Greenpeace activists stayed on the island in 1997

A plan to place a plaque on the North Atlantic islet of Rockall has been approved by Western Isles council - the nearest UK local authority to it.

The plaque would claim the site as part of the UK. Ireland, Iceland and Denmark have previously tried to claim it.

The volcanic rock is 100ft wide and 70ft high and a 250-mile boat trip from Stornoway on the Western Isles.

Adventurer Andy Strangeway, from Full Sutton, East Yorkshire, is behind the idea of installing the plaque.

Mr Strangeway specialises in visiting remote and inaccessible islands around the UK coast.

Western Isles council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, said there were no objections to the proposal and wished him well.

Earliest recorded

Last year, bad weather prevented a team of Belgian radio enthusiasts from landing safely on Rockall.

They had hoped to make a series of amateur communications from the islet.

The earliest recorded landing on Rockall was believed to be in 1810, by an officer called Basil Hall from the HMS Endymion.

Its exact position was first charted by Royal Navy surveyor Captain ATE Vidal in 1831.

In 1972, the Isle of Rockall Act was passed, which claimed to make the rock officially part of Inverness-shire, Scotland.

UK sovereignty extends to the 12 nautical mile territorial sea around Rockall, under the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

In 1997, Greenpeace activists opposed to oil and gas exploration landed on the island, stayed for 42 days, replaced the navigational beacon with a solar-powered one and declared Rockall the sovereign territory of Waveland.