Islands Galore

How many islands are there in Scotland? How many have golf courses? How many shipwrecks are there? From the cover on, Jim Dow's Islands Galore – A Scottish Islands Handbook sets out to ask and answer your questions on those parts of Scotland which are surrounded by water. He is modest and up front about the book, stating 'this is not a gazetteer or a tourist manual'. Islands Galore is more of a miscellany, and as such, it is an entertaining introduction to its subject.

Answering the first query above is a tough call – it all depends on how you make your calculation. What is an island? How large does it have to be? Should islands in lochs count? What about islands shared by distinct and differently named communities? Around 800 are generally acknowledged, home to nearly 100,000 islanders. Over 7000 live together on the relatively small expanse of Bute, while a number of islands are home to only a handful of people: there is only one household on Auskerry, Vaila, Sanda and Gairsay.

As a trivia vampire, I'm always on the lookout for new information. A few of my favourite snippets from Islands Galore are:

• the Lake of Menteith is Scotland's only 'lake'
• the founder of the Laphroaig distillery drowned in a vat of brewing whisky
• in the Northern isles, Vikings should be called Norsemen, since 'Viking' has a negative connotation
• the St Kilda house mouse became extinct after the last islanders left in 1930
• the Eriskay pony was also near extinction until a stud pony named Eric was discovered on South Uist

Dow's book is as breezily readable as you would expect from a journalist with fifty years experience. Rather than cover everything, he hones in on a few subjects which particularly interest him, and so we have interesting sections on shipwrecks, golf courses, lighthouses, island beasts and(no surprise) local newspapers. Other highlights include selections from Boswell and Johnson's island travels and a rundown on the islands of Loch Lomond which sound rather magical (with their monastic ruins, bog myrtle, secluded bays and wallabies) and made me long for a summer's day in a rowboat out on the loch.