[7] Numerous well-known individuals have connections with the island including David Livingstone, Samuel Johnson and Walter Scott, who drew inspiration from Ulva for his 1815 poem, The Lord of the Isles.

Viewed on a small scale, Ulva and its neighbouring island Gometra appear to be a peninsula of the Isle of Mull, as they are separated from one another by narrow straits.

[3] Around 60 million years ago, the region was volcanically active, with Ben More on Mull being the remnant of a volcano, and it was in this period that the famous rock formations of Staffa and the basaltic columns of "The Castles" on Ulva came into being.

The Hebridean coastline has been subject to significant post-glacial changes in sea level and the area is rising up at about 2 mm (1⁄16 in) per annum as isostatic equilibrium is regained.

The island's official website and guide book claims - A scout, sent ashore from the longboat is alleged to have reported, "Ullamhdha", Viking for "Nobody home".

Ulva came into the possession of the Clan MacQuarrie (an anglicised version of the surname MacGuaire[4][25]) family over a thousand years ago, and they controlled it until the mid-19th century.

MacKenzie mentions that his name was anglicised in the following widely differing versions - "Dunslavie McVoirich" (either MacMhuirich (which becomes Currie or MacPherson) or MacMhurchaidh), "Dulleis MacKwiddy", "Dwnsleif MacKcurra" and "Dwnsleyf MaKwra".

General Lachlan MacQuarrie, the most famous member of the clan, was possibly born at Ormaig on the Mull side after his parents moved there from Ulva.

Few Ulbhachs had any interest, and he deemed them "ungrateful": I was equally unsuccessful in the place of my Nativity, and ancient Possessions of my Ancestors, – among my own Clan and Namesakes, the Macquaries of Ulva; where every fair and Lawful Means were used by their old Chief and Master, my Relation the Laird of Macquarie, and myself; but, such is the aversion of these People to become Soldiers or to go abroad, that notwithstanding all the entreaties of their old Chief and Master, not one of his ungrateful Clan, (to whom he had been, in the days of his Prosperity, a most kind and Generous Master,) would enlist or follow me and his own Son Murdoch Macquarie, (a lad about Sixteen years of age) who voluntarily offered to follow my Fortunes, and push his own in India – as a Volunteer.

— I was not much surprised, tho' at the same time I confess I was exceedingly displeased, at the ungrateful conduct of these People, who had treated their old chief exactly in the same manner, when he got his Commission in the Army in Decr.

Sometimes those who were to be evicted were given no warning, and had the thatch of their houses set on fire by "brutal landowners who replaced them with more economically sound sheep", according to one news report.

[34][35] MacKenzie records at Aird Glas, near Ardalum, the now abandoned row of houses was nicknamed "Starvation Terrace": ...Where the old and feeble folk cleared from their crofts were placed by Clark, to exist as best they could on shellfish & seaweed till they died.

The island's guidebook claims: Clark's high hopes for this thriving community were shattered when the kelp market collapsed, and he was left with a great surplus of tenants.

[4]MacKenzie further notes, that unlike in Sutherland, where the Clearances are most remembered, there was no factor or middle man to provide a buffer between the tenants and the landlord, like the notorious Patrick Sellar, and that Clark did a lot of the evicting himself.

[4] In evidence to the Napier Commission, Alexander Fletcher recounted that Clark moved people from one piece of land to a small one, repeatedly "then to nothing at all, and when they would not clear off altogether, some of them had the roofs taken off their huts.

"[36] Another recorded that a woman fetching water at a well was so terrified of him, that she "ran away, and left her kettle at the well, which Mr Clark took hold of and smashed to pieces.

[4] His son, of the same name, disagreed vocally with his father's behaviour and said, "he would rather have a cailleach (old woman) to light his pipe in every ruined house than all the sheep... of Ulva".

MacKenzie describes his early impressions, as a child, of the island in the 1920s, and how the minister's children slowly began to recognise the landscape of eviction: We saw ruins of houses (tobhtaichean) roofless and windowless, and near them neglected green patches that had obviously been cultivated at one time.

A 2019 news report provided the following specifics:[48] "The community company raised £4.4m from the Scottish Land Fund to buy Ulva from owner Jamie Howard, whose family had owned the island for 70 years.

[51] In January 2020, 30 Highland cattle were scheduled to be delivered to the island since the plan includes "communion between humans, animals and nature", according to Reid.

Puffin, black-legged kittiwakes, shag, common and Arctic tern, gannets, eider ducks, oystercatchers, curlews, redshanks, red-breasted mergansers and gulls nest on the island and the surrounding waters provide a livelihood for numerous seabirds.

[54] Occasional visitors (usually not breeding) include - house martins, Leach's storm petrel, corncrakes (which are rare in the British Isles), peregrine falcons and spotted flycatchers.

Ulva is also home to two extremely rare insects: the Scotch burnet moth, which can also be found on Mull, but nowhere else, and a dragonfly, Orthetrum coesilesceus.

Wild flowers that grow here include Hyacinthoides non-scripta ('common' or 'British' bluebells), Campanula rotundifolia ('bluebells of Scotland' or 'harebells'), orchids, sundews (Drosera) and Dianthus ("pinks").

[11] Amongst the coniferous trees are silver and noble firs, juniper, European and Japanese larch, Sitka spruce, and Scots pine.

[11] Dr Johnson and Boswell visited The MacQuarrie on Ulva in October 1773, the year after Sir Joseph Banks brought Staffa to the English-speaking world's attention.

But Ulva has a good anchorage, and Inchkenneth is surrounded by shoals.By the time, Scott visited the "mean" house referred to in Boswell's journal was gone, and replaced by one from a design by Robert Adam.

[53] In the early 19th century, an unflattering report stated: "No district was more deficient in the means of religious instruction than Ulva" and that "Divine service was little frequented in winter."

Sheila was originally a milkmaid at Ulva House, but she spent her later years, after her son predeceased her, garnering a scanty living by gathering and selling winkles for sale locally.

Cairistiona accused, probably falsely, her sister of stealing a large hunk of cheese, and tried to extract a confession from her, by lowering her off a cliff with a plaid tied round her neck.