Rùm

Rùm (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [rˠuːm]), a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum (/rʌm/ rum), is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland, in the district of Lochaber. For much of the 20th century the name became Rhum, a spelling invented by the former owner, Sir George Bullough, because he did not relish the idea of having the title "Laird of Rum".
It is the largest of the Small Isles, and the 15th largest Scottish island, and is inhabited by 40 people, all of whom live in the hamlet of Kinloch on the east coast. The island has been inhabited since the 8th millennium BC and provides some of the earliest known evidence of human occupation in Scotland. The early Celtic and Norse settlers left only a few written accounts and artefacts. From the 12th to 13th centuries on, the island was held by various clans including the MacLeans of Coll. The population grew to over 400 by the late 18th century but was cleared of its indigenous population between 1826 and 1828. The island then became a sporting estate, the exotic Kinloch Castle being constructed by the Bulloughs in 1900. Rùm was purchased by the Nature Conservancy Council in 1957.
Rùm is mainly igneous in origin, and its mountains have been eroded by Pleistocene glaciation. It is now an important study site for research in ecology, especially of red deer, and is the site of a successful reintroduction programme for the white-tailed sea eagle. Its economy is entirely dependent on NatureScot, a public body that now manages the island, and there have been calls for a greater diversity of housing provision. A Caledonian MacBrayne ferry links the island with the mainland town of Mallaig.
In 2024, the island was designated an International Dark Sky Sanctuary, the first such in Scotland and the second in Europe.
Haswell-Smith (2004) suggests that Rum is "probably" pre-Celtic, but may be Old Norse rõm-øy for "wide island" or Gaelic ì-dhruim (pronounced [iˈɣɾɯim]) meaning "isle of the ridge". Ross (2007) notes that there is a written record of Ruim from 677 and suggests "spacious island" from the Gaelic rùm. Mac an Tàilleir (2003) is unequivocal that Rùm is "a pre-Gaelic name and unclear". In light of this, Richard Coates has suggested that it may be worth looking for a Proto-Semitic source for the name. This is because the British Isles were likely repopulated from the Iberian Peninsula following the last Ice Age. He proposes a name based on the Proto-Semitic root *rwm, a 'height-word' as seen in Ramat Gan in Israel and Ramallah, Palestine. Rum would therefore mean something like ‘(island of) height' or 'high island'.
The origins are therefore speculative, but it is known for certain that George Bullough changed the spelling to Rhum to avoid the association with the alcoholic drink rum. However, the "Rhum" spelling is used on a Kilmory gravestone dated 1843. In 1991 the Nature Conservancy Council of Scotland (the forerunner to NatureScot) reverted to the use of Rum without the h.
In the 13th century there may be references to the island as Raun-eyja and Raun-eyjum and Dean Munro writing in 1549 calls it Ronin. Seafaring Hebrideans had numerous taboos concerning spoken references to islands. In the case of Rùm, use of the usual name was forbidden, the island being referred to as Rìoghachd na Forraiste Fiadhaich—"the kingdom of the wild forest".
The island was cleared of its indigenous population prior to being mapped by the Ordnance Survey, so it is possible that many place names are speculative. Nonetheless, the significant number of Norse-derived names that exist eight centuries after Viking political control ended indicate the importance of their presence on the island. Of the nine hamlets that were mapped in 1801, seven of the names are of Norse origin.
Rùm is the largest of the Small Isles, with an area of 10,463 hectares (25,850 acres).
Kinloch is at the head of Loch Scresort, the main anchorage. Kilmory Bay lies to the north. It has a fine beach and the remains of a village, and has for some years served as the base for research into red deer (see below). The area is occasionally closed to visitors during the period of the deer rut in the autumn. The western point is the A' Bhrìdeanach peninsula, and to the southwest lie Wreck Bay, the cliffs of Sgorr Réidh and Harris Bay. The last is the site of the Bullough's mausoleum. The family decided the first version was inadequate and dynamited it. The second is in the incongruous style of a Greek temple. Papadil (Old Norse: "valley of the hermit") near the southern extremity has the ruins of a lodge built and then abandoned by the Bulloughs.
