page_title: Stac an Armin
section_title: The last great auk in Britain
hierarchical_section_title: Stac an Armin / The last great auk in Britain
caption_attribution_description: Pinguinus impennis Great Auk replica[1], Natural History Museum, London.
context_page_description: Stac an Armin, based on the proper Scottish Gaelic spelling, is a sea stack in the St Kilda archipelago. It is 196 metres tall, qualifying it as a Marilyn. It is the highest sea stack in Scotland and the British Isles.
  The name Stac an Armin means stack of the soldier/warrior, and evidence remains showing it was used by people living nearby as a hunting grounds. It is not believed to have been inhabited year round, but has hosted some extended stays. Climbing the rocks was once done to collect eggs and has continued in the form of recreational sport. The island was once home to the now extinct great auk, and rules exist to protect the bird habitats and breeding grounds.
  Stac an Armin is 400 metres north of Boreray and near the 172-metre-high Stac Lee. Stac an Armin is separated from Boreray by a channel "so littered with rocks" that it should not be sailed, though sailors write passionately about the views.
context_section_description: On Stac an Armin, in July, 1840, the last great auk (Pinguinus impennis) seen in Britain was caught and killed. A then 75-year-old inhabitant of St Kilda told Henry Evans, a frequent visitor to the archipelago, that he and his father-in-law with another man had caught a "garefowl," noticing its little wings and the large white spot on its head. They tied it up and kept it alive for three days, and then killed it by beating it with a stick, apparently because they believed it to be a witch. The last known specimens in the world were killed a few years later either in Eldey, Iceland, or off Newfoundland.
caption: Mounted great auk, Natural History Museum, London
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