Soay, St Kilda

Soay (Soaigh) is an uninhabited islet in the St Kilda archipelago, Scotland. The name is from Old Norse Sauðey, meaning "island of sheep". The island is part of the St Kilda World Heritage Site and home to a primitive breed of sheep. Excluding Rockall, it is the westernmost point of the United Kingdom.

Geography
Soay lies some 40 mi west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic It is about 2 km north-west of Hirta, from which it is separated by the narrow Sound of Soay, which is only about 500 metres wide. Two sea stacks, Stac Shoaigh (Soay Stac), 61 m, and Stac Biorach, 73 m, lie between. The island covers about 96.8 ha and reaches a height of 378 m, the cliffs rising sheer from the sea.

The island is formed of a breccia of gabbro and dolerites and is a single mountain peak rising from the sea-bed, without Ice-Age erosion. Along with the rest of the archipelago, Soay is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, managed by NatureScot as a nature reserve and is included it the St Kilda World Heritage Site. It is unlikely that this island ever had permanent habitation. Men from Hirta would stay for a few days while gathering wool.

Wildlife
Feral Soay sheep are a relict population of the first sheep brought to northern Europe around 5000BC. They were kept for their wool, which was plucked, not shorn, and made into tweed. Only occasionally were the sheep killed for meat. When the neighbouring island of Hirta became uninhabited, Soay sheep were introduced there too, and more recently they have become widely kept elsewhere as a livestock animal. Another somewhat less primitive breed, the Boreray, lives on another island in the group.

The island's cliffs hold breeding colonies of many seabirds, including gannet, fulmar, storm petrel, Manx shearwater, razorbill, great skua, Leach's petrel and puffin.