Finlaggan on the Isle of Islay was once the ancient seat of the Lords of the Isles, but now it is helping scientists unlock the secrets of the universe – using a device far cheaper than CERN’s £4billion Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.
During the first week in October researchers at the University of Strathclyde installed a piece of equipment, which they have been developing, on Finlaggan Farm a few miles from the CalMac ferry terminal at Port Askaig.
The device will continuously measure tiny changes in the Earth’s magnetic field, reporting this data back to the university for analysis.
This quantum magnetometer is a new way of measuring ‘space weather’, the effect of solar storms on the Earth’s magnetic field, which can be thought of as a Northern Lights early warning system.
Over the next three years, sensors of this type will be installed across the UK, allowing scientists to obtain a detailed picture of these effects.
The device itself is about the size of a shoebox and comes with a solar panel to power it. Whether this will be enough for an Islay winter will be part of the test.
The measurements will be compared with those taken simultaneously by the British Geographical Survey at their geo-magnetic reference observatory at Eskdalemuir in the Scottish Borders.
Finlaggan was chosen as a relatively remote location, away from the magnetic field noise created by humans going about their business, but it also helps that the farmer has been working as part of the Strathclyde team for the past two years.
The quantum magnetometer uses a gas of caesium atoms, hermetically sealed within a micro-machined box about the size of a fingertip.
Light from a miniature laser probes these atoms to obtain a magnetic resonance signal, similar to a medical magnetic resonance imaging scan, but carried out in a much lower magnetic field, in this case the naturally occurring magnetic field of the Earth.
This method combines high sensitivity with absolute calibration, and allows the Earth’s field to be measured at the parts-per-billion level.
The Strathclyde University team includes Dr Stuart Ingleby, Dr Marcin Mrozowski, Dr Dominic Hunter, Professor Angus Bell, Dr Paul Griffin and Professor Erling Riis.
As well as precise measurements of space weather, magnetometers of this type can be used to test more exotic theories of physics, such as cosmological particles including magnetic monopoles and axions, which may form the mysterious ‘dark matter’, missing from the observed mass of galaxies.
These new theories are speculative, but with equipment of this type they can be investigated without expensive particle-collider experiments.
The University of Strathclyde team are developing other practical applications of quantum magnetometers, such as for medical instrumentation and for use in the large-scale production of electric vehicle batteries.
This is just the latest chapter in Finlaggan’s famous history. In Loch Finlaggan lies an island: Eilean na Comhairle (Council Island), which contain fragmentary remains of buildings, where the inauguration of the MacDonald Lords of the Isles took place.
“The Lords of the Isles were descended from Somerled, a 12th century “prince”, and these lords, the chiefs of Clan Donald, chose Finlaggan as their home and the centre of their Lordship,” explains the Finlaggan Visitor Centre.
“The Lords of the Isles ruled mainland Argyll and the Glens of Antrim, but at its height MacDonald territory stretched up the Great Glen to Ross-shire, beyond to Buchan and the Mearns, and south to Greenan in Ayrshire.” All of this was virtually independent of royal control, until 1493 when the lordship of the Isles fell to King James IV of Scotland.