The Hebrides (overture) the following, which came into my head there." The cave at that time was approximately high and over deep, and contained black basalt pillars. The work was completed on 16 December 1830 and was originally entitled "Die einsame Insel" ("The Lonely Island"). However, Mendelssohn later revised the score and renamed the piece "Die Hebriden" ("The Hebrides"). Despite this, the title of "Fingal's Cave" was also used: on the orchestral parts he labelled the music "The Hebrides", but on the score Mendelssohn labelled the music "Fingal's Cave". This revision of the overture was premiered on 14 May 1832 in London in
Hebrides where he set his best known poem, ', about the devastating effect of the Highland Clearances. , raised on South Uist and described by MacLean as "one of the few really significant living poets in Scotland, writing in any language" (West Highland Free Press, October 1992) wrote the Scottish Gaelic-language novel "" which was voted in the Top Ten of the 100 Best-Ever Books from Scotland. In some respects the Hebrides lack biodiversity in comparison to mainland Britain; for example, there are only half as many mammalian species. However, these islands provide breeding grounds for many important seabird species including