An 1801 map produced by George Langlands identified nine villages: Kilmory to the north at the head of Glen Kilmory, Samhnan Insir just to the north between Kilmory and Rubha Samhnan Insir, Camas Pliasgiag in the northeast, "Kinlochscresort", (the modern Kinloch), Cove (Laimhrige at Bàgh na h-Uamha in the east), Dibidil in the southeast, Papadil in the south, Harris in the southwest and Guirdil at the head of Glen Shellesder in the northwest.
The island's relief is spectacular, a 19th-century commentator remarking that "the interior is one heap of rude mountains, scarcely possessing an acre of level land". This combination of geology and topography make for less than ideal agricultural conditions, and it is doubtful that more than one tenth of the island has ever been cultivated. In the 18th century average land rental values on Rùm were a third those of neighbouring Eigg, and only a fifth of Canna's.
Mean rainfall is high at 1,800 mm (71 in) at the coast and 3,000 mm (120 in) in the hills. Spring months are usually the driest and winter the wettest, but any month may receive the highest level of precipitation during the year.
The main range of hills on Rùm are the Cuillin, usually referred to as the "Rùm Cuillin", in order to distinguish them from the Cuillin of Skye. They are rocky peaks of gabbro, forming the Rum layered intrusion. Geologically, Rùm is the core of a deeply eroded volcano that was active in the Paleogene period some 60 million years ago, and which developed on a pre-existing structure of Torridonian sandstone and shales resting on Lewisian gneiss. Two of the Cuillin are classified as Corbetts: Askival and Ainshval, (Old Norse for "mountain of the ash trees" and "hill of the strongholds" respectively) and Rùm is the smallest Scottish island to have a summit above 762 metres (2,500 ft). Other hills include Hallival, Trollaval ('mountain of the trolls'), Barkeval, and Sgurr nan Gillean (Gaelic: "peak of the young men") in the Cuillin and Ard Nev, Orval, Sròn an t-Saighdeir and Bloodstone Hill in the west. It is likely that only the higher peaks remained above the Pleistocene ice sheets as nunataks.
Hallival and Askival are formed from an extraordinary series of layered igneous rocks created as olivine and feldspar crystals accumulated at the base of a magma chamber. The chamber eventually collapsed, forming a caldera. There are swarms of near-vertical dykes of basalt on the northwest coast between Kilmory and Guirdil, created by basaltic magma forcing its way into fissures in the pre-existing rock. The western hills, although less elevated than the Cuillin, exhibit a superb collection of periglacial landforms including boulder sheets and lobes, turf-banked terraces, ploughing boulders and patterned ground. On Orval and Ard Nev the weathered basalt and granophyre has been sorted by frost heaving into circles 50 centimetres in diameter and weathering on Barkeval has produced unusual rock sculptures. On Sròn an t-Saighdeir there are large sorted granite boulder circles 2–3 metres across on the flat summit and sorted stripes on the slopes. Lava flowing away from the volcanic centre formed Bloodstone Hill, gas bubbles leaving holes in the structure that were then filled with green agate flecked with red. There are some outcrops of the pre-volcanic Lewisian gneiss near Dibidil in the southeast corner of the island, and more extensive deposits of sandstone in the north and east.
A site near Kinloch known as Farm Fields provides some of the earliest known evidence of human occupation in Scotland. Carbonized hazelnut shells found there have been dated to the Mesolithic period at 7700-7500 BC.; at this time the landscape was dominated by alder, hazel and willow scrub. A beach site above Loch Scresort has been dated to between 6500 and 5500 BC. The presence of this hunter-gatherer community may have been to take advantage of the local supplies of bloodstone, a workable material for the making of tools and weapons. There is a shell-midden at Papadil in the south and evidence of tidal fish traps at both Kinloch and Kilmory.
