Why People Were Banned from Gruinard Island, the “Contaminated Monster”
Gruinard Island is a small island off the coast of Scotland. It’s about 2 kilometers long and not far from the mainland. For a long time, it was empty except for a few sheep. But during World War II, it became the site of a dangerous experiment.
In the early 1940s, the British government was worried that Nazi Germany might use chemical weapons. To prepare, British scientists wanted to study deadly germs and poisons, including a very dangerous one called **anthrax**. Anthrax is a disease that mostly affects animals, but it can also kill people if they breathe it in, eat it, or touch it.
In 1942, scientists started testing anthrax on Gruinard Island. They brought about 60 sheep to the island and set off a bomb filled with anthrax spores. All the sheep died. In other tests, they dropped anthrax bombs from airplanes. After the explosions, scientists in protective suits came back to study what had happened.
The British government said these tests were just to prepare in case enemies attacked Britain with biological weapons. But they also had plans to use anthrax themselves. One plan, called **Operation Vegetarian**, involved dropping anthrax-infected animal feed on German farms to kill cattle and infect people. Luckily, this plan was never carried out.
After the war, no one was allowed to visit Gruinard Island because the anthrax spores were still dangerous. People nearby began calling it “the contaminated monster” because the island remained unsafe for decades.
In the 1980s, the government decided to clean it up. Workers wearing protective gear sprayed the soil with a chemical mix of seawater and formaldehyde. They used 50 liters of the mix on every square meter of land.
In 1987, they tested the island by placing healthy sheep there. When the sheep didn’t get sick, the government said the island was finally safe in 1988. It was sold back to the original owner’s family for £500.
Even though it’s no longer dangerous, no one lives on Gruinard Island today.