In the Island of "Uffa"

Fingal's Cave. Photo by Steve Winter

One of the more famous "untold tales" of Sherlock Holmes (or Dr. Watson) is that of "the singular adventures of the Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa" (FIVE), which took place in 1887.

Since Uffa appears on no map, its real identity has long been a matter of speculation since the dawn of Sherlockian scholarship. Upon recently visiting the island of Staffa in Scotland's Inner Hebrides, I became convinced that the Grice Paterson's had preceded us.

Staffa is probably best known as the site of Fingal's Cave, which inspired Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture. The cave is undoubtedly where the singular adventures took place. Why else would they have taken place in the island, rather than on it?