Muck (/ˈmʌk/; Scottish Gaelic: Eilean nam Muc) is the smallest of four main islands in the Small Isles, part of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.

The lava flows are cut through by a swarm of Palaeocene age basalt and dolerite dykes generally aligned NNW-SSE.

A handful of faults are mapped on a similar alignment, the most significant one of which stretches SE from Bagh a Ghallanaichy of Laig.

Gabbro is exposed along the eastern side of the bay of Camas Mor whilst on its western side are a suite of sedimentary rocks including small exposures of the Valtos Sandstone, Duntulm and Kilmaluag formations representing the upper part of the middle Jurassic Great Estuarine Group which is more extensively exposed on nearby Eigg.

This allows vehicles to be driven on and off the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry, MV Lochnevis, which links Muck and the neighbouring Small Isles with the mainland port of Mallaig (2½ hours away).

[13] Until 1970 it had no electricity supply; this was initially provided by means of diesel generators[note 1], but in 1999 two large wind turbines were built.

At some point in the Iron Age, a natural stack – Caistel nan Duin Bhan – in a commanding position near Port Mòr, was fortified by construction of a thick wall around the summit; it remained in use until medieval times.

According to local traditions, after Columba, a 6th-century Irishman, established a campaign (based at Iona) to Christianise the region, he himself visited Muck.

Malcolm III of Scotland acknowledged in writing that Suðreyjar was not Scottish, and king Edgar quitclaimed any residual doubts.

Little is recorded of how the Bishop dealt with Muck, but in 1266, by the Treaty of Perth, the Scottish king purchased the whole of Suðreyjar[note 9].

At the turn of the century, William I had created the position of Sheriff of Inverness, to be responsible for the Scottish highlands, which theoretically now extended to Muck;[17][18] nevertheless, the Treaty explicitly preserved the status of the various divisions of Suðreyjar as crown dependencies, leaving the Bishop effectively sovereign.

In 1617, Andrew Knox, a presbyterian who reluctantly held the post of Bishop of the Isles, sold Muck to Lachlan Maclean, the laird of Coll.

A few years later, however, the MacLeans Lairds began a campaign of religious persecution, demanding that all tenants renounce the Catholic Church in Scotland, or face eviction.

[20] When Samuel Johnson and James Boswell visited the region in 1773, though they didn't visit Muck in person, the laird[note 13] was keen to ensure they were aware of his philanthropy, which Johnson subsequently reported in his book A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland: The Laird having all his people under his immediate view, seems to be very attentive to their happiness.

Many trades they cannot have among them, but upon occasion, he fetches a smith from the Isle of Egg, and has a tailor from the main land, six times a year.

[21]Nevertheless, Lachlan, his nephew and eventual heir, fell into debt, as a result of being appointed Resident Governor of the Tower of London; in 1802 he therefore sold Muck to the leader of Clan Ranald.

Following the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, a decade after Johnson's visit, the availability of certain minerals became restricted, causing the price for kelp[note 15] to rocket.

However, when the Napoleonic Wars ended, just a few years later, the kelp price collapsed, making rents impossible for the population of Muck to afford.

[7] In the late 1830s, the island was leased to John Cameron,[note 19] a famed cattle-drover, who replaced the sheep with cattle.

While the Thorburns built roads and installed a threshing machine, Swinburne was keen to invest in fishing, and built dykes (Scottish term for dry stone walls), and a pier at Port Mòr; when not working on the farm, the remaining islanders fished the Rockall area.

However, the Act established a boundary review, which decided, in 1891, to move Muck to the county of Inverness, where Eigg already sat.