Lamb Island The mysteries that produced the newest candidate for

Lamb Island: The mysteries that produced the newest candidate for the micronation

It is said that when Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the classic adventure book Treasure Island, he was inspired by visits he made as a child to the Isle of Fidra, which is part of a group of three outcrops in the mouth of the River Forth. on the coast of Scotland.

But young Stevenson was unaware of the myths, legends and mysteries attributed to another estuary island near the town of North Berwick.

Located just 1.2 miles east of Fidra, the island known as Lamb (“Lamb”) has always attracted little attention save for kayakers, the occasional bird watcher, and wildlife volunteers.

But it could turn out to be a real Treasure Island. At least that’s what its exotic owner suggests the legendary, charismatic and controversial mystic Uri Geller, who was famous on TV in the 1970s for bending spoons.

Thirteen years after purchasing the island, Geller master of grandiose gestures decided to elevate Lamb’s status from a private island in Scotland to an independent country with a flag, constitution and anthem.

While Scotland is busy debating its own path to eventual independence from the UK, the emergence of the football fieldsized ‘Republic of Lamb’ means its giant neighbor has, in theory, gotten a little smaller.

“Lamb is a unique place,” says Geller of his home in Old Jaffa, Israel, “and it deserves an identity of its own. This is a reasonable way to do it.”

2 of 6 Fidra is said to have inspired the book Treasure Island — Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Fidra is said to have inspired the book Treasure Island — Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Lamb Island is not the world’s first micronation, as these tiny countries are known. There have been dozens of declared independence since the 19th century, some serious but many not.

Some even created their own stamps, coins and citizenships. One example was Lovely’s Kingdom, inspired by a TV show and set in an East London flat. It was shortlived but can claim the title of micronation with the most citizens with more than 58,000 people registered online.

Geller also offers Lamb Island citizenship to anyone interested. All proceeds will be donated to the Israeli organization Save a Child’s Heart, which cares for children with heart problems worldwide.

He claims that Lamb should be a symbol of peace and that the only requirement for citizenship is “a willingness to live in harmony with Lamb’s countrymen”.

But it is not allowed to live on the island. Its only inhabitants are puffins, gurnards and other seabirds. And until recently, a lonely mouse.

“I always wanted to have my island, to be like James Bond,” says Uri Geller, now 75 years old. He first heard about Lamb when he learned the newspaper had put the island up for sale.

But it was the curious some would say dubious testimony of an amateur historian that caught Geller’s imagination and convinced him to buy the island. According to Scotsman Jeff Nisbet, Lamb bears inexplicable similarities to the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

3 of 6 — Photo: GETTY IMAGES

— Photo: GETTY IMAGES

The precise geometric design of the pyramids fascinates mathematicians and Egyptologists. Nisbet depicts the shape of Lamb and the two islands surrounding it, claiming that they accurately reflect the position of the three pyramids.

In fact, Nisbet was not the first to advocate possible connections between Scotland and ancient Egypt. A 15thcentury Scottish chronicle, described by the National Library of Scotland as “probably the most important medieval account of early Scottish history”, claims that Egypt was responsible for the founding of the country.

The chronicle called the Scotichronicon claims that Scotland was actually founded by Princess Scota, the exiled daughter of Pharaoh whose army, according to biblical accounts, perished in pursuit of Moses and the Israelites across the Red Sea.

One notable figure who finds this story very important is Egyptianborn tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed, who has lived in the United Kingdom since the mid1960s. Al Fayed is a fervent supporter of Scottish independence and has previously offered to become the first President of Scotland to become a possible independent Scotland.

Al Fayed, former owner of luxury department store Harrods in London, kept a copy of the Scotichronicon in his office. When he met Geller around 2010, he enthusiastically told him everything about the chronicle and then gave Geller another copy as a gift.

Uri Geller claims that as far as he can remember, Al Fayed told him the story that Scota anchored their ship off the coast of Lamb and buried treasure there. There is no evidence to document this story, but Geller, who has reportedly made a fortune prospecting for oil and mining companies using the ancient practice of dowsing, says he will use the same method to go after the treasure Looking for.

Since Lamb is part of a Special Protection Area, digging is out of the question — but a team of field archaeologists have volunteered to explore the island.

Treasures aren’t the only thing Lamb has to offer. Geller, a selfproclaimed mystic, believes that the bones of victims of the infamous North Berwick witch trials of the 1590s, transported from the mainland by superstitious authorities, may also have ended up there. But experts say all known evidence points to the burial of the remains near where the victims were cremated.

One of Geller’s favorite objects in his Jaffa museum is an ancient set of six thin green, silver and gold painted glass spheres known as witches’ spheres. This type of object was hung in houses in the British Isles in the 17th century to ward off evil spirits.

