After the lockdowns, I was lucky enough to spend much of the summer of 2021 on islands. We say “on”, never “in”, as in “living in Edinburgh”. We land on islands, by definition land surrounded by water: the sea in all its caprice, splendour, bounty, peril and drama. It informs all aspects of life on islands, their histories and their potential (the “green future”), yet every island — even those that are near neighbours — are intrinsically different.
We quickly absorb this, for example, on the archipelagos of Orkney and Shetland, the Western Isles and the Small Isles. To live on any small island is to share an indelible connective experience. It’s the ultimate in belonging . . . you belong somewhere. No wonder then that with the re-evaluation of life and work in post-Covid times, the growth of island community buyouts, and the economic opportunities in wind and sea on this northwestern edge of Europe, Scotland’s islands are being viewed though a different lens.
In this book, through the lenses of inspired photographers who are meticulous in their craft and immersed in their subjects, we may see the Scottish islands afresh: their rare beauty, atmosphere and essence. It is a privilege to share these images from such dedicated individuals. Some travel far and camp overnight. All appraise the light, wait for the right moment, give their subjects time, and strive for distinction in an Instagram world.
On Pabay in the Orkney Islands, on a warm summer afternoon, we are directed down a track to the shore. There are sheep and birds aplenty, many have come a very long way; nobody else is around. On a grassy landing above the sparkling sea, we come across the immaculately preserved ruins of one of the oldest homesteads in Europe, older even than the much celebrated Skara Brae on Orkney Mainland. This was a pure island experience I’ll never forget.
All the islands offer these kind of moments. They harbour the shared history of time-served communities and their depletion — an often involuntary, perhaps inevitable, depopulation, evidenced by abandoned crofts and shielings. All are home to ubiquitous sheep, myriad birds and distinct fauna and flora, which include the rare machair in the northwest. Of many pristine beaches, countless are unvisited. Rocky remote coasts and high cliffs layered in seabirds are often beset by raging seas, sometimes the sea is a mirror that melts into a celestial sunset.
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Islands characteristically boast stately lighthouses, triumphs of engineering, as well as historic harbours. The ferry network, past and present, and postboxes in the middle of nowhere remind us of the abiding importance of connectivity.
Thus the landscapes portrayed in these photographs are etched in the tangible tracks of centuries of human history and, until recently, unchanging nature. Our images point up remote, unheralded places, but we haven’t ignored some of the remarkable but more signposted “attractions” where tourists converge for good reason.
I hope this portfolio is an encouragement to explore in the footsteps of our photographers with, as we know, an important caveat. While we enjoy and appreciate these islands, we must leave little trace. This book is for everyone who loves Scotland, who loves small islands and revels in the life-enhancing experience of discovering them.
Skye and the Small Isles
1. The Bridge at Sligachan
For lovers of the outdoors, Sligachan is the historic junction of Skye. Climbers and walkers have passed through here for well over 100 years. It’s the gateway to Glen Sligachan, Glen Brittle and the Cuillin. Behind rises the volcanic red cone of Glamaig (2,543 ft). Every year runners race up its steep flanks, leaving from this bridge. Glen Sligachan divides the Red Cuillin from the Black. Here, the Sligachan Hotel is a hostelry and haven going back to the misty early days of climbing and still run by scions of the founding family. A statue by the bridge was erected (finally) in 2020 to the climbers who pioneered the Cuillin routes.
2. Old Man of Storr & the Quiraing
Highest point of the Trotternish Ridge, the Old Man of Storr is a spectacular pillar of basalt that is eminently visible from the road north of Portree. On an island renowned for inspirational and challenging landscape, this is one of Skye’s defining geological wonders. Further along that ridge in the far north of Skye, the Quiraing is simply phenomenal, its contorted pillars and buttresses of eroded lava as mysterious as they are astonishing. The Quiraing is easily reached by the A855 from Portree, but the approach on the unclassified road from Uig reveals the full splendour more dramatically. Gaze from the car park or walk around the “Pillar”, the “Needle” and the “Prison”. Fine views also to the island of Staffin and across the bay to Wester Ross.