Examination of peat cores and pollen records indicates that soil erosion (suggesting clearance of woodland for agricultural purposes) was taking place in 3470 BC (the early Neolithic era); much later, from 2460 BC, evidence of arable cultivation exists. As the climate became damper, peat expanded its coverage at the expense of woodland, and post-glacial sea level changes left raised beaches around the coastline 18–45 metres above the present sea-level, especially between Harris and A'Bhrideanach; Bronze Age artefacts, such as barbed-and-tanged arrowheads typical of the Beaker People, have been found in the machair which replaced it.
There are prehistoric fort sites at promontories near Kilmory, Papadil and Glen Shellesder of uncertain date. These primarily consist of a wall dividing the promontory from the rest of the island, but at Kilmory, there is also a rampart with a hollow containing the traces of an interior structure. At Shellesder, the promontory contains the remains of three round stone-walled huts, one of which integrates with the dividing wall. A small number of cairns, again of uncertain date, are also located along the coast.
In the sixth and seventh centuries, Irish missionary activity led by Columba established a Christian presence in the region. Beccan of Rùm (previously a monk at Iona) may have lived on the island (at Papadil), for four decades from 632, his death being recorded in the Annals of Ulster in 677. He is known to have been conservative on doctrinal matters and surviving examples of his poetry suggest a passionate personality. He wrote of Columba:
Simple stone pillars, over 1.4 metres (4+1⁄2 feet) tall, have been found at Kilmory and Bàgh na h-Uamha ("bay of the cave"), and may date from this period. The latter pillar in particular is inscribed with a slim cross having strong similarities to a motif in the late 6th century Cathach of St. Columba. The other pillar – at Kilmory – is slimmer (being 230 mm or 9 in wide, rather than 410 mm or 1 ft 4 in), but is inscribed with a more elaborate design, resembling a globus cruciger sitting in a chalice; on the back is a simple Latin Cross.
From 833, Norse settlers established the Kingdom of the Isles throughout the Hebrides. Despite being a dependency of the Norwegian king, practical authority rested with the MacSorley, following a revolt by their ancestor, Somerled; the strip from Uist to the Rough Bounds, which contained the Small Isles, was ruled by the MacRory branch of the MacSorley. The only archaeological evidence of a Norse presence on Rùm, to date, is a piece of carved narwhal ivory, dating from the MacRory era, which served as a playing token / draughtsman.
In 1266, the Treaty of Perth transferred the Kingdom of the Isles to the Scottish king. 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 Garmoran; nevertheless, the treaty expressly preserved the power of local rulers, turning the MacRory lands into the Lordship of Garmoran, a quasi-independent crown dependency, rather than an intrinsic part of Scotland.
After nearly a century, the sole MacRory heir was Amy of Garmoran, who married John of Islay, leader of the MacDonalds, the most powerful branch of the MacSorley. A decade later, John put Amy, a faithful wife, aside to marry Princess Margaret, thus depriving his eldest son, Ranald, of the ability to inherit the lordship and those MacDonald lands. As compensation, John granted the Lordship of the Uists to Ranald's younger brother Godfrey, and made Ranald Lord of the remainder of Garmoran, including Rùm.
In 1380, shortly after it was acquired by Ranald, John of Fordun indicates that Rùm was "a wooded and hilly island" "with excellent sport, but few inhabitants". It is possible that during the early medieval period the island was used as a hunting reserve by the nobility; in Gaelic it was referred to as Rìoghachd na Forraiste Fiadhaich — "the kingdom of the wild forest".
However, on Ranald's death, Godfrey seized Garmoran, leading to an enormous amount of violence between him and Ranald's heirs (Clan Ranald). In 1427, frustrated with the level of violence, King James I demanded that highland leaders should attend a meeting at Inverness. On arrival, many of the leaders were seized and imprisoned; some were killed. After a quick show trial of Godfrey's heir, and in view of Clan Ranald being no less responsible for the violence, King James killed Alexander MacGorrie and declared the Lordship of Garmoran forfeit.
