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Scares Islands

In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Scares Islands as:
‘Scar - Big and Little, 2 rocks, in entrance to Luce Bay, Wigtownshire’.

The Scares or the Scare Rocks are rocky islets in Luce Bay off the coast of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland although the pronunciation of the rocks varies according to which side of Luce Bay you were born on, I’ve heard Scares, Scars and Scarries. I am reliably informed however that the correct way to pronounce this group of rocks is 'Scar Rocks' with a silent 'e'.

Made up of the Little and Big Scares, the largest unsurprisingly is Big Scare which is 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) south west of Port William and a similar distance east of the Mull of Galloway. There is a small outlying rock to the west of Big Scare Link and three companion islets called the Little Scares are about 1 km to the north east. Link

The schooner Annie McLester was wrecked on Big Scare at an unknown date in the 19th century. On 27 January 1849 the 400 ton barque Archibald of Memel, was wrecked on the Little Scares. In September 1860 a small round-sterned four-oared boat, was picked up near to Big Scare. The parent vessel had presumably been lost in the vicinity although no record of this is known.

There is an MOD firing range in the area with brightly coloured floating targets deployed. The southern limit is marked by a yellow buoy 1.75 nmi SSE of The Scares and the buoys DZ1 to DZ6 mark the boundary of the range.

The islands are part of Luce Bay and Sands SAC and are leased to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. They have been described as an "inaccessible bird reserve" and provide nesting sites for more than 2,000 pairs of breeding Northern Gannets, hundreds of Guillemots and smaller numbers of Shags and Kittiwakes. Grey seals can also be seen around both groups of rocks. Depending on the light, the rocks can appear to take the form of a grey or white structure courtesy of sea bird guano.

The only way to get to the Scares is by boat and I am indebted to Murray and the Port William Lifeboat PIRSAC Link who allowed me to join them for a training exercise on Luce Bay which took in a visit to the Scares and a landing on Big Scare to inspect the bird population particularly the Gannet and Guillemot breeding sites.

References
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by Andy Farrington

Created: Thu, 12 Jul 2012, Updated: Sat, 4 May 2013


47 images use this description. Preview sample shown below:

NX2533 : Big Scare by Andy Farrington
NX2533 : Taking in the sun by Andy Farrington
NX2634 : Mind the rocks by Andy Farrington
NX2634 : Coasting around the Little Scares by Andy Farrington
NX2533 : Walking on Big Scare by Andy Farrington
NX2533 : Protecting the young by Andy Farrington
NX2534 : Chased by Gannets by Andy Farrington
NX2634 : Leaving the Little Scares by Andy Farrington
NX2634 : Little Scares by Andy Farrington
NX2634 : All of the Little Scares by Andy Farrington
NX2533 : Rocks on Luce Bay by Andy Farrington
NX2634 : Crew of the PIRSAC by Andy Farrington
NX2634 : Little Scares by Andy Farrington
NX2533 : Landing on Big Scare by Andy Farrington
NX2533 : Crew of the PIRSAC by Andy Farrington
NX2533 : Big Scare by David Purchase
NX2533 : Gannets on the Big Scare by Andy Farrington
NX2533 : Big Scare by David Purchase
NX2533 : Outlying Rock by Andy Farrington
NX2634 : Little Scares by Andy Farrington
NX2634 : On route to the Big Scare by Andy Farrington
NX2533 : Young Gannets by Andy Farrington
NX3142 : Yellow Buoy by Andy Farrington
NX2533 : Gannets on Big Scare by Andy Farrington
NX2634 : View from the Lifeboat by Andy Farrington

... and 22 more images.

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