3. Neist Point
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Neist Point on the Duirinish Peninsula is west of Dunvegan, west of Carbost, west of everywhere else on Skye. This and the lighthouse make it a destination for walkers, wildlife watchers and photographers. Thrusting into the Minch, from here there are regular sightings of dolphins, porpoises, whales and basking sharks and, of course, seabirds on the cliffs. The path to the lighthouse — built in 1900 and one of the most famous in Scotland — starts at the end of the single-track road from Glendale, seven miles from Dunvegan. On the 45-minute walk, the lighthouse doesn’t come into view immediately, but when it does it’s a stately edifice, a worthy destination, as the field of stone cairns built by walkers, attests.
4. Raasay
The view from the hill above Raasay House is one of the great outlooks of Skye. It is as if Raasay pays homage but keeps its distance. Clachan jetty points to the seaway where we see the little ferry — Scotland’s first electric ferry — coming across the Sound. I have made that journey many times because to me Raasay is the perfect island. There’s a great landmark hill (Dùn Caan), woodlands and moorlands, a loch to swim in, a village with rows of couthie cottages, a community shop and new distillery.
Raasay’s story is Scotland’s history in microcosm. Some of that relates to the Big House, to the Clearances, to the now-famous Calum’s Road and the iron mine, and to the huge range of outdoor activities now offered.
5. Coll, Main Street
Arinagour is not a bustling wee village, but it beguiles us with an almost sleepy charm. Fewer than 50 folk live here on or around the main street. Red roofs add colour to the white. Most of what folk need can be found in the shop and a cute post office.
There is a good café-restaurant, fuel pumps, a cool bunk house and community centre and a pub at the hotel. No police or hospital — perhaps nobody ever breaks the law or a leg (though there is an airstrip for emergencies and posh arrivals). Out of the village are roads to the ferry, south to the beaches, including the hidden delights around Crossapol Bay and the RSPB centre at Totronald, where the corncrake occasionally calls.
6. Colonsay
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Small (ten by four miles) and enchanting, Colonsay has been a well-kept secret, except from escapers from Edinburgh (and elsewhere) who’ve been coming here for years. Perhaps that’s why there is a literary, a food and drink, and a music festival. In some respects Colonsay is for those of a more refined taste in island life, less rigorous, less vigorous. You can walk gently and cycle everywhere. The historic hotel and locals’, bar is tasteful, the banter civilised, and the menu comes with a decent wine list. At Scalasaig, near the quay, is a shop, a surprising bookshop and a café, the Pantry, where the cottage community catch up on gossip. The House Gardens are open to the public and then there’s famed Kiloran Beach.
7. Handa Island
North of Scourie (reached by a summer-only small boat from Tarbet), Handa is a nature reserve managed by the Scottish Wildlife Trust. To the south is Boulder Bay and a beach for seal-searching and whale-watching. But the wonders of Handa are revealed on a 1.5-mile walk over herb-rich grassland protected occasionally by slatted wooden trackways, to the 100m cliffs of red Torridonian sandstone, covered in seabirds. Behold the puffins, kittiwakes, fulmers and the biggest colonies of razorbills and guillemots in the UK. Giant skuas patrol the skies, eider ducks and oystercatchers dot the sea. But you don’t have to be a birdwatcher to be in awe of nature on this green gem.
8. Laig Bay, Eigg
Laig Bay is one of the great beaches of the Hebrides — wide and white silver overlaid on black sand, its character different every day. However, it’s not all sand. Part of the littoral is a stratified rock foreshore with pools that capture the light. Photographers love this bay because the shoreline and the infinite interplay of sand and sea lends itself to artistic perspectives, even abstraction. The beach can seem vast, often there’s nobody else here and it’s pristine. There is the classic view of Rum. Though three miles away, its mountains, looming large and mysterious, seem close. From Eigg pier it’s a 2.5-mile walk to Cleadale and the beach (there’s also a minibus, there and/or back).
9. The Shiants
In the Minch, the Shiants are two small islands in a big ocean, the only islands in the book that are not readily accessible by public transport. But it is possible to hire boats to go there and there is a well-maintained bothy, where you’re welcome to stay for free.