Following the forfeiture, most of Garmoran remained with the Scottish crown until 1469, when James III granted Lairdship of it to John of Ross, the new MacDonald leader, who passed it to his own half-brother, Hugh of Sleat. Clan Ranald objected to the transfer to Hugh, and appear to have retained some level of physical possession, regardless of whether they any legal authority to do so. The status of Rùm during this period is unclear, as surviving records do not mention it as part of Hugh's possessions.
Alexander, the previous MacDonald leader, had made land grants to the eldest and youngest sons of Lachlan MacLean, grandson of Alexander's aunt. John Garbh (the youngest son) now obtained Rùm (possibly, Alexander had quitclaimed it to him); like Hugh's gains, Clan Ranald objected to this transfer. Traditional accounts claim that John Garbh purchased a quitclaim of Clan Ranald rights from their leader, Allan, by giving them a galley; though the galley looked in good quality, the interior (so the legend says) was rotten, hence explaining Clan Ranald's refusal to accept John Garbh's ownership of Rùm. John Garbh subsequently seized Allan, and held him prisoner on Coll for 9 months; presumably Allan was only released once he had agreed to acknowledge the exchange.
In 1493, John Garbh's heirs (the MacLeans of Coll) became direct vassals of the king, as a result of John MacDonald's realm becoming forfeit. This brought them into conflict with the heirs of John Garbh's elder brother (the MacLeans of Duart), who believed themselves to be the leaders of all MacLeans. In 1549 Donald Munro, conducting a survey, noted that although the island "pertained" to Coll it "obeys instantlie" to Duart, a situation that continued for some time.
Munro also reported that, at the time, Rùm was highly forested, with an abundance of deer. Munro goes on to argue that the best way of slaying the deer would be when they are moving uphill (when gravity is against them), their principal home being in the heights. Contemporary with Munro, substantial stone walls were built in the glens to funnel deer into pens.
When Lachlan Mor became leader of the MacLeans of Duart, he pursued the feud with vigour. In 1588, he had the fortune for some remains of the Spanish Armada to arrive in his lands (Mull); Lachlan offered them refuge in return for a supply of 100 soldiers. So it was that in 1588 Lachlan Mor attacked the Small Isles with the aid of Spaniards, and slaughtered its population, sparing neither women nor children. Rùm's character as a hunting reserve, and the low numbers of its former population, meant that there was little long-term impact, once Rùm was repopulated. A contemporary, Skene, noted that
The king imprisoned Lachlan (in Edinburgh) for his actions, but he escaped, and faced no further punishment. A later report for the king indicated that the island was repopulated by members of Clan Ranald
The MacLeans of Rùm and of Duart were mild supporters of the Scottish reformation, remaining Episcopalian, rather than becoming Presbyterian, and consequently the Roman Catholic church thought them susceptible to re-conversion. In 1622, the Irish church sent Cornelius Ward, a Franciscan friar, to bring Roman Catholicism back into the MacLean lands. Arriving on Rùm in 1625, Cornelius reported that it only had three villages; a few decades earlier the much smaller nearby island of Muck was recorded as having twice as many able men, suggesting that Rùm's population had been deliberately constrained.
Cornelius had no luck with the MacLean leadership, who remained Episcopalian, but the (small) population of Rùm does appear to have become Roman Catholic again. In the rest of the nation, Covenanters gradually gained political control. Coll (along with the lands of the MacLeans of Duart) was under the shrieval authority of the sheriff of Argyll; under pressure from the Earl of Argyll, one of the most powerful Covenanter leaders, shrieval authority over Rùm was transferred from Inverness to the Argyll sheriff, which was under the control of the Earl's family.
In later generations, the lairds themselves became Presbyterian, preventing the island from becoming involved in the Jacobite risings, but it did ultimately bring a minor dispute to the island. In 1726, Presbyterianism was established in Rùm, quickly taking hold of the island's population (there were only around 150 people living on Rùm at the time). Nevertheless, Rùm had no permanent Protestant minister, and when one visited, he was obliged to conduct sermons in the open air, there being no church building.
