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Just a short boat ride from the west coast of Scotland lies the Hebrides: a dreamy archipelago of hundreds of remote little islands where quaint fishing villages meet spectacular nature.
Divided into the Inner and Outer Hebrides, these groups of tiny islands are home to the adorable puffin, as well as plenty of awe-inspiring marine and coastal creatures – think otters and dolphins, seals and whales, all while eagles are flying overhead.
It’s no wonder that these islands – which have inspired poets and songwriters, novelists and directors – are beloved by tourists looking for a remote getaway.
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But through the idyll, there is a peculiar phenomenon currently blighting the lives of local residents who live on the islands.
Nicknamed the ‘Hebridean Hum’, this persistent low-frequency humming sound has been disrupting lives on islanders in the Outer Hebrides for months now, with many finding themselves experiencing stress as a result of the irritating sound and others reporting other health conditions as a result.
So the residents of these sleepy islands have banded together, via a Facebook group seeking to solve the mystery once and for all.
And plenty of ideas have been floated by the islanders – including TV masts or wind turbines, ferry operations and power stations. However time after time, they have had their theories disproven, while the irritating humming sound goes on.
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Islander Dr Lauren-Grace Kirtley explained the issue, its evolution, and effects on the islanders on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio show:
“It started as 50Hz constant hum, we’re now seeing the addition of 100Hz, 150Hz, sometimes lower (20, 30, 40) sometimes constant, sometimes pulsing at very regular intervals. It’s very obviously a man-made sound and consistent with the use of sound for triangulation and for the location of objects.
Not everyone can hear very low frequency sounds. But for a small but significant subset of the population, this is really affecting their wellbeing and their health and I don’t think we can underestimate the human impact of being exposed to sound constantly.”
After months of speculation though, the group think they’ve found the cause: military operations involving low-frequency sonar scanning for submarines.
Though the British Ministry of Defence are skeptical, there is nothing to say that the noise – which would be consistent with sonar systems – is actually British, meaning that the search to confirm and deal with this irritating sound goes on.
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