There is something otherworldly about the Shiants. A huge congregation of puffins summer on the hillside of Garbh Eilean, which rises above the bay. Robert Macfarlane writes how they were greeted with “an amplified riffle, like banknotes whirred through a telling machine — the compounded wing-noise of thousands of puffins crisscrossing the sky”. But alighting here is not just for writers, photographers and ornithologists. The Shiants are for all pure island lovers.
Inner Hebrides
1. Tobermory Waterfront
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The much-photographed “colourful” waterfront of Tobermory Bay epitomses not only Mull but, often, the Southern Hebrides. The heart of the matter, the front, is like a promenade — there’s even a fish and chip van, aka the Fisherman’s Pier. From here there are walks round the bay in both directions, and up the hill for great views and immaculate private cottage gardens. An impressive landmark is the Western Isles Hotel. Below, on the dock, the white building is Café Fish. Run by two remarkable women, with Johnny’s boat at the quay with the catch. Also on the front are the Mishnish, the highly rated Tobermory Hotel and the estimable Tobermory Bakery (you may need to join the queue).
2. Duart Castle
Seen from the sea, Duart Castle sits with immaculate strategic predominance at Duart Point, overlooking Loch Linnhe, Lismore and all the way to Fort William. Since the 13th century the ancestral seat of the Macleans, Duart has weathered the storms of history and there’s a lot of it on display. With walls as thick as a truck and on its isolated promontory, it was never much of a prospect to attack, but ruling over the unruly Macleans has been a proper job for centuries and nowadays the upkeep of the fiefdom has its own challenges. This is where visitors come in. Duart is south of Craignure and a very decent half-day out, with sustenance at the airy 21st-century tearoom over the way.
3. Ulva
We were lucky with the glorious summer’s day when we went to Ulva. We swam in Ulva Bay, where the tiny ferry makes its five-minute crossing (you turn the board around to let the ferryman know you want to come over), and walked on pathways across woodland, hill and coast (Ulva is bigger than you think). We also saw the elegant Telford Church, looked into Sheila’s Cottage, an interpretation centre, and had home-made food at the Boathouse by the quay.
In 2018 Ulva was the subject of a community buyout, with help from the Scottish Land Fund. A manager was appointed to develop the estate appropriately and begin to repopulate the fragile community. Eight committed people now live here.
4. Iona
Iona, the enchanted island, has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. Here, an exiled Irish monk, St Columba, set up a community in 563 that became one of the most influential in western Europe. Iona Abbey and the Iona community remain ever active today and confer a spirituality to the place, tangible to all who come here. But it is perhaps a greater feeling of peace, a tranquillity that must always have been here, that makes Iona so compelling. Even the weather seems kinder than on Mull, whence you’ve come; and it has a light that inspired the Scottish colourists. About 150,000 people visit each year and mostly come for the day, but it is magical to stay, climb the hill and wander as you will.
5. Fingal’s Cave
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Instantly recognizable, Fingal’s Cave is a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa, about one hour’s boat trip from Mull. It has fascinated visitors since its discovery in 1772. Sir Walter Scott wrote that “it exceeded in my mind every description I had ever heard of it” and the 20-year-old boy wonder Mendelssohn was so moved by it when he arrived (seasick) in 1829 on the newly introduced paddle steamer service round Mull that he was inspired to write his famed Hebrides Overture. The basalt columns, the huge arched entranceway and the cave’s dimensions — 70m deep, 23m high — leave a profound impression. From the boat you get an hour or two to go inside and stroll the tiny island.
6. The Paps of Jura
For many who cross the narrow Sound, Jura is in the blood. It’s dominated by the Paps that we see from afar and we love it because of its wild emptiness and its self-contained island life. It gives solace. A single-track road connects most of its 35 miles. Craighouse township has a great wee hotel — the social hub — with camping and a bar. There’s a café, a shop and the distillery: the internationally revered Jura Malt. Every May one of Scotland’s most gruelling outdoor challenges — the Isle of Jura Fell Race — leaves the distillery and climbs the three Paps and four other tops, the winners returning in just over three hours. But we can take our time discovering Jura, a land that has always been uncompromisingly and powerfully itself.