Half a century later, when visiting the wider region, Dr. Johnson was told that the laird had hit one of the tenants across the back with a gold-tipped cane, as punishment for going to Roman Catholic mass, threatening the same treatment for any others who did so. The Roman Catholic population of Eigg, an adjacent island, facetiously called Rùm's Protestantism The Religion of the Yellow Stick.
The introduction of the potato as a food crop, in the 18th century, led to a rapid expansion of demand for arable land, which the populace also planted with barley. The increased health and fecundity this brought, and the lack of further wars, led to a population expansion; by 1801 there were nine hamlets on the island.
In turn, the increased demand for work led to new sources of income. Black cattle were raised for export to the mainland, and (more unusually) goats were kept by the inhabitants, the hair being sent to Glasgow and made into wigs for export to America. The economy was in no small part dependent on the bounty of the sea; Edward Clarke, visiting in 1797 dined on:
However, local agriculture was comparatively primitive, and the lack of lime restricted the ability to tan leather, or construct sophisticated buildings; the island was no more valuable than the much much smaller island of Muck. Furthermore, the new demands on the land had reduced the great forest island into an essentially treeless landscape; by the end of the century, this had caused the extinction of the native red deer (Cervus elaphus).
The increase in the price of kelp, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, was the only thing keeping Rùm's economy afloat. Inevitably, when the Napoleonic Wars ended, the kelp price collapsed, causing severe financial hardship. The laird himself was in additional difficulties as a result of having purchased the Isle of Muck during the peak of demand for kelp. He decided to evict the tenants, and lease the whole island to a relative, Dr Lachlan Maclean.
In keeping with the Highland Clearances that had swept Scotland since the 1750s, in 1825 the inhabitants of Rùm (then numbering some 450 people) were given a year's notice to quit. The inhabitants of Rùm had simply been tenant farmers, paying rent to the laird; they owned neither the land they worked, nor the houses in which they lived. On 11 July 1826, about 300 of the inhabitants boarded two overcrowded ships bound for Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. The laird, and Dr Lachlan, paid for their journey. The remaining population followed in 1827. Similar evictions happened all over the gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland, and collectively became known as the Highland Clearances. Harris was the largest settlement in the 18th century, which was cleared. It had 37 buildings.
In 1827, when giving evidence to a government select committee on emigration, an agent of the laird was asked "And were the people willing to go?"; "Some of them", came the reply, "Others were not very willing, they did not like to leave the land of their ancestors". Years later an eyewitness, a local shepherd, was more florid in his description of the events: "The people of the island were carried off in one mass, for ever, from the sea-girt spot where they were born and bred... The wild outcries of the men and heart-breaking wails of the women and children filled all the air between the mountainous shore of the bay".
Lachlan turned Rùm into a sheep farm, with its population replaced by some 8,000 blackface sheep. So total had been the clearance that he was forced to import families to the island to act as shepherds. However, the prosperity elsewhere in the UK led to traditional staples like mutton and wool being of less interest to consumers, and their price fell. In 1839 the price of mutton fell dramatically, bankrupting Dr Lachlan, and forcing him to leave. Ironically, in the words of one of the emigrees, Dr Lachlan, "the Curse and Scourge of the Highland Crofters" was now "much worse off than the comfortable people he turned out of Rùm 13 years previously".
In 1844 the visiting geologist, Hugh Miller, wrote:
In 1845, the MacLean laird sold the island to the Marquess of Salisbury, who converted Rùm into an estate for country sports. The Marquis first built a pier at Kinloch, and adjacent limekiln, to help with this process, re-introducing deer, both Red and Fallow. He then passed the land to his son, Viscount Cranbourne, who was more interested in fishing.
