The Isle of May, a small island in the Firth of Forth, shifts between a remote, brooding landscape and a busy refuge for wildlife and people. Its strategic position amid shipping routes, reefs and sudden fogs has shaped a history of danger and human activity. Early Christian communities and a Benedictine priory made it a destination for pilgrims seeking cures and help with fertility; Viking raiders killed the island’s monastic population in 875. In later centuries, fishermen, smugglers and men evading naval press gangs lived among its caves and inlets, while local tales of kelpies, the Devil and witchcraft grew from the island’s secrecy and hardship.
The island’s lighthouses embody both engineering and tragedy. Robert Stevenson’s 1816 lighthouse offered relatively sociable conditions for keepers and their families, but an earlier coal-fired beacon was associated with the deaths of a keeper’s family from fumes in 1791; their infant daughter survived. The island also recalls the 1918 “Battle of May,” when Royal Navy vessels collided with one another, sinking two submarines and killing many sailors, and its role in wartime defence. Today, the Isle of May is known for its large puffin colony. A rescued young puffin, Scout, is released at sea and quickly begins diving, illustrating the birds’ remarkable instincts and demanding life. The account links his survival to concern about puffin decline and the limits of human control over nature.
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