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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Sean Murphy

The tiny island 45 mins from Edinburgh that's owned by spoon-bending psychic Uri Geller

Heading just 45 minutes east of Edinburgh you'll be able to spot a tiny rocky island lying just off the coast coming into view.

Known as The Lamb, or Lamb Island, this small uninhabited outcrop – found just east of the more famous Fidra – has an intriguing story.

It's owned by TV personality Uri Geller, yes, that's right, the spoon-bending psychic purchased it almost 15 years and apparently told the BBC that one of the reasons he bought the isle was to "seek forgiveness" from Scotland after he famously tried to use his powers to influence Gary McAllister's missed penalty against England at Euro 96.

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However, the famous psychic has since stated that the real reason behind the purchase is the island's supposed links to the great pyramids of Egypt.

Describing Lamb as one of the "most significant sites in Britain", Uri stated that he paid just £30,000 for the island, adding that it has links to not only Ancient Egypt but also King Arthur, King Robert the Bruce and to the ancient Kings of Ireland.

Posting on his website about Lamb, he wrote: "It might seem forbidding, and it is certainly uninhabitable, but it is also one of the keystones to British mythology, and I am thrilled to be its owner.”

Linking it to a fifteenth-century manuscript called the Scotichronichon, by the Abbot of Inchcolm, Walter Bower, who claimed that the Scottish people were descendants of the ancient Egyptians, Uri points to the fact that Bower believed Tutankhamen’s half-sister, Scota, or Scotia may have visited the lamb, and may have even buried treasure there.

The TV star has only been on the island once, camping overnight in March 2010 and exploring the terrain with divining rods but has launched plans to try and excavate there to see if he can find the Egyptian treasure that he believes is buried there – which he says he will "donate to Scottish museums".

Recently, he even declared it a "micro-nation" with its own flag, national anthem and even an official constitution, but so far the only citizens are the colonies of cormorants, puffins, herring gulls and guillemots that currently nest there.

It does, however, have a football team. Jack Fish, secretary of the North Berwick Lamb Football Club apparently reached out to Uri after learning he wanted a football team to represent his micro-nation, he explained: "I sent him an email and within five minutes he was on the phone and within 10 minutes, the job was done."

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