Mendelssohn initally called this piece To the Lonely Island (Zur einsamen Insel, in German) before settling on The Hebrides (Overture). The work was inspired by a trip to the British Isles that he made in 1829, which included a visit to Fingal's Cave on the Hebridean island of Staffa. It was during this visit that he jotted down the main theme.
The title Fingal's Cave came about in 1834, when the Leipzig music publishers Breitkopf & Härtel (said to be the world's oldest) issued an edition with the German version of that title: Fingalshöhle. The correct title is still The Hebrides (Overture).
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