The Oa

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Peninsula in the southwest of Islay, Argyll and Bute, Scotland

title: "The Oa" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["landforms-of-islay", "royal-society-for-the-protection-of-birds-reserves-in-scotland"] description: "Peninsula in the southwest of Islay, Argyll and Bute, Scotland" topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oa" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Peninsula in the southwest of Islay, Argyll and Bute, Scotland ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Mull_of_Oa,_Islay_aerial.jpg" caption="The Oa peninsula, from the air, in 2014. [[Port Ellen]] is on the bay in the upper right. [[Islay Airport]] is at the top left."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Mullofoawaterfall.jpg" caption="[[Waterfall]] at the Mull of Oa"] ::

The Oa ( ) () is a rocky peninsula in the southwest of the island of Islay, in Argyll, Scotland. It is an RSPB nature reserve.

Area

The area is roughly circular, with a radius of about 4 km, and connects with the rest of the island at a neck about 4 km across, which runs between Kintra and Port Ellen. Its high point is Beinn Mhòr (202 m) near the cliff top on the south coast. The Oa had a population of 800 in 1830, but became deserted due to the Highland Clearances.

The American Monument was erected on the south coast by the American Red Cross to commemorate the loss of two ships in 1918 – the liner and the armed merchant cruiser . It lies at the end of the only road in the Oa.

The area around the memorial is an RSPB nature reserve, where chough, golden eagles, corn crakes, and sea birds can be seen. 1931 ha have been designated as a Special Protection Area for the protection of the chough.

Ireland can be seen from the south coast on a clear day.

References

(2005). "Brewer's Britain And Ireland". [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]].
"The Oa Peninsula". Guide to the Isle of Islay.
"The Oa". [[RSPB]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::