The Dark Legacy of Gruinard Island

Halfway between the villages of Gairloch and Ullapool in the North-West Highlands of Scotland, sits a small oval-shaped island named Gruinard. From the shores of the mainland, the island appears very quiet and peaceful. But in the 1940s, it was a different story. It was here on Gruinard Island, during the Second World War, a team of scientists from the military research facilities at Porton Down demonstrated to Winston Churchill the lethality of anthrax, and the feasibility of using the deadly bacteria as the active agent in biological weapons. Anthrax is one of the best known agents of biological warfare, and one of the most feared. Inhalation of anthrax spores induces flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, chest pain, and shortness of breath as fluid accumulates in the chest cavity. When not treated, condition of the patient rapidly deteriorates resulting in a swift death within 48 hours. Ingestion of the spores causes diarrhea, internal bleeding, abdominal pains, nausea and vomiting, but it is through inhalation that anthrax is the most fatal with mortality rates as high as 80%, even with medical treatment. Anthrax was first used in the weapon form in the First World War by Nordic rebels against the Imperial Russian Army in Finland, although the effectiveness of the incidence was not known. The first human experimentation were made by the notorious Unit 731 of the Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s. Thousands of prisoners of war died after being intentionally infected with the bacterium. In the early years of the Second World War, the Allies began investigating anthrax. British scientists knew that the bacteria was extremely resilient and can survive in harsh conditions for decades or even centuries. So they needed a remote and uninhabited island where they could carry out tests—one that could be kept quarantined. Gruinard Island was found suitable for the purpose. A declassified film showing the trials at Gruinard Island.