The Dark History of Gruinard Island

Interestingly on our trip we met some lovely people and some very informative locals. At the time things were very hectic and phone signal poor so was hard to follow up on the information passed to us. We were constantly on the move and our minds focused on our challenge. There was, however, one encounter in particular that sparked my interest. It was that of a local postoffice/ convent store and fuel Station in Laide. The lady who served us was a mind of information and little known to us a very dark place sat just off the coast of mainland Scotland along the Nc500 route.

Among the beauty of the crystal clear waters, lush green countryside and heathered mountains, lay Gruinard Island. This, a truly disturbing and dangerous place, well atleast up until 1990. Thinking back to our trip, I recall looking out across the waters and lovely little islands that scattered just off the coastline in awe of there beauty. A beauty that I didn’t know was hiding a dark piece of history. Now home and with a little time to spare I searched on youtube for  ”Anthrax Island’, which the local lady told us it was more know as. Straight away, I spotted a bbc documentary on it. So I put my feet up with a cuppa and sat back to watch. To say i was in shock at what I watched was an understand. It compelled me to share it with you all. If you have the time watch the documentary but ill try explain in brief terms.

In world war 2, the British army used the island to try and harvest a chemical weapon. This was instructed by Churchhill as he believe that Hitler had a chemical bomb. Scientist created a poison, which we know now as ‘Anthrax’. After testing on sheep, and lots of mini explosions, happy with their weapon creation, the scientist and army left the island. Signs went up demanding people stay of the island due to the high levels of contamination. A whole island, that once was inhabited, now left completely forbidden to enter and fully contaminated with Anthrax spores. Many years later, in the 1980’s an activist group managed to get on the island, or so it seemed. They extracted soil containing Anthrax, and sent packages off to government events and locations along with letters to the government. The government officials knew it had to have come from Gruinard Island or its new name anthrax Island. They tried to find out who it was that had removed the soil but still to this day they have no idea who was involved in the activist group. It wasn’t until 1990 that the British army cleaned the island properly and declared it free of contamination. Had it not been for this activist group I do wonder if the island would have just been left. It has been said now that the contaminated soil sent was not from Gruinard Island and was infact contaminated soil that had managed to reach the mainland via small explosions during testing. Test have never been carried out on the mainland as it would be too coastly for the goverment. This is only a small part of what possibly happened on this island . Government and Offical paperwork still remains sealed and not allowed to be opened until 2046(atleast I think that was the date).

So while you travel the roads of our beautiful country and look out to the stunning coastal islands, don’t forget its steeped in history and for Gruinard Island a very dark one.

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