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Rockall is made of a type of peralkaline granite that is relatively rich in sodium and potassium . Within this granite are darker bands richer in the alkali pyroxene mineral aegirine and the alkali amphibole mineral riebeckite . The dark bands are a type of granite that geologists have named "rockallite", although use of this term is now discouraged. In 1975, a new mineral was discovered on Rockall. The mineral is called bazirite, (chemical composition BaZrSi 3 O 9 ), named after the elements barium and zirconium . [26] Rockall forms part of the deeply eroded Rockall Igneous Centre that was formed as part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province , [27] approximately 55 million years ago, when the ancient continent of Laurasia was split apart by plate tectonics . Greenland and Europe separated and the north-east Atlantic Ocean was formed between them. [28]   Wikipedia

Rockall ( Scottish Gaelic : Rocabarraigh ) The name Rocabarraigh is also used in Gaelic folklore for a mythical rock which is supposed to appear three times, the last being at the end of the world. "Nuair a thig Rocabarra ris, is dual gun tèid an Saoghal a sgrios". (When Rocabarra returns, the world will likely come to be destroyed/ruined) Wikimapia

From the Guardian,  Saturday 1 January 2011 Full article here .  On 15 September 1955, three marines and a civilian scientist from the Royal Navy's new survey ship HMS Vidal were winched from a helicopter on to a tiny, pyramid-shaped outcrop of granite sticking out of the Atlantic Ocean 240 miles west of the Orkneys. It was the height of the cold war and their secret mission was to annex the uninhabitable islet of Rockall and claim it as the last land grab of the British Empire. Witnessed only by a few gannets and sooty fulmars, Sergeant Brian Peel, Lieutenant Commander Desmond Scott, Corporal Anthony Fraser and the naturalist James Fisher mixed buckets of cement and erected a flagpole made from old propeller shafts. Then they bolted a brass plaque commemorating the event to the rock, raised the union flag – standing back carefully in case they fell into the sea – and saluted. "In the name of Her Majesty Queen Eliz...

This is a large rock, of a conical or sugarloaf shape, the summit or upper part of which is perfectly white, from the  quantity of birds' dung, with which it is covered. Though it had been seen many times, its true situation was unknown till the year 1810, when it was ascertained by Mr. T. Harvey, master of the Endi/?nicn frigate. Together with the bank on which it stands, it was examined by Captain Vidal, R.N., in 1831, and again, in August, 1862, by the officers of H.M.S. Porcupine, when surveying the bank of deep soundings West of Ireland, and during which survey the Porcupine Bank was discovered. This solitary rock, the summit of a submarine mountain, emerges from the ocean in lat. 57° 36' 20" N., long. 13° 41' 30" W., 225 miles N. 53° W., true, from Tory Island, off the North coast of Ireland. It rises to an elevation of 70 ft. above the sea, is about 250 ft. in circumference at its base, and is composed of a coarse granite. The summit, sharp-pointe...