Fingal's Cave

Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn visited this cave in 1829 and, inspired by the strange echoes in the cave, wrote an overture: The Hebrides, Op. 26 (also known as Fingal's Cave overture). Mendelssohn's overture made the cave popular as a tourist destination. Other famous 19th century figures who visited the cave included Jules Verne , who used it in his book The Ray of Wonder (Le Rayon Vert) and who also wrote about it in his books To the Center of the Earth (Voyage au center de la terre) and The Mysterious Island (L'Île mystérieuse); poets William Wordsworth, John Keats and Alfred Tennyson , and Romantic artist William Turner , who painted Staffa, Fingal's Cave in 1832. Queen Victoria also made the trip.

Pascal Brackman