Inchmickery
2079418
150203289
2007-08-09T16:25:25Z
MacRusgail
238113
[[Image:Inchmickery Island.jpg|thumb|250px|Wartime jetty, fortifications and military buildings on the island.]]
'''Inchmickery''' is a small island in the [[Firth of Forth]] in [[Scotland]]. It is about a mile (1.6 km) north of [[Edinburgh]].
Its name comes from the [[Scottish Gaelic]], ''Innis nam Bhiocaire'', meaning ''Isle of the Vicar'', implying that there may have been an old ecclesiastical or [[Culdee]] settlement here, as in nearby [[Inchcolm]]. It features occasionally in a [[riddle]], "How many inches is the [[River Forth|Forth]]?", playing on a pun on 'Inch' (''Innis''), the Gaelic word for [[island]], and [[inch]], the [[imperial measurement]].
Inchmickery is tiny, only 100 metres by 200 metres. During [[World War II]] the island was used as a gun emplacement. The concrete buildings make the island look (from a distance) like a battleship. Although the island is now uninhabited much of this concrete superstructure remains largely intact. These buildings were used for filming scenes of the film ''[[Complicity (film)|Complicity]]''.
[[Image:Inchmickery.jpg|right|300px|Inchmickery from [[Cramond]]/[[Silverknowes]]]]
The island is now an [[Royal Society for the Protection of Birds|RSPB]] reserve, and is home to breeding pairs of [[Common Eider]], [[Sandwich Tern]]s and the very rare [[Roseate Tern]]. There are two rocks off it, known as the Cow and Calf.
Inchmickery was formerly known for its [[oyster]]-beds [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43448#s17], and used to be covered in moss and lichen.
==External links==
* {{gbmapping|NT207805}}
* [http://www.gm0axy.ic24.net/inchmick.htm Report of a visit to Inchmickery]
* [http://www.scotlandthemovie.com/movies/compinm.html Details of the filming of ''Complicity'']
{{Islands of the Forth}}
{{coor title d|56.01084|N|3.27343|W|region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(NT207805)}}<!-- Note: WGS84 lat/long, converted from OSGB36 grid ref -->
{{Edinburgh-geo-stub}}
{{Fife-geo-stub}}
[[Category:Islands of the Forth]]
[[fr:Inchmickery]]