Seaforth Island is an uninhabited island in the Outer Hebrides

Outer Hebrides

The Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland...

 of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. Unlike other islands of the Outer Hebrides which are mainly surrounded by open sea, Seaforth Island lies in a narrow fjord-like sea loch named Loch Seaforth

Loch Seaforth

Loch Seaforth is sea loch in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It forms the boundary between Lewis and Harris and formerly was the boundary between the traditional counties of Ross and Cromarty and Inverness-shire....

, 8 kilometres (5 mi) from the open waters of the Minch. Of the two variant Gaelic names, one is from the Old Norse name which describes its geographical location and the other is for Francis MacKenzie, Lord Seaforth, who inherited the island in 1783.

The island has poor soil which only supports rough grazing.

History

Although the island is not thought to have been inhabited in the past, the loch area was the subject of border disputes in the 19th century. In 1851, these were resolved by the unusual decision to allocate the whole of Seaforth Island to both counties, Ross and Cromarty

Ross and Cromarty

Ross and Cromarty is a variously defined area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There is a registration county and a lieutenancy area in current use...

 and Inverness-shire

Inverness-shire

The County of Inverness or Inverness-shire was a general purpose county of Scotland, with the burgh of Inverness as the county town, until 1975, when, under the Local Government Act 1973, the county area was divided between the two-tier Highland region and the unitary Western Isles. The Highland...

, which at the time controlled Lewis

Lewis

Lewis is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The total area of Lewis is ....

 and Harris respectively. This situation continued until the 1975 county reorganisation.

Footnotes