🐀🏝️ A tiny island lost to history — wiped out overnight by rats that swam ashore from a sinking ship. They brought plague, ate the food, and left nothing but silence. Now, only seabirds 🐦 and seals 🦭 call it home. A haunting reminder of how fast paradise can vanish. Full story in the article 👇
The story of one of the most remote islands in the British Isles is both rare and tragic. Its very first resident was a monk who lived alone and was later made a saint—Ronan. This tiny island, just about one square kilometer in size, was named after him. Because it’s so far away, the island of Ronan doesn’t even appear on many maps.
Here’s how this small island went from being a peaceful home to becoming a wild place filled with seabirds and seals.
The island still has the ruins of an old chapel where monks from Ireland and Scotland used to hold religious services. There are also old stone graves, likely belonging to early church members. Before disaster struck, the island had a small community. People there worked the land and raised sheep to live.
Then, in the late 1600s, everyone on the island died in just one night—and the cause was rats.
It may sound hard to believe, but the rats came from the sea. They escaped a sinking ship and swam to the island. Experts say rats are very tough animals. Thanks to their cleverness and survival skills, they can live in very hard conditions. They’re also strong swimmers and can survive in water for several days, even covering large distances.
When they reached the island, the hungry rats quickly destroyed the food supplies and spread the plague by infecting what was left. The deadly illness, along with starvation, wiped out not just the people, but also all the animals they had. A little while later, the rats died off too.
There were a few efforts to bring life back to North Ronan, but no community ever stayed for long. A couple of shipwrecked sailors ended up there, but strangely, they also died—alone and far from busy sea routes. It seems like the rat invasion sealed the island’s fate for good.
Today, North Rona is home only to seabirds, including rare species like pipits and black-billed gulls. But the island is now protected because of the gray seals that live there. It’s one of only three places in the entire UK where these seals can be found.
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