#rockall

Rockall is an uninhabitable granite islet situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, 300km west of Soay (Scotland) and 700km south of Iceland; it and the nearby skerries of Hasselwood Rock and Helen's Reef are the only emergent parts of the Rockall Plateau. The rock was formed by magmatism as part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province during the Paleogene.

The origin and meaning of the islet's name Rockall is uncertain. The Scottish Gaelic name for the islet, Ròcal, may derive from an Old Norse name that may contain the element fjall, meaning 'mountain'. It has also been suggested that the name is from the Norse *rok, meaning 'foaming sea', and kollr, meaning 'bald head'—a word which appears in other placenames in Scandinavian-speaking areas. Another idea is that it derives from the Gaelic Sgeir Rocail, meaning 'skerry of roaring' or 'sea rock of roaring', although rocail can also be translated as 'tearing' or 'ripping'.

The Dutch mapmakers Petrus Plancius and C. Claesz show an island called Rookol northwest of Ireland on their Map of New France and the Northern Atlantic Ocean (Amsterdam, c. 1594). The first literary reference to the island, which is called Rokol, is found in Martin Martin's A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, published in 1703. This book gives an account of a voyage to the archipelago of St Kilda, and Martin states: "... and from it lies Rokol, a small rock sixty leagues to the westward of St Kilda; the inhabitants of this place call it Rokabarra."

The name Rocabarraigh is also used in Scottish Gaelic folklore for a mythical rock which is supposed to appear three times, its last appearance being at the end of the world: "Nuair a thig Rocabarra ris, is dual gun tèid an Saoghal a sgrios" ('When Rocabarra returns, the world will likely come to be destroyed').

Rockall's name has also been used in Irish mythology; one story describes how legendary giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) scooped up a chunk of Ireland to fling at a Scottish rival. It instead missed and landed in the Irish Sea – the pebble left behind formed Rockall, while the clump became the Isle of Man and the void left behind filled with water and eventually became Lough Neagh.

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Of the 795 souls onboard, 635 perished. The life-boats had insufficient capacity and did not deploy properly. Most who died were emigrants heading to North America - many of them Russians and Scandinavians from other countries than Denmark. The disaster is rarely mentioned in Denmark and anniversaries are never marked.

Further to my post on Rockall, I like the Wolfe Tones take on it. 

Oh the Empire it is finished No foreign lands to seize So the greedy eye of England I stirring towards the seas Two hundred miles from Donegal There's a place that's called Rockall And the groping hands of Whitehall Are grabbing at it's walls.

Oh rock on Rockall you'll never fall For Britains greedy hands Oh you'll meet the same resistance Like you did in many lands May the Seagulls rise and pluck your eyes And the water crush your shell And the natural gas will burn your ass And blow you all to hell

This rock is part of Ireland For it's written in folklore When Finn McCool took a sod of grass He threw it to the fore When he tossed a pebble across the sea Where ever did it fall For the sod became the Isle of Man Now the pebble's called Rockall

Oh rock on Rockall you'll never fall For Britains greedy hands Oh you'll meet the same resistance Like you did in many lands May the Seagulls rise and pluck your eyes And the water crush your shell And the natural gas will burn your ass And blow you all to hell

Oh the seas will not be silent While Britannia grabs the waves And remember that the Irish Will no longer be your slaves And remember that Britannia well She rules the waves no more So keep your hands off Rockall It's Irish to the core.

Rockall

Rockall es un pequeño peñón rocoso o islote ubicado en el océano Atlántico Norte a más de 300 km del territorio más cercano. Pertenece al Reino Unido desde 1955, a las Hébridas Exteriores. Con una anchura de unos 27 m y una altura de unos 23 m, este pequeño islote suele ser cubierto por las grandes olas provocadas por las tormentas, especialmente en invierno.

Su importancia radica en que el Reino Unido, aunque el islote no posee una zona económica exclusiva, reivindica para sí el derecho sobre los recursos del lecho submarino alrededor del peñón. Sin embargo esa reivindicación choca con las peticiones sobre el mismo territorio por parte de Islandia, Islas Feroe (Dinamarca) e Irlanda.

En 1997 la organización Greenpeace ocupó el islote en protesta por la exploración de yacimientos petrolíferos por parte de los británicos. Cambiaron su nombre a Waveland y proclamaron su independencia como un nuevo estado. El gobierno británico se limitó a autorizar su permanencia en la roca. El experimento duró hasta 1999 en que colapsó por falta de fondos. Durante ese período llegó a ocuparse la roca durante 42 días seguidos lo que constituye el récord de permanencia en el islote.