7. Geese on Loch Gruinart
Every October about 50,000 geese descend from the skies and reassemble in the fields of Islay, in the northwest around Loch Gruinart. Islay hosts about 60 per cent of the world’s barnacle geese and a quarter of the threatened Greenland white-fronted geese. They clearly love it here, as do the simultaneously migrated birdwatchers — the farmers less so (though they receive some compensation). To some extent it is a symbiotic relationship. The photograph was captured by Lord George Robertson, the Labour politician who served as the tenth secretary general of Nato from 1999 to 2004. A passionate Islay man, George is a keen photographer and has published two books that observe and document the island of his birth.
8. Carraig Fhada Lighthouse
A great island should have a great lighthouse. This one, Carraig Fhad, can’t be missed as you arrive in Islay at Port Ellen, at the entrance to the harbour. It’s unusually square and quite beautiful. The three-storey tower was built on the Carraig Fhada headland by the Laird of Islay in 1832 in memory of his wife, who died young at the age of 36. He also built Port Ellen. The lighthouse has no lantern, a signal light shines from a mast at the top and at sunset the whitewashed walls of the tower gleam. It’s a landmark to be proud of. Mark Unsworth, who photographed the tower has a studio near Bridgend where he shows and sells his work.
9. The Machrie Hotel
The venerable Machrie Hotel and Golf Links has undergone a transformation in recent years, restoring both to pre-eminence (in hospitality and in the game). The course, laid out behind the sheltering dunes, was iconic from the start in 1891, and a complete redesign by the architect DJ Russell has opened up sea views, removed the notorious blind shots and added bunkers. It’s no longer maddening, just challenging good fun. In keeping with the opening up of the Machrie by the new owners, Gavyn Davies and Sue Nye, there’s a more laid-back accessibility to the golfing experience: shop, golf tuition and a wee (six-hole) course. The hotel also has significantly upped its game, with comfortable contemporary rooms and a great open dining room/restaurant with a balcony overlooking the greens.
Outer Hebrides
1. St Kilda
Forty miles west of Benbecula, the islands of St Kilda are embedded in the heart and soul of Scotland like no others. Thousands take to the boats every year from Lewis, Harris and the Uists with no certainty that they will even be able to land. However, the islands — Hirta, Boreray, Dun and Soay — are spectral and spectacular, thrilling to sail around, with sea stacks including Stac Lee (165m high) the highest in the UK. Home to a million seabirds, they are the most important seabird colony in northwestern Europe; the clamouring, seething array of gannets around Boreray are an unforgettable sight. Diving in the clear waters below is (by all accounts) a similarly quintessential experience. The natural wonders of St Kilda are unique.
2. The Callanish Stones
This is the most well-known and visited attraction of the Hebrides. The site, about 12 miles from Stornoway on the west coast of Lewis, is older than Stonehenge. There are 13 standing stones in a cruciform formation around a central monolith and many other ritual stone sites nearby, including Callanish II and Callanish III less than a mile away, thought to be the most impressive. God knows how or why they got here more than 5,000 years ago, but archaeologists in the mid-1980s suggested that “every 18.6 years when the full moon was low in the sky, the light danced along the edges of the stones”. Or they mark the sites of massive lightning strikes. There’s a wee café and a shop.
3. Mangarstadh Sea Stacks
The drama of the Mangarstadh (or Mangersta) sea stacks could not be further away from the gentle sandy strand of the same name, though they are little more than a mile further on along the B8011. Both stacks and beach begin at small pull-in car parks, where short paths begin. There’s a lay-by and the path to the sea, but no indication of the cliffs until their tops come into view after a few hundred yards. You might marvel at the grandeur of these timeless pinnacles, that they are so unknown, or just at the indomitable endurance of Lewisian gneiss. On the way here, also tucked away but increasingly well known (you should book well ahead), is the superlative seafood restaurant with the view to die for — Uig Sands.
