Best known for its appearance on the shipping forecast, Rockall is the most remote and contested piece of the British Isles. The tip of an old volcano, it is less than 100 feet above sea level and frequently washed by high waves, it has no soil or permanent life larger than molluscs or sea weed.

This is its history:

• The first reliable recording of Rockall is in 1606 in an Amsterdam atlas which placed it a mere 87miles from its actual location.

• According to some Celtic legends it was the last remnant of Brasil, the Western Land of Eternal Youth which was submerged by the Atlantic.

• In a 1971 House of Commons Debate Mr William Ross MP for Kilmarnock said, "more people have landed on the moon than have landed on Rockall from the sea." The Irish Saint Brendan is traditionally believed to have landed there in the 6th century.

• Rockall and the reefs and waters around it have been the scene of many disasters including some this year. In 1904 the Danish emigrant ship Norge was wrecked there on its way to New York with the loss of 600 lives. In 1824 the Helen of Dundee foundered on reefs at Rockall and the crew "left most of the passengers to drown including seven women and six children."

• Until the 1950s the only recorded landings on Rockall were HMS Endymion in 1810 which measured it at 83 feet across and 70 feet high. An 1862 HMS Porcupine attempt to land saw only one person get ashore who was then unable to climb the side of the rock. 26 years later the skipper of a Grimsby fishing smack landed and got to the summit. There were other landings in 1921 and 1948 including two abortive attempts by the Royal Irish Academy.

• It has been mistaken for an enemy ship in World War I, the conning tower of a German submarine in World War II and an iceberg.

• For a while the rock was thought to be composed of a unique material named 'Rocaklite'.

• In the cold war of the 1950s the British Government viewed Rockall as a security risk. Whitehall feared that the Soviet Union might build an observation platform or place measuring instruments on the rock in order to track missiles being test fired into the Atlantic from a range on South Uist in the Hebrides.

• It was seized by Britain on 18th September 1955. On 22nd September 1955 The Times reported that the Admiralty had announced "the formal annexation of Rockall" for the Queen by a "Landing party from HMS Vidal, the 2,000 ton survey ship". The paper noted, "Rockall, a ministry of defence spokesman said….belonged to no nation. It had been formally claimed by the Crown to eliminate the possibility of embarrassing counter-claims once the Hebridean guided missiles project was underway."

• The British cemented on a brass plaque, hammered in climbing spikes and added ring bolts near the water line, before hoisting the Union Jack. Lt Commander Desmond Scott from Whitstable in Kent took possession of the rock with the words "In the name of Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II, I hereby take possession of the island of Rockall". A 21 gun salute was fired by the vessel.

• This claim stimulated a counter claim by the Clan Mackay. 84 year old Highland Councillor J. Abrach Mackay announced, "My old father, God rest his soul, claimed that Island for Clan of Mackay in 1846 and I now demand that the Admiralty hand it back. It's no theirs."

• In 1959 the Royal Navy returned with a landing party which spent an hour on the rock. The party discovered that the brass plaque had disappeared. They left an inscription in quick drying cement and fixed a stone tablet to record their visit.

• In 1969 the Royal Navy returned. The Daily Mail reported on 17th April that, "it is absolutely and undeniably British. The Navy has just invaded it for the third time – to make quite sure." This time they arrived by inflatable boat and unfurled a White Ensign on the top of the rock.

• Also in 1969, the Government initiated extensive geological research in the area in pursuit of oil and gas. It confirmed that it would "assert for Great Britain the exclusive right to exploit resources on or under the Rockall Bank."

• Geologists from this research survey reported in The Guardian that they thought Rockall was a fragment of a western continent rather than an eastern one. ie. Greenland rather than Scotland. This, noted the newspaper, "is all relevant because of Britain's adherence to the International Convention on the Continental Shelf which lays down that we can dig up anything from oil to oysters on any bit of sea around which has less that 200 meters of water over it. We are allowed to go beyond that if the depth allows exploitation of natural resources and in areas adjacent to the coasts of islands."

• The snag is, said The Guardian, "that between oil rich Rockall and Scotland, there is a hole in the sea bed about 400 miles long, 80 miles wide and 9,000 feet deep. It is not, in the state of the oilman's art at the moment, what you might call pipeline country…but the whole area is, of course, 'adjacent to Rockall'. Does an uninhabited island come within the terms of the convention? It seems unlikely. Can it be argued that Rockall is an integral part of the United Kingdom? That seems doubtful."

