![]() ![]() Tiny Eigg shot to fame in 1997 after being purchased by its inhabitants to escape the whims of the various outsiders who held the legal title to the island. When you’ve had your fill of birdlife, drop by Bobby’s Bus Shelter, converted by locals into a cozy bower, with chairs, novels, chintzy decor and its own visitors’ book. The landscape has been worn low and smooth by endless centuries of scouring winds, but where humans struggle to survive, seabirds thrive, and the place to encounter them is the legendary Hermaness National Nature Reserve.Ī 4.5-mile round-trip walk takes you past craggy sea cliffs where skuas dive-bomb, puffins comically skitter about, and gannets, fulmars and guillemots squabble noisily for nesting space. ![]() Introducing Scotland's Highlands & Islands Commune with birdlife on Unst, ShetlandĪbout as far north as you can go in Scotland without hitting Norway, the island of Unst is a sparsely inhabited bump of land perched at the edge of the world. In Kirkwall, Orkney’s pocket-sized capital, the local legend is Earl Magnus, the 12th-century ruler of Orkney, name-checked in three Norse sagas following his martyrdom by a Norwegian rival. The last burials at Maeshowe took place 5000 years ago, but Viking marauders raided the tomb in the 12th century, leaving bawdy rune graffiti and etchings of dragons and serpents. Over at Maeshowe, a Neolithic chambered tomb adds historical weight to legend. Even today, the low stone huts look as though their Stone Age occupants just walked out the door. ![]() Legends still wash over the landscape on this timeless island – one of the best is the Marie Celeste–style tale of how the Neolithic village of Skara Brae was mysteriously abandoned around 2500 BCE and reclaimed by the sands, only to be uncovered by a storm in 1850. Become part of legend on Mainland OrkneyĪlong with nearby Shetland, Mainland Orkney was reputedly created from the teeth of the Stoor Worm, a monstrous sea serpent that plagued the Scottish coast until it was dispatched by an Orcadian farmer’s son. For a deeper dive into the lonely isolation of St Kilda, make arrangements through the National Trust for Scotland to stay in the basic campsite on Hirta, the main island – you’ll need to bring all your food with you and take all your rubbish out when you leave. St Kilda’s hardy inhabitants eked out a living by fishing, raising sheep and scrambling up the cliffs to harvest birds’ eggs until 1930, when the last 35 islanders were relocated to the mainland.įrom April to September, long, stomach-testing day trips cross the rough Atlantic waves from North Uist, Skye and Harris. It takes a bit of effort to get to St Kilda, the most remote of the Western Isles, but when you reach this wave-crashed collection of sea cliffs and rocky stacks, you’ll have more than a million seabirds for company. When you reach wave-crashed St Kilda, you’ll have more than a million seabirds for company © Michele D'Amico supersky77 / Getty Images Find serene silence on St Kilda Contact Surf Lewis if you’re tempted to take on the breakers.īack on land, set aside some time to explore austere but proud Stornoway, with its imposing castle sit in on a sonorous Gaelic-language sermon at a local church (or the Hebridean Celtic Festival if you’re here in July) and take a detour west to the ring of standing stones at Callanish (Calanais), Britain’s most impressive stone circle. Traigh Scarista, Uig, Port of Ness, Dalbeg and Mangersta offer some of Britain’s best surfing, particularly during wild winter swells. Sprinkled along the Atlantic seaboard of Lewis are sands so blond and perfect they could have been plucked from Antigua. Leave the pranksters taking selfies by the Butt of Lewis sign to their fun the real magic of the largest island in the Western Isles can be found on its beaches. Whatever your tastes and temperament, you’ll be sure to find a Scottish island that fits your mood, accessible by ferry from the Scottish mainland. Scout new ways to explore the planet's wildest places with our weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox.Īround these wave-battered isles, you’ll find whisky distilleries, awesome beaches, epic landscapes that leave walkers weak at the knees and tombs, stone circles and ruins that weave hypnotic tales of Scotland’s earliest inhabitants, alongside million-strong bird colonies that transport birders to feathered heaven.
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