The main rivers of Rùm were essentially just trickling streams, so Cranbourne came up with a plan to increase the power of the Kinloch River, by diverting the other two. In 1849, he built a dam at the end of Loch Sgathaig, allowing him to diverting the overflow into the Kilmory River (northwards), rather than the Abhainn Rhangail (southwards). In 1852, he attempted to dam the Kilmory River, half a mile north of Loch Sgathaig, the plan being to send the overflow into the Kinloch River via a short canal; unfortunately Salisbury's Dam collapsed shortly after being built.
In 1870, the island was sold to Farquhar Campbell, from Aros, a man keen on Rùm's potential for shooting. In 1888, he decided to sell it; the sale prospectus described Rùm as "the most picturesque of the islands which lie off the west coast of Scotland" and "as a sporting estate it has at present few equals". According to the sale documents, the population was between 60 and 70, all either shepherds or estate workers and their families. There were no crofts on the island.
In 1888 the island was sold to John Bullough, a cotton machinery manufacturer (and self-made millionaire) from Accrington in Lancashire, who continued to use the island for recreational purposes. In the following year, counties were formally created in Scotland, on shrieval boundaries, by a dedicated Local Government Act; Rùm therefore became part of the new county of Argyll. When Bullough died in 1891 he was buried on Rùm, in a rock-cut mausoleum, under an octagonal stone tower. His heirs, however, felt that this was beneath his dignity, and demolished it, moving his sarcophagus into an elaborate mausoleum modelled as a Greek temple, built in 1892 and designed by William James Morley. Argyll, similarly, was not thought fitting for Rùm, and that same year was moved by boundary review to the county of Inverness, where Eigg already sat.
John was succeeded as owner of Rùm by his son, George (later Sir George). George built Kinloch Castle in 1900 using sandstone quarried at Annan. The interior boasted an orchestrion that could simulate the sounds of brass, drum and woodwind, an air-conditioned billiards room, and a jacuzzi. A dam was built on Coire Dubh burn for hydroelectric purposes; the house was the first private home in Scotland, outside of Glasgow, to have an electricity supply.
At this time there were about 100 people employed on the estate. Fourteen under-gardeners, who were paid extra to wear kilts, worked on the extensive grounds that included a nine-hole golf course, tennis and squash courts, heated turtle and alligator ponds and an aviary including birds of paradise and humming birds. Soil for the grounds was imported from Ayrshire and figs, peaches, grapes and nectarines were grown in greenhouses.
This opulence could not be sustained indefinitely, and the Wall Street crash badly damaged the family finances, decreasing their interest in, and visits to, Rùm. Sir George died in France, in July 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, and was interred in the family mausoleum on Rùm. His widow continued to visit Rùm as late as 1954. When in 1957 Lady Bullough sold the whole island, including the Castle and its contents, to the Nature Conservancy Council, on the understanding that it would be used as a national nature reserve, the mausoleum was the only part of Rùm not included in the sale. Lady Bullough died in London, in 1967, at the age of 98; she was buried next to her husband in the Rùm mausoleum.
Rùm is an important study site for research in ecology and numerous academic papers have been produced based on work undertaken on the island. In addition to its status as a National Nature Reserve, Rùm was designated a Biosphere Reserve from 1976 to 2002, a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1987, and has seventeen sites scheduled as nationally important ancient monuments.
The red deer population has been the subject of research for many years, recently under the leadership of Tim Clutton-Brock of the University of Cambridge. These efforts are based at the remote bay of Kilmory in the north of the island. It has been important in the development of sociobiology and behavioural ecology, particularly in relation to the understanding of aggression through game theory. In November 2019 it was revealed that a 45-year study indicated that climate change had affected the gene pool of the red deer population on Rùm. Warmer temperatures resulted in deer giving birth on average three days earlier for each decade of the study. The gene which selects for earlier birth has increased in the population because hinds with the gene have more calves over their lifetime.