4. Great Bernera
Great Bernera or just Bernera (though it is, of course, great) is reached across Loch Ròg by a road bridge from Lewis. About 250 people live here on an island steeped in history. In 1874, in what became known as “the Bernera Riot”, the crofters resisted the heavy-handed Clearances, exposing the corruption of the land-owning class, in particular the nasty Sir James Matheson (who also owned Lewis, having made his fortune in opium). Their successful court case paved the way for Scottish land reform. In the north of the island the very fine Bostadh (Bosta) beach is known by some as “Paradise”. Somewhere in this turquoise-blue seascape is Marcus Vergette’s Time and Tide Bell, built on a skerry, chiming at high tide.
5. The Ferryman
Donald is the ferryman on the Calmac boat to Berneray and has plied the Sound of Harris since 1996. Calmac sponsored my travels round the Scottish Islands in the summer of 2021, but I have no reservations about highlighting the ferries here and elsewhere in the book. While they get on with the routine of sailing and servicing a ship, you take the fresh air and the sun and the views on deck looking out for dolphins and porpoises, or chill out below with a book, or a beer and a Calmaccy Cheese. I know this is a romantic view in itself, but to my mind there’s simply no better way to arrive, anywhere.
6. Rodel Churchyard
St Clement’s Church by Rodel in the far south of Harris is a classic island kirk in a Hebridean landscape. It’s worth making the circuit via either the Golden Road or the A859 by the beaches, just to visit this well-preserved ancient edifice of Lewisian gneiss. Built for the Macleod Clan Chiefs — many of them are in the graveyard — the kirk was probably influenced by Iona Abbey. The kirk dates from the early 16th century, and has an elegant cruciform structure and tower that the adventurous might climb. Empty and atmospheric, it contains blackened effigies and important ornamental sculpture. It’s spooky but also edifying. Goats in the graveyard graze among the headstones of the young Harris lads lost at sea in the Great War. There are other fallen angels on the outside of the tower.
7. Scalpay
This tiny island is a short skelp (five miles) from Tarbert. You cross a bridge built in 1998 to find a thriving community of fisherfolk, artists and craftspeople in a neat little world of its own. An impressive lighthouse, one of the original Northern Lighthouses dating back to 1788, has a tower by Robert Stevenson added in 1824. There’s a circular walk to it through moorland and machair; boat trips go around it in summer. Scalpay is also the home of a good café-restaurant, the North Harbour Bistro and Tearoom. It’s best to book. All in all Scalpay is a pretty cool place to spend a day. Hang out longer and you might just want to live there.
8. Barra airport
This is probably one of the most quietly famous airports in Britain; certainly it’s among the most charming, reached by a Loganair scheduled flight from Glasgow. Situated on the wide shallow bay of Traigh Mhor at the northern tip of the island, it’s not much more than an airstrip on the beach and flights are dependent on the tide as well as the wind. Some folk (about 10,000 a year) come to Barra just to arrive this way. It’s also known as Cockle Beach Strand and foragers can often be seen gathering the sweet little shellfish in the winter months. Some end up on the menus at the Castlebay and Isle of Barra Hotels.
9. Mingulay
In 1985 Derek Cooper wrote a book, The Road to Mingulay. It was a telling title, conjuring up a long journey to a romantic destination. It still intrigues and, for anyone trekking down the Hebrides, this would be, as it always was, the end of the road. Except, of course, you can only get there by boat and there will never be a causeway. Derek was in search of the place where his grandmother was born and, though in the 19th century 150 people scraped a living here, the last inhabitants left in 1912 and only sheep and birds will keep you company now. On Mingulay there is nothing and nowhere to stay (though perhaps you can find shelter in the shell of the old schoolhouse).
Arran and the Clyde isles
1. Arran
Arran is one of the most accessible and comme il faut of the Scottish Islands – especially for Glaswegians. With a frequent ferry service (albeit some issues in 2021), a de-stressing start to a holiday in itself, taking less than an hour, it has been the retreat and staycationing break of choice for generations of west coasters.