• In January 1970 the Guardian reported that Rockall was "on the brink of wider fame." The island looks "as if it may be sitting on a natural gas field of North Sea dimensions – and Britain's exploration rights look shaky."

• In 1971 the British Government decided to re-state its claim to Rockall with the 'we are here, its ours' approach and this has been the linchpin of the sovereignty argument ever since. The military were once again dispatched and The Sunday Telegraph recorded that "Geologists returned yesterday from a secret survey of Rockall... the purpose was threefold – to seek indications of natural gas or oil, to prepare a site for a navigation light and possibly a helicopter landing platform and to reinforce Britain's claim to the rock…The Government also think that some of the foreign-owned oil companies now drilling in the North Sea might move in."

• In winter 1971 a Rockall Bill was introduced to the Commons to incorporate it into the United Kingdom. The Times Parliamentary Report recorded that "once Rockall was incorporated into the UK for an order to be made under the Continental Shelf Act 1964, designating the area for purposes of exploration and exploitation. With the rapid development of new techniques of seabed exploration this was a matter which would no doubt receive the attention of the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in due course."

• The report continued, "Lord Tanlaw said that during the war the island was used by Her Majesty's ships for target practice. It would be helpful to have an undertaking that this would not happen again. After all the efforts to put this small island on the map it would be a terrible tragedy if some enthusiast from strategic command were able to remove it in the course of his duty." The Bill received Royal Assent on February 10th 1972 and Rockall became part of Invernesshire.

• The Daily Mail said, "Too small even to be a spot on a map, its only claim to fame is its distinction of being further from the mainland than any other rock of its size in the world."

• In June 1972 a navigational beacon was placed on the rock to aid shipping. This operation took 15 days, two helicopters, scientists and divers.

• In 1974 a war of words broke out between the UK, Ireland, Norway and Iceland over who owned the fishing rights around Rockall. Fishermen of the latter three countries were 'outraged' by the British plan to declare a 50 mile protected fishing zone around the rock.

• In September 1974 Britain began a new line of argument for its Rockall claim, as a "natural prolongation of the land mass of Scotland." This was rather bizarre as even in 1955 it was realised that, in the words of The Times "the islet, which is composed entirely of a three-mineral granite quartz rock…is geologically part of North America rather than Europe."

• 10th December 1974 saw a Foreign Ministry note from Denmark to Britain expressing 'reservations' about its claim to sovereignty around Rockall. While not directly claiming Rockall itself, the Danish argued that, from a geological point of view, Rockall was a natural extension of the Faeroes continental shelf.

• On 18th December 1984 the Government restated that Britain's claims for oil exploration purposes were based on the criterion of natural prolongation. Boundaries for the continental shelf claims were 'not yet established' with other countries and confidential discussions continued with Denmark, Iceland and Ireland.

• The UK issued petroleum licences for the deep water frontier area of the Rockall and Faeroe troughs in 1985.

• On 7th May 1985 Denmark staked a claim to 300,00 square kilometres of the Atlantic over the 'Faeroe Rockall micro-continent.' The Financial Times noted that "Britain has already designated 50,000 sq. km and Ireland 80,000 sq. km of the same area."

• On the 10th May the Icelandic Government followed suit, serving notice that it claimed a 300 mile continental shelf stretching towards Ireland and Scotland.

• On the 25th May 1985 The Economist summed up the various claims as follows: "Britain hoped it had got away with a claim to a swathe of the Atlantic waters by incorporating the far-flung uninhabitable island of Rockall into the Scottish county of Invernesshire…Denmark insists that the plate tectonics show that the entire area is a geological entity called the Faeroes-Rockall micro-continent, a detached part of Europe separated from Britain and Iceland by a horse-shoe of deep water. The Danes dismiss Rockall as a 'skerry', far too small to be rated as an island and used as the basis for a territorial claim…Icelanders too are swotting up on tectonics. Iceland's volcanoes were visible manifestations of the plate activities and had created Rockall. 'It follows, say the Icelanders, that the area beyond the floor of the plateau is tied to the mother country."

• Of Ireland's claim the Economist said it was "as scientifically unimaginative as it is legally impeccable. It does not even mention plate tectonics: the Irish government simply draws a 200 mile line from its nearest bit of inhabited land and points out, triumphantly, that it embraces much of the disputed zone."

