Neighbouring islets include Keller Island (Île de Keller) and Kadoran (Île Cadoran) to the north. The 200-meter (660 ft) channel between Ushant and Keller is called the Toull C'heller.
The island is a rocky landmass at most eight by three kilometres (five by two miles), covering 15 km2 (5+3⁄4 sq mi).
History
Ushant is famous for its maritime past, both as a fishing community and as a key landmark in the Channel approaches. It is named in the refrain of the sea shanty "Spanish Ladies":
We'll rant and we'll roar like true British sailors,
We'll rant and we'll roar across the salt seas,
Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England,
From Ushant to Scilly 'tis thirty-five leagues.
Several naval battles have been fought near Ushant between the British and French navies.
On 23 July 1815 the captive Emperor Napoleon – aboard HMS Bellerophon towards his final exile – spent several hours on deck watching Ushant, the last part of France he would see.[6]
In March 1978, the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground at Portsall about 19 miles (31 km) from the island, leading to major pollution of the Brittany coast.
According to a repetitive old Breton proverb, "Qui voit Molène voit sa peine / Qui voit Ouessant voit son sang / Qui voit Sein voit sa fin / Qui voit Groix voit sa croix." ("Who sees Molène sees his pains (or penalty) / who sees Ushant sees his blood / who sees Sein sees his end / who sees Groix sees his cross"). This proverb underlines local points being often deadly to navigate with many rocks, and tidal streams of more than ten knots.
There is a single school situated on the island; L'École D'Ouessant situated south-east of the main town. It was founded in 1865 by Scottish refugees fleeing English persecution and the majority of the island's youth attend the school. It is also a major employer on the island as it is only large workplace. Notable alumni include Jean-Philippe Moteur, Gerard Alineuz, Claude Simbiote and the now mayor of the island, Denis Palleul. [citation needed]
The sole village on the island is Lambaol (Lampaul), which has the mayoral office, school and post office. People also live in the outlying hamlets of Feuteun Vélen, Frugullou, Pen ar Lan, and Porsguen.
Ouessant sheep form a rare breed, originating here. These are northern European short-tailed sheep, ubiquitous in northern Europe up to Roman times, but which now survives only in a few places. Apart from Ushant, these are in remote islands and mountains of Britain and Scandinavia and some places around the Baltic Sea. It is one of the smallest breeds of domestic sheep. It is usually black or dark brown (a few are white), and it is now kept elsewhere in the world as a heritage breed[where?].
The isolation of the island has helped the conservation of the European dark bee (Apis mellifera mellifera), unaffected by pollution, pesticides and Varroa parasites.[17] In the rest of France, it has been substituted by Apis mellifera ligustica. As a side effect, populations of the bee louse, Braula coeca,[18] that has elsewhere perished through pesticides can still be found among the island's bee population. The association Conservatoire de l'Abeille Noire Bretonne[19] is attempting to conserve and increase the numbers of the European dark bee, intending to reintroduce it in Western France.[20]
Ushant and the Molène archipelago support Europe's southernmost colony of grey seals. They are mostly at Point Cadoran, on Ushant's north coast, where the strong currents keep the water temperature below 15 degrees Celsius (59 °F), the warmest that the seals can tolerate.
Charles Tournemire's Symphony No. 2, completed in 1909, was inspired by and named for the island.
The 1910 novel Das Meer by German author Bernhard Kellermann takes place on the island. Features such as Phare du Creach and Port du Stiff are highly defined. The main character stays at the la Villa des tempêtes, in ruins today.
The secret of the seas (Le Secret des Eaux: Ouessant), is a 1923 novel by André Savignon set on Ushant.
"Lord Ushant" is the title given the heir to the Duchy of Tintagel (Cornwall) in Edith Wharton's The Buccaneers (1938).
^Slaughter, John Robert (8 November 2009). Omaha Beach and Beyond: The Long March of Sergeant Bob Slaughter. Zenith Press. pp. 70–71. ISBN9780760337349.
^"Ouessant–Stiff (29)"(PDF). Fiche Climatologique: Statistiques 1991–2020 et records (in French). Meteo France. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
