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Name : Corryvreckan whirlpool

localisation : Gulf of Corryvreckan , southwest Scotland

The Gulf of Corryvreckan between the Scottish isles of Jura and Scarba.

The Corryvreckan whirlpool sits in the Gulf of Corryvreckan off the west coast of Scotland.

Coordinates:56.15360092068021 , -5.7071141358556945

Why it ’s incredible : The whirlpool is one of the large in the world and nearly drown source George Orwell .

The Corryvreckan vortex is a fierce , circular current between the Scots islet of Jura and Scarba . Nicknamed the " rile cauldron , " italmost killedGeorge Orwell and his son Richard in 1947 .

An engraving from 1821 showing people on a boat in the Gulf of Corryvreckan.

An 1821 hand-colored copperplate engraving by William Read shows passengers on a boat in the Gulf of Corryvreckan.

The whirlpool is named after the Gulf of Corryvreckan , which , according to custom , is name after the Norwegian Martin Luther King Breckan . Legend has it that Breckan ground his boat in the vortex for three day to prove his valor to a Scotch chief whose daughter he need to marry . The Norse king used three ropes to anchor his watercraft — one woven from hemp , another from wool , and a third from the hair of Virgo — but they snap , drowning him . According to the legend , the Virgo ' hair should have hold open Breckan secure , but one of the cleaning lady had been unchaste .

" Corry " in " Corryvreckan " isderived from the Gaelic wordfor cauldron " coire , " so the full name means " the caldron of Breckan . "

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An aerial photo of a roughly triangular island in the sea, which looks almost completely black

The Corryvreckan whirlpool isone of the largestwhirlpools in the populace . ( Others admit Saltstraumen in Norway , Old Sow in Canada , and Naruto in Japan . )

The whirlpool is make by ocean currents that hedge the east and west coasts of Jura before meeting off the island ’s northmost confidential information , in the Gulf of Corryvreckan . The gulf act like a funnel shape , forcing waters into the narrow sound between Jura and Scarba and increase their focal ratio to 8.5 knots ( 10 miles per hour or 16 km / h ) , according to theUniversities Space Research Association(USRA ) .

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A huge fix in the gulf ’s easterly end and an subaquatic basalt - rock and roll pillar directly off Scarba then make a swirl apparent motion by pushing water down and then up . The muddle is 720 feet ( 220 meters ) deeply , according to the USRA . The pillar — known as the " Old Hag"due to folkloric talesof a beldame experience there — rises from a deepness of 230 foot below the surface to 95 feet below the surface ( 70 to 29 m ) .

an aerial view of a river

The whirlpool , situate above the Old Hag , is sometimes so strong that its roar can be heard 10 miles ( 16 km ) away , according toBBC Glasgow and West Scotland . Waves can reach up to 30 pes ( 9 m ) high , making the Gulf of Corryvreckan one of the most dangerous passages around the British Isles .

Indeed , Orwell and his son nearly submerge during a gravy holder tripper around Jura in 1947 . They were be on the island while Orwell wrote his famous novel " 1984 " and would n’t have made it back if pekan had n’t saved them from the whirlpool , according to the BBC .

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