The island has small herds of ponies, feral goats (Capra hircus) and Highland cattle. The pony herd, which now numbers about a dozen animals, was first recorded on the island in 1772, and in 1775 they were described as being "very small, but a breed of eminent beauty". They are small in stature, averaging only 13 hands in height and all have a dark stripe down their backs and zebra stripes on their forelegs. These features have led to speculation that they may be related to primitive northern European breeds, although it is more likely that they originate from the western Mediterranean. It is sometimes claimed that they are descended from animals that travelled with the Spanish Armada, although it is probable that they arrived by more conventional means. The goat stocks were improved for stalking in the early 20th century and acquired a reputation for the size of their horns and the thickness of their fleeces. The flock of about 200 spends most of its time on the western sea cliffs. The native cattle were re-introduced in 1970, having been absent since the 19th century clearances. The herd of 30 grazes in the Harris area from September to June, and further north in Glen Shellesder in the summer months.
Rùm is also noted for its bird life. The population of 70,000 Manx shearwater birds is one of the largest breeding colonies in the world. These migrating birds spend their winters in the South Atlantic off Brazil, and return to Rùm every summer to breed in burrows high in the Cuillin Hills. White-tailed sea eagles were exterminated on the island by 1912 and later became extinct in Scotland. A programme of reintroduction began in 1975, and within ten years 82 young sea eagles from Norway had been released. There is now a successful breeding population in the wild.
There are brown trout, European eel and three-spined stickleback in the streams, and salmon occasionally run in the Kinloch River. The only amphibian found on Rùm is the palmate newt and the only reptile native to Rùm is the common lizard. Invertebrates are diverse and have been studied there since 1884, numerous species of damselfly, dragonfly, beetle, butterflies, moths etc. having been recorded. Several rare upland species are found on the ultrabasic slopes of Barkeval, Hallival and Askival including the ground beetles Leistus montanus and Amara quenseli. The midge (Culicoides impunctatus), a biting gnat, occurs in "unbelievable numbers".
In October 2006 the popular Autumnwatch series on BBC television showed coverage of the deer rut at Kilmory Bay.
A 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) patch of brown earth soil at the abandoned settlement of Papadil is home to a thriving population of earthworms, which are rare in the elsewhere poor soil of the island. Some individuals of Lumbricus terrestris have reached tremendous sizes, with the largest weighing 12.7 grams. This is speculated to be due to the good quality soil, and absence of predators.
A tree nursery was established at Kinloch in 1960 in order to support a substantial programme of re-introducing twenty native species including silver birch, hawthorn, rowan and holly. The forested area, which consists of over a million re-introduced native trees and shrubs, is essentially confined to the vicinity of Kinloch and the slopes near this site surrounding Loch Scresort and on nearby Meall á Ghoirtein. The island's flora came to widespread attention with the 1999 publication of the book A Rum Affair by Karl Sabbagh, a British writer and television producer. The book told of a long-running scientific controversy over the alleged discovery of certain plants on Rùm by botanist John William Heslop-Harrison—discoveries that are now considered to be fraudulent. Heslop Harrison is widely believed to have placed many of these plants on the island himself to provide evidence for his theory about the geological development of the Hebridean islands. Nonetheless, the native flora offers much of interest. There are rare arctic sandwort and alpine pennycress, endemic varieties of the heath spotted-orchid and eyebright, as well as more common species such as sundew, butterwort, blue heath milkwort and roseroot. A total of 590 higher plant and fern taxa have been recorded.
Rum has a number of national and international conservation designations for its spectacular natural and built heritage, including:
The entire island is owned and managed as a single estate by NatureScot. There are a variety of small businesses on the island including accommodation providers as well as artists and crafters. Most of the residents live in the hamlet of Kinloch, in the east of the island, which has no church, restaurant or pub. It has a village hall, general shop and a post office, which is run as a private business. A small church has been transformed into a school, which counts 5 pupils as of 2022. A cafe opens in summer. Rùm has broadband internet access, installed by a salmon farming company.
In general the island has a transient population comprising employees of NatureScot and their families, researchers, and a teacher. Until recently NatureScot was opposed to the development of the island as a genuine community, but there has been a change in approach since the beginning of 2007. Di Alexander, development manager for the Highlands Small Communities Housing Trust has said: "It has been clear for many years that the small community on Rùm needs to increase and diversify its housing supply away from exclusively SNH-tied housing. Even a couple of new rented houses could make such a difference to the community's wellbeing."
