Gruinard Island is a small, oval-shaped Scottish island approximately 2
kilometres long by 1 kilometre wide, located in Gruinard Bay, about halfway
between Gairloch and Ullapool. At its closest point to the mainland it is just
over 1.1 kilometres offshore. The island was made dangerous for all mammals by
experiments with the anthrax bacterium, until it was decontaminated in the late
20th century. Early history
The island was mentioned by Dean Munro who travelled the area in the mid 16th
century. He wrote that it was Clan MacKenzie territory, was "full of
woods", and that it was "guid for fostering of thieves and rebellis".
The population was recorded as six in 1881, but Gruinard has been uninhabited
since the 1920s. Biological warfare testing
Gruinard was the site of a biological warfare test by British military
scientists from Porton Down in 1942, during the Second World War. At that
time there was an investigation by the British government into the feasibility
of an attack using anthrax. Given the nature of the weapon which was being
developed, it was recognised that tests would cause widespread and long-lasting
contamination of the immediate area by anthrax spores. In order to limit
contamination a remote and uninhabited island was required. Gruinard was
surveyed, deemed suitable and requisitioned from its owners by the
British Government. The anthrax strain chosen for the
Gruinard bioweapons trials was a highly virulent type called "Vollum 14578",
named after R. L. Vollum, Professor of Bacteriology at the University of
Oxford, who supplied it. Eighty sheep were taken to the island and bombs
filled with anthrax spores were exploded close to where selected groups were
tethered. The sheep became infected with anthrax and began to die within days of
exposure. Some of the experiments were recorded on 16 mm colour movie film,
which was declassified in 1997. One sequence shows the detonation of an
anthrax bomb fixed at the end of a tall pole supported with guy ropes. When the
bomb is detonated a brownish aerosol cloud drifts away towards the target
animals. A later sequence shows anthrax-infected sheep carcasses being
burned in incinerators following the conclusion of the experiment.
Scientists concluded after the tests were completed that a large release of
anthrax spores would thoroughly pollute German cities, rendering them
uninhabitable for decades afterwards. These conclusions were supported by the
discovery that initial efforts to decontaminate the island after the
biological warfare trials had ended failed because of the high durability of
anthrax spores. In 1945 when the owner sought the return
of Gruinard Island, the Ministry of Supply recognized that the island was
contaminated as a result of the wartime experiments and consequently it could
not be derequisitioned until it was deemed safe. In 1946, the Crown agreed
to acquire the island and to take on the onus of responsibility. The owner or her
heirs and beneficiaries would be able to repurchase the island for the sale price
of £500 when it was declared "Fit for habitation by man and beast".
For many years it was judged too hazardous and expensive to decontaminate
the island sufficiently to allow public access. Gruinard Island was quarantined
indefinitely as a result. Visits to the island were prohibited, except periodic
checks by Porton Down personnel to determine the level of contamination.
Operation Dark Harvest In 1981 newspapers began receiving
messages with the heading "Operation Dark Harvest" which demanded that the
government decontaminate the island, and reported that a "team of microbiologists
from two universities" had landed on the island with the aid of local people and
collected 300 lb of soil. The group threatened to leave samples of the soil
"at appropriate points that will ensure the rapid loss of indifference of the
government and the equally rapid education of the general public". The
same day a sealed package of soil was left outside the military research
facility at Porton Down; tests revealed that it contained anthrax bacilli. A few
days later another sealed package of soil was left in Blackpool, where the
ruling Conservative Party was holding its annual conference. The soil did not
contain anthrax, but officials said that the soil was similar to that found on
the island. Decontamination
Starting in 1986 a determined effort was made to decontaminate the island, with
280 tonnes of formaldehyde solution diluted in seawater being sprayed over
all 196 hectares of the island and the worst-contaminated topsoil around the
dispersal site being removed. A flock of sheep was then placed on the island and
remained healthy. On 24 April 1990, after 48 years of quarantine and 4 years
after the solution being applied, junior defence minister Michael Neubert visited
the island and announced its safety by removing the warning signs. On 1 May
1990, the island was repurchased by the heirs of the original owner for the
original sale price of £500. As of October 2007 there have been no
cases of anthrax in the island flock. Popular culture references
The island is mentioned in the novels The Enemy by Desmond Bagley, Sea of
Death by Richard P. Henrick, The Fist of God by Frederick Forsyth, Quantico by
Greg Bear, The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, Forbidden Island by Malcolm
Rose, And then you die by Iris Johansen, The Island by R J Price and The
Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin. In issues 187–188 of the comic book
Hellblazer, in a story titled "Bred in the Bone", the protagonist's niece finds
herself on Gruinard surrounded by flesh-eating children. The issues were
released in 2003 and were written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Doug
Alexander Gregory. An episode of the British wartime TV
series Foyle's War entitled "Bad Blood" involved biological testing – a strong
reference to the Gruinard testing. The Hawaii Five-O episode "Three Dead
Cows at Makapu, Part 2" featured a scientist played by Ed Flanders who
threatened to unleash a deadly virus on the island of Oahu. When being
interrogated, the scientist briefly mentions Gruinard Island and how it will
be uninhabitable for a century due to anthrax experiments.
Outlying Islands, a Fringe First winning play by Scottish dramatist David Greig,
is a fictionalised account of two British scientists' visit to an island
in Scotland where the government plans to test anthrax inspired by the story of
Gruinard. The 2013 UK TV series Utopia describes
the fictional outbreak of a new form of flu. During Episode 3, Dugdale visit the
proposed origin of the virus at the, now quarantined, Island of Fetlar. On
arrival, personnel at the Island, wearing orange overalls, carry one of
numerous covered bodies past on a stretcher in a scene that is nearly
identical to that seen in the original test footage from Gruinard Island. In
the dramatisation however, the personnel at Fetlar are seen wearing dust masks as
opposed to the gas masks seen in the Gruinard footage; likely due to budget
constraints. See also
Kantubek Vozrozhdeniya Island
Chernobyl Footnotes
References Haswell-Smith, Hamish. The Scottish
Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7.
Monro, Sir Donald Description of the Western Isles of Scotland. William Auld.
Edinburgh - 1774 edition. External links
Archive colour 16 mm footage from 1942, showing the Bioweapons testing on
Gruinard island The Plan that Never Was: Churchill and
the 'Anthrax Bomb' by Julian Lewis Gruinard Island photo
More footage of the testing done on Gruinard Island
Art Project based on Gruinard weapons testing :
http:www.locusplus.org.uk/lg.html