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It is 30 years to the day since a government minister visited Britain's "death island" and declared it safe, but this once-popular picnic spot and bird sanctuary less than a mile off the Scottish coast has never returned to normal.
Gruinard was bombed with anthrax during the Second World War as part of a top-secret biological weapons research programme, rendering it a no-go zone for 50 years; this is its story.
The Idea Hammered by the Blitz and retreating in the Far East, Britain's future looked bleak in late 1941.
A desperate Winston Churchill turned not to military planners, but to the UK's scientists for help.
Dr Paul Fildes, director of biology at the MoD's secretive Porton Down lab in Wiltshire, was tasked with developing a biological agent to halt Hitler - Operation Vegetarian.
After a few months of research, Dr Fildes and his team had the idea of using a strain of bacillus anthracis - anthrax - against the German population.
Given the bacteria's virulence, particularly in animals, if Britain were to drop "cattle cakes" stuffed with anthrax over Europe, the meat and dairy supply would be virtually eradicated and with a likely mass outbreak in humans, the panic would hopefully end the war.
The Location The MoD needed a remote and sparsely populated location to test the plan.
Obscure Gruinard, which lies just off the Wester Ross coast about halfway between Gairloch and Ullapool, was surveyed by MoD planners in 1942.
It had been unpopulated since the turn of the century but was still a popular location with picnickers and resting fishermen at the time.
Gruinard was part of the Eilean Darach estate, which was bought in 1926 by Rosalynd Maitland. Upon her death ownership had passed to her niece Molly Dunphie and husband Colonel Peter Dunphie - a close confidant of Churchill's.
The family was paid £500 by the MoD to requisition the island.
The Experiment In late 1942 a platoon of British troops and scientists rolled into Gruinard Bay on a mission to test the viability of using anthrax bombs.
Porton Down scientist Sir Oliver Graham Sutton was in charge of the 50-man team...
