Editing Staffa (section)

==Geography==
[[File:Isle of Staffa Panorama.jpg|thumb|left|Isle of Staffa Panorama]]
[[File:Am Buchaille.jpg|thumb|left|Am Buchaille]]
Staffa lies about 10&nbsp;kilometres (6&nbsp;mi) west of Mull, and 9&nbsp;km northeast of Iona. It is longitudinally oriented north–south, and is a kilometre long by about half a kilometre wide. The circumference is about 3.8&nbsp;km in extent. In the northeast the isle shelves to a shore, but otherwise the coast is rugged and much indented; numerous caves have been carved out by rain, streams and sea. There is enough grass to feed a few cattle, and the island has a spring.

On the east coast are Goat Cave and Clamshell Cave. The latter is 10&nbsp;m high, about 6&nbsp;m wide at the entrance, and some 45&nbsp;m long, and on one side of it the ridges of basalt stand out like the ribs of a ship. Near this cave is the pyramidal rock islet of ''Am Buachaille'' ('The Herdsman'), a pile of basalt columns seen fully only at low tide. Other outlying rocks include Eilean Dubh to the north-west and a series of skerries stretching for half a kilometre to the south-west. On the southwest shore are Boat Cave and Mackinnon's Cave (named after a 15th-century abbot of Iona), which has a tunnel connecting it to Cormorant Cave. These caves lie to the south-west and can be accessed from the bay of Port an Fhasgaidh at low tide. In 1945 a mine exploded near Boat Cave, causing damage to the cliff face which is still visible.<ref name=Smith/> Mackinnon's Cave is 107 metres long.

Staffa's most famous feature is [[Fingal's Cave]], a large [[sea cave]] located near the southern tip of the island some 20&nbsp;m high and 75&nbsp;m long formed in cliffs of hexagonal [[basalt]] columns. This cliff face is called the Colonnade or The Great Face and it was these cliffs and their caves that inspired Felix Mendelssohn's ''Die Hebriden'' (English: Hebrides Overture opus 26),<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060519021259/http://www.galvestonsymphony.org/composers/Mendelssohn_FingalsCave.html FINGAL'S CAVE, OPUS 26], Program Notes by Rita Junker Pickar, 2002, Retrieved 21 October 2010.</ref> which was premiered in [[London]] in 1832.<ref>[http://www.lasr.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/prognotes/mendelssohn/hebridesOv.html Program Notes: Mendelssohn: "Hebrides" Overture by Geoff Kuenning] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914101640/http://www.lasr.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/prognotes/mendelssohn/hebridesOv.html |date=14 September 2007 }} ucla.edu. Retrieved 10 December 2006.</ref> The original Gaelic name for Fingal's Cave is ''An Uamh Bhin'' – "the melodious cave" – but it was subsequently renamed after the 3rd-century Irish warrior [[Fionn mac Cumhaill|Fionn MacCool]].<ref name=Smith/><ref>Keay & Keay (1994) state that the re-naming was done by Banks, although showcaves.com states that Mendelssohn is blamed for the "misnaming".</ref><ref>Bray (1996) p. 92 notes that [[James Macpherson]]'s ''Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem'' was a "runaway bestseller" in many European countries at the time, and that Banks may later have regretted his choice when it became clear that Macpherson's claims to have translated the work from an ancient Gaelic manuscript proved to be bogus.</ref> Mendelssohn was nonetheless inspired by the sound of the waves in the cave and waxed lyrical about his visit, claiming that he arrived in Scotland "with a rake for folk-songs, an ear for the lovely, fragrant countryside, and a heart for the bare legs of the natives."<ref>''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1978) Chicago. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.</ref>