The Band from Rockall The Band from Rockall The Band from Rockall is a duo and solo project of Runrig songwriters Calum and Rory Macdonald. It is also the title of their debut self-titled bilingual album in English and Gaelic "The Band from Rockall" (long title being "The Band from Rockall: The Solo Project from Calum and Rory Macdonald"). The duo's name comes from Rockall, a remote rocky uninhabited islet in the North Atlantic Ocean, lying 300 miles west of the Scottish mainland. This was chosen by the brothers as a point 'half-way' between their native North Uist and the United States, representing both
Rockall sovereignty for itself. The consistent position of successive Irish Governments has been that Rockall and similar rocks and skerries have no significance for establishing legal claims to mineral rights in the adjacent seabed or to fishing rights in the surrounding seas." The origin and meaning of the islet's name "Rockall" is uncertain; the Old Norse name for the islet, "Ròcal", may contain the element "fjall", meaning "mountain". It has also been suggested that the name is from the Norse "*rok", meaning "foaming sea", and "kollr", meaning "bald head"—a word which appears in other placenames in Scandinavian-speaking areas. Another idea is