Surprisingly perhaps, on a 10,500-hectare (26,000-acre) estate with a population less than thirty, an issue has been lack of land for building. However, a spokesman for the agency has stated "Once we are clear what the trust's priorities are, we will release the land".
In 2008 a "Rùm Task Group", chaired by Lesley Riddoch, was created to generate proposals for advancing community development opportunities. It reported to Mike Russell MSP the Minister for Environment in the Scottish Government, and in June a plan was announced to establish a locally-run trust with the aim of reintroducing crofting settlements to the area around Kinloch village. In December it was announced that £250,000 of land and buildings were likely to be placed into community ownership, subject to a ballot of the electorate in January 2009. The transfer of 65 hectares of mixed land, three crofts, 10 domestic properties and eight non-domestic properties in and around Kinloch village to the Isle of Rum Community Trust took place in two phases in 2009 and 2010.
A Caledonian MacBrayne ferry, MV Lochnevis, links Rùm and the neighbouring Small Isles of Canna, Eigg and Muck, to the mainland port of Mallaig some 17 miles (27 kilometres) and 1⁄2 hours sailing time away. The Lochnevis has a landing craft-style stern ramp allowing vehicles to be driven onto and off the vessel at a new slipway constructed in 2001. However, visitors are not normally permitted to bring vehicles to the Small Isles. During the summer months the islands are also served by Arisaig Marine's ferry MV Sheerwater from Arisaig, 10 mi (16 km) south of Mallaig.
The best anchorage is Loch Scresort, with other bays offering only temporary respites from poor weather. Robert Buchanan writing in the 19th century described it as:
In the summer of 2002 a reality TV programme titled Escape from Experiment Island was filmed on the island. This short-lived show (six episodes) was produced by the BBC in conjunction with the Discovery Channel. The show was to piggyback on the success of Junkyard Wars by having the teams build vehicles to escape from the island.
In August 2020 it was announced that four new homes would be built in the village of Kinloch in an effort to attract more people to live on the island.
In 2024, the island was designated a Dark Sky Sanctuary, only the second such place in Europe to be a sanctuary, and the 23rd such place named in the world. The local effort, “a long meticulous bid”, by the Isle of Rùm Community Trust was led by one of the newer residents of the island, Alex Mumford, with Lesley Watt, Rum’s reserve officer, and the support of Steven Gray and James Green, two astronomers who started Cosmos Planetarium, a mobile theater on Rùm. This status may attract visitors wanting to enjoy the night sky, and the best season for viewing is October to March. The people living on Rùm have “dark-sky awareness“, which entails changes from typical daily life in the well-lit 21st century, specifically “no streetlights, light-flooded sports fields, neon signs, industrial sites or anything else casting a glow against the night sky.”
The natural darkness is important also for the breeding colony of Manx shearwater birds on Rùm. The view of the night sky on clear nights is impressive, showing the stars, the Milky Way, meteors, and the Aurora Borealis or its sheen. View with a telescope to see more. An observatory is planned for the near future.
Rùm is one of the most sparsely populated of all Scottish islands. There is no indigenous population; the residents are a mixture of employees of NatureScot and their families, together with a number of researchers and a school teacher.
In the 21st century, Rùm's inhabitants have been seeking to attract more people to the island in order to boost their population. Their appeal has been successful, with several hundred applications being sent in response to their campaign. The island has witnessed a population explosion relative to its size. In August 2020, the population was estimated to be around 32. Less than a year and a half later, the number of inhabitants was estimated to be around 40.
As with the rest of the British Isles, Rùm features a strongly maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters.
There is a MetOffice weather station at Kinloch providing long term climate observations.
57°0′N 6°21′W﻿ / ﻿57.000°N 6.350°W﻿ / 57.000; -6.350