Gruinard Island ( /ˈɡrɪnjərd/ GRIN-yərd; Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Ghruinneard) is a small, oval-shaped Scottish island approximately 1.2 miles (2 km) long by 0.62 miles (1 km) wide, located in Gruinard Bay, about halfway between Gairloch and Ullapool. At its closest point to the mainland it is just over 0.68 miles (1.1 km) offshore. The island was made dangerous for all mammals by experiments with the anthrax bacterium, until it was decontaminated in the late 20th century.
Read more about Gruinard Island: Early History, Biological Warfare Testing, Operation Dark Harvest, Decontamination, Popular Culture References
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“We crossed a deep and wide bay which makes eastward north of Kineo, leaving an island on our left, and keeping to the eastern side of the lake. This way or that led to some Tomhegan or Socatarian stream, up which the Indian had hunted, and whither I longed to go. The last name, however, had a bogus sound, too much like sectarian for me, as if a missionary had tampered with it; but I knew that the Indians were very liberal. I think I should have inclined to the Tomhegan first.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)