‘Anthrax Island’: The mysterious Scottish island nobody is allowed to visit
Merely a dot at just two kilometres in length, just off the north-west coast of Scotland, is Gruinard Island, which has a complex and unusual history, and nobody is allowed to visit it.
Shaped by war and secrecy, the island has lived many lives, and now lies uninhabited and unvisited, and its story is often known by its more menacing nickname of ‘Anthrax Island’.
Long before World War II, which defined the island, it had been fairly unremarkable, with its earliest records coming in the 1500s, describing it as a wooded island that saw occasional use from local clans. Within 200 years, it had grown in importance, but only marginally. It was used to graze sheep by local communities, as well as an outpost at which it was possible to fish. With small-scale agriculture being its main use, it was important for local rural life.
Then, by the start of the 20th century, it was no longer inhabited. With nobody living on the island, people rarely visiting it, and no development, it soon caught the eye of the British government. In 1942, with World War II at its halfway point and battle raging across Europe and beyond, the British high brass requisitioned the island. There had been a real fear that Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime would deploy biological weapons against the Allies, and the British needed to develop their own weapons to be able to use as a deterrent.
The government had noted Gruinard’s isolated location, as well as the fact that it was surrounded entirely by water, making it perfect for containing contamination, and therefore an ideal place for secret military experiments. Gruinard, as part of the wider Operation Vegetarian, focused on anthrax, the deadly disease caused by Bacillus anthracis that can survive in the soil for decades.
Soon, 80 sheep were on their way to the island, where they were allowed to roam. Scientists then exploded devices filled with anthrax spores around them to check the effectiveness of their weapons. With the sheep quickly becoming infected and most dying within days, the test was a huge success; the weapon worked. The danger and threat of anthrax was large, and showed the terror that could unfold in large, inhabited areas, but the bad news was that all the sheep carcasses had to be burned to prevent the virus from spreading, and there was an even bigger problem in that the spores did not go away.
Clean-up attempts failed, and scientists realised that the spores had penetrated deep into the Gruinard soil. With anthrax being so resilient, the island was soon declared unsafe, and the government decided to quarantine the place and keep both humans and animals from it. The island was entirely fenced off and marked around its borders with warning signs. Landing on the island was banned, and only researchers with full authorisation were allowed to visit.
From the end of the 1970s, there had been growing discontent from the British public about the island and the anthrax spores that still covered its terrain. In 1981, media attention grew hugely after the Dark Harvest Commando, a mysterious group, claimed to have dumped contaminated soil from Gruinard at various government facilities. Now the pressure was firmly on the government, and they soon agreed to clean up the island properly.
Within a couple of years, the hugely expensive decontamination job was underway. The most contaminated areas of topsoil were removed, and the entire island was covered by 280 tonnes of formaldehyde solution. In time, they reintroduced sheep, keeping close tabs on their health in order to test if the island was safe. Finally, in 1990, the British government recognised its safety officially, and then sold Gruinard for £500, the original price that they purchased it for 48 years earlier, to the heirs of the original owner.
Today, the island is empty, and nobody lives there, with nature largely reclaiming it. A large wildfire took blaze across the island in 2022, but now the wildlife and vegetation are as healthy as they have ever been, but that said, it’s still not visited, firstly because it’s privately owned and there are no facilities there, and secondly because of lingering fears that it might not all, totally, be safe. Gruinard’s reputation as a deadly island still remains, but now this formerly contaminated place acts as a monument to the dangers of warfare and how, even away from the frontlines of conflict, it can leave a lasting mark.
