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The Treshnish IslesThe Hebridean Trust completed the purchase of the Treshnish Isles (26 April 2000) with grant assistance from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The Treshnish Isles possess unique landscape, rich wildlife communities and contain habitat, which is vital for several vulnerable species. They have an archaeological history dating from early Viking times. The islands already have international recognition of their heritage value. They are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981) because of their unique geomorphology, populations of seals, cliff- and burrow-nesting seabirds, wintering wildfowl and populations of house mice. They have also recently been designated as a Special Protection Area under the EC Directive (79/409) on the Conservation of Wild Birds.
The specific mission for the Hebridean Trust on the Treshnish Isles is to:
News Update This project was undertaken in order to assist with the conservation and restoration of the structures and to assess the potential for further archaeological investigation. The archaeological work also included an evaluation of the site of a new light to be constructed by the Northern Lighthouse Board at the southern tip of the island. The evaluation concluded that there were no archaeological features located in the footprint of the light and so no further work was required.
This survey has highlighted the important strategic position held by the Treshnish Isles, and Cairnburgh Castle in particular, and their involvement in major political events until the mid eighteenth century. It has also recorded the state of preservation of the diverse types of monuments that survive on the island. It has shown that there is great potential for further archaeological work on the island, including examination of the Medieval chapel and possible burial ground, the eighteenth-century barracks, the entrance way and curtain wall, possible midden deposits, nineteenth-century possibly turf-built structures, waterlogged deposits within the ‘well’ and potential prehistoric and Norse remains. The survey has also highlighted the potential for a future survey of the adjacent island of Cairn Na Burgh Beg.
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The
Treshnish Isles are one of the most scenically evocative features of the
Hebridean landscape. Variously described as like a fleet of 'Dreadnoughts
in line astern' or 'tabular icebergs broken from a great ice sheet', they
guard the Passage of Tiree against the backdrops of the mountains of Mull
to the east and the low islands of Tiree and Coll and the open Atlantic
Ocean to the west. Exposed to the open ocean and having no settlements
or good landing sites, they are most often viewed and admired at a distance.
Their extraordinary morphology is eye-catching even when they are little
more than dark shapes on the horizon, but at close quarters they also
live up to the expectation of unusual and spectacular scenery and vibrant
wildlife communities. 
