electric Scotland.com. Retrieved 17 December 2012. Jean de Beaugué describes Monsieur de le Chapelle's injury while leading his German troops against the Italians and English who made a stand on the summit of the hill.Abercromby, trans, Jean de Beaugué's History of the Campagnes in Scotland (1707), pp. 123-4. On the following day, Mary of Guise, the regent, visited the island, to see the "three and four hundred of her dead foes still unburied". Since 29 June was in France, she renamed the island "L’Île de Dieu". The soldiers also nicknamed it "L’Île des Chevaux" (The island of horses). Neither name stuck. Seven English banners captured on the island were sent to Henri II of France. On 17 July 1549, he gave the soldiers who brought the banners lifetime pensions.Calendar State Papers Spain, vol. 9 (London, 1912), p. 404. On 22 June Regent Arran's Privy Council ordered that all the towns and burghs on both sides of the Forth should contribute a workforce of 400 men to strengthen the fortifications, and pay their wages of two shillings for 16 days.Register of the Privy Council, Addenda, vol. 14, p. 8
After the end of the war of the Rough Wooing, the island was occupied by the French, under Mary of Guise, during her period as the Regent of Scotland between 1554 and 1560. The old English fortifications were further strengthened by the Scots and French, who under D’Essé built a larger and stronger fort. The works may have been directed by the Italian architect and military engineer Lorenzo Pomarelli.Amadio Ronchini, 'Lorenzo Pomarelli' in Atti e memorie delle RR. Deputazioni di storia patria per le provincie Modenesi e Parmensi, 4 (Modena, 1868), pp. 264-5, 271. Accounts for this rebuilding written in French survive with the names of the Scottish craftsmen and women who worked there in 1555.National Archives of Scotland, The French-born gunner and carpenter Andrew Mansioun supervised a team of twenty three horses on the island.Michael Pearce, 'A French Furniture Maker and the 'Courtly Style' in Sixteenth-Century Scotland', Regional Furniture vol. XXXII (2018), p. 131. Further construction work in 1558 was supervised by the master of work, William MacDowall.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1913), pp. 431-4.
During the siege of Leith, the English commander Grey of Wilton obtained a description of the fortress as it stood on 17 April 1560. The wall and rampart was 30 feet thick, being 14 feet of stone behind 16 feet of earth. There were 140 French soldiers with 70 women, boys and labourers. As the English admiral William Wynter was trying to blockade the island and cut off supplies, the garrison was eating oysters and periwinkles gathered at low water and fish caught with angling rods. Grey of Wilton thought he could capture the island with 600 men and 10 cannons but was worried that he could not guarantee to support the force on the island once landed if he was attacked elsewhere.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1547-1563, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 365 no. 737. After the peace of the Treaty of Edinburgh in September 1560, the English diplomat Thomas Randolph noted that Captain Lucinet and his French garrison remained on Inchkeith, but there were now more women than men, and Edinburgh was called the island "l'Isle des Femmes."Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 481-2 no. 906.