4 of 6 engravings from the late 16th century show the witch trials at North Berwick on the coast of Scotland attended by King James 6. — Photo: GETTY

Late 16th century engraving shows the witch trials at North Berwick on the coast of Scotland, attended by King James 6. — Photo: GETTY

The idea of ​​making Lamb a micronation came to Uri Geller after he investigated the possibility of buying the baronial title that comes with the territory that historically comprised the island.

But Lamb was excluded from the barony when it was sold by the current Baron of Dirleton Camilo AgasimPereira, an orthodox JewishPortuguese Brazilian businessman to Geller, to whom the title had been transferred from the previous owner.

“I didn’t get the title, so I decided to do better and start my own country,” says Geller. “But what does it matter [Lamb ser] Especially special are all these powerful and meaningful spiritual connections. It’s not an ordinary place.”

Some of these connections have been identified by Nisbet, who claims that Lamb lies at a confluence of ley lines purported energy pathways connecting places of historical importance. One such line runs straight through Lamb from the Isle of May the site where the legendary King Arthur is reputed to be buried to the Hill of Tara in Ireland, believed to be an ancient place of coronation of monarchs and steeped in mythology.

Irish tradition holds that the famous Stone of Destiny, or Stone of Coronation, was carved in the 6th century BC. was brought from Jerusalem to Tara by the prophet Jeremiah and the daughter of the last king of Judah. This story was told in a 1951 speech to the British House of Lords by Lord Brabazon of Tara.

The stone is said to have been used as a pillow in the biblical account of Jacob and later kept in King Solomon’s temple.

5 of 6 The Coronation Stone or Stone of Destiny on the Coronation Seat at Westminster Abbey in London — Photo: GETTY

The Coronation Stone or Stone of Destiny on the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey in London — Photo: GETTY

The stone is said to have been taken from Ireland by Scottish invaders before being stolen and brought to England on 8 August 1296 by order of the English King Edward I. Uri Geller chose this date “in recognition of the glorious history of Scotland” to declare Lamb’s independence.

Geller also believes the curious discovery archaeologists have made beneath the Ottomanera building that now houses his museum in Old Jaffa is a sign of this.

Among hundreds of artifacts, they unearthed a Scottish Forth brick made off the coast of Lamb Island after he claimed to have sensed something buried there using his supposed dowsing abilities. Geller calls the discovery of the building block “synchronicity”.

It can be said that synchronicity was also part of Uri Geller’s search for an anthem for his “semiindependent” state (he claims that it is not a political act and that his new country’s laws will already be in effect before its formation ).

In 2021, Scottish telepath Drew McAdam, a friend of Geller’s from the Scottish county of East Lothian, which includes Lamb Island made the first recording of a song called Our Land. It was composed by his greatgrandfather James Russell in 1909 and now has new lyrics.

“About two days later, Uri asked if I knew any composers as he was looking for an anthem for his island… and he [o hino] was there just waiting,” says McAdam, who offered Geller the song. “I was just happy to hear the tune after all these years, and I love it [saber] that it will be used in this great project close to home.”

McAdam has since discovered that his greatgrandfather, who died in 1928, is buried in Larkhall Cemetery in southeast Glasgow, Scotland. And at Geller’s suggestion, he plans to play the anthem (now called My Island, “My Island”) at Russell’s grave.

Uri Geller spent a night in Lamb in 2010 with his brotherinlaw Shipi Shtrang and adventurer Andy Strangeway, who is known to have stayed on all 162 islands in Scotland. Geller described this chunk of basalt rock as “hard, freezing cold, and uncomfortable—but [a experiência] It was worth all the pain.”

6 of 6 Uri Geller stayed one night at the Lamb in 2010 — Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Uri Geller spent a night at the Lamb in 2010 — Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Ships cannot anchor in Lamb, earning it the macabre nickname “Suicide Island” as anyone who ventures there runs aground. The trio were recalled the next day. As a token of his visit, Geller left a crystal that belonged to Einstein on the island.

Lamb is not the only private island in the River Forth Estuary. Fidra Island is owned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, while Craigleith and Bass Rock have belonged to the aristocratic Dalrymple family for centuries.

“When I take people on a tour, the biggest reaction is always the fact that Uri owns Geller Lamb,” says veteran local captain Dougie Ferguson, who has spent decades cruising the islands and with his boat, the Braveheart to work the estuary waters.

“I’ve met all the previous owners and had never heard of the connection to the Pyramids of Giza. But they’re important areas for wildlife and if that gets people to see them, it can only be good,” he says.