• Although Rockall was now claimed as part of the dominions of the Crown, it was not as yet a part of the United Kingdom.

• Early in the Summer of 1985 former Special Air Serviceman, paratrooper, survival expert and lone Atlantic sailor Tom Mclean, reached the rock by fishing boat on a trip sponsored by the South of England firm Milbury Homes. He lived on the rock from 26th May to 4th July in a wooden shelter bolted to the rock.

• The Irish Rockall Trust (set up to promote Ireland's claims to the rock) did not believe that the act was non-political and saw it as a device to advance Britain's claims. The Daily Telegraph released a previously unpublished photo of two Royal Marines standing on the rock, either side of a sentry box with a flag. It had been taken 10 years earlier.

• In 1988 the UK and Ireland reached an agreement on the division of the continental shelf between Britain and Ireland. When Sir Geoffrey Howe, then Foreign Secretary, explained the agreement to the press, he was asked about Rockall and said that it was not covered, he went on "this agreement does not determine what it does not determine. It cannot deal with what it does not deal."

• On 11th July 1990 Lord Kennet was asked if the 12 mile territorial sea around Rockall is recognised as such by the US, the EC or other adjacent states and whether the claim is in accordance with the United Nations Law of the Sea. Lord Trefgarne replied, "The 12 nautical mile territorial sea around Rockall is consistent with the terms of the Law of the Sea Convention and with rules of customary international law. We have no reason to believe this position is not recognised by the international community in general although it is not recognised by the Republic of Ireland."

• November 1995 and the UK Government opened up the 17th offshore licensing round including 41 tranches in the Rockall Trough, located east of Rockall.

• On the 3rd February 1997 the UK Government was once again asked when it would ratify the Law of the Sea, it replied that this would happen "as soon as a decision had been taken."

• The status of the UK claim to Rockall and its surrounding resources remains in considerable doubt, as do those of other nations.

• In 1996 Greenpeace commissioned the Durham University International Boundaries Research Unit to produce a comprehensive analysis of the conflicting claims and their legal basis. The report is entitled 'Competing Claims to Sovereignty and Marine Jurisdiction in the Rockall Plateau Area' and was published in 1997.

• The report stated, "although other disputes may make more headlines, the dispute over rights to maritime space in the north east Atlantic Ocean involving Denmark, Eire, Iceland and the UK is almost unique in its scale and complexity".

• The report indicates that the Law of the Sea may remain of central importance in resolving the disputes. The Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC) has been ratified by Iceland (June 1985), Ireland (June 1996), Denmark has yet to ratify and the UK has yet to sign.

• Denmark and the UK are, however, party to the previous 1958 Geneva Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone while the other two states are not.

• There are various different political and legal arguments and interests at play. These cover: fisheries and territorial seas; the water column and the seabed beneath it; mineral (oil and gas) resources; territory and territorial seas. In general, the report states, "the overlap between the continental shelf claims represents a scramble for that part of the continental shelf which lies more than 200 nautical miles from all four states."

• When the claims are superimposed there are two large areas of trilateral overlap (Denmark/Iceland/UK and Denmark/Eire/Iceland) and three areas of bilateral overlap (Denmark/Iceland, Eire/Iceland and Iceland/UK).

• The UK's fishery zone is on insecure ground because the concept did not exist prior to LOSC and Rockall fails the criterion for being an Island. The report notes that the same could be said for the UK's use of St Kilda and Sule Skerry as basepoints. The crux of the problem, according to the report, is that each state is using different criteria to define areas of the continental margin that 'naturally' pertains to it on geological and geomorphological grounds.

• The most likely outcome is an agreed carve up of the territory between the four nations. Greenpeace believes, however, that this would be the wrong approach.

Call For Non-development

Greenpeace believes that the way forward is a policy of non-development. There are between 15 and 30 such disputes in the world, some resulting in armed conflict and posing a serious threat to global security. A policy of non-development, as was taken over Antarctica, would offer a peaceful resolution to these disputes. At least as important, however, is the fact that there is no need to develop these resources and, in the case of fossil fuels, and urgent imperative not to in order to prevent further climate change. Rockall offers four industrialised nations the opportunity to change the tide in favour of non-development, to declare a global commons for the benefit of all nations and to prevent the global commons of the atmosphere being destroyed by exploiting the global commons of the sea.

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