Distinctively different villages and communities – Lamlash, Whiting Bay, Lochranza, Corrie, Blackwaterfoot, and Brodick – are spread out along gentle bays. The extensive Auchrannie Resort on the edge of Brodick is one of Scotland’s best family and all-round hotels, almost a village of its own, and a hub for outdoor activities. Above it, above everything, Goatfell, just short of a Munro, is a proper mountain and a rewarding afternoon’s exertion. There are sublime pristine beaches and walks and hikes of all standards.
2. Brodick Bay
Brodi0ck Bay is where most visitors to Arran arrive. The bay has neither a marina nor a hoatching harbour, but when the ferry arrives or leaves, the quay is full of urgent comings and goings. It’s amazing, when the ferry disgorges its passengers, how quickly they disperse around the island. In Arran, where the ferry service is crucial (hence much disgruntlement when it’s delayed or cancelled), the timetable marks off the day. Like all Arran’s villages, Brodick is built along its long bay waterfront. It would take you half an hour to lug your luggage to the Auchrannie at the other end (there are taxis). You could be in Corrie or Whiting Bay on your bike by then, or putting up your tent in Glen Rosa. Nowhere is far away.
3. Brodick Castle
This is not a castle in the fortified battlements sense, but a big old baronial pile of history the National Trust dubs ‘quintessential’. From some angles, it’s a substantial edifice, from others it’s more like a tower house. Originally from the 13th-century and, until the 1950s, home of the Dukes of Hamilton, the castle has both stately and more liveable rooms, with antlers, portraits, heirlooms and an atmosphere of long-ago afternoons. The extensive grounds are a treat, ranging from formal gardens recently restored perhaps even beyond their former glory, to forest trails and wilder bits, where you feel the presence of Goatfell. Rhododendrons are big and pink in spring. Often you see the sea through the trees, reminding you you’re on an island and these woodlands are part of the rich diverse natural playground that is Arran.
4. Goatfell
On Arran, Goatfell presides. It’s there when you arrive, there when you leave. If you’re fit, it will remind you all the time that it’s just waiting to be climbed. At 2,867ft, it’s just short of a Munro, but is one of four Corbetts on the island. The usual start is by the Arran Brewery and Wineport pub two miles from town on the road to Corrie. There’s another start further up that road, near Sannox. Coming back that way might suggest a dip in the sea at the beach at North Sannox. Allow four to five hours for Goatfell. It’s a scramble at the top, but needless to say, there are topping views. The beach in the picture is one of several that are great for families.
5. Caisteal Abhail
This imageconveys how mountainous Arran actually is. It shows Goatfell from an unfamiliar perspective, along with other Corbetts (hills between 2,500 and 3,000 feet). Richard Cross, starting from Glen Rosa, climbed to the summit of Caisteal Abhail, aka the Sleeping Warrior – you can see him and his friends faintly over there – and sent up a drone. The result is a unique photograph of a mountain ridge that most of us have never noticed. The Corbetts here, Cìr Mhòr, Goatfell and Caisteal Abhail, together with Beinn Tarsuinn (to the right of the picture), can all be bagged in a twelve-mile ten-hour expedition. You’d want it to be a day like this one.
6. Glenashdale Falls
The walk to Glenashdale Falls is one of the great natural jaunts of Arran. It can be a circular walk but the usual start is signed by the Glenashdale Bridge. You follow the river along its course and gorge, through woodland on a path where staircases ease progress on the steeper bits. There are viewing platforms across from and above the Falls and places to stop and picnic, perhaps on sausage rolls, pies and cakes from the estimable Old Pier Tearoom and Bakery in Lamlash. The track back down the other side, swerves through pine woods, emerging past the golf course on the road in Whiting Bay again beside the Coffee Pot (and more excellent home baking). This is not a survival course in the great outdoors, more like a country walk with rewards.
7. Machrie Post Box
The post box has always been an important fixture on an island where, as in many rural places, it might be a long journey to town. The post van brings the letters and the parcels back from the family gone away (as well as all the latest local gossip), but the post box is how you reply – how you keep in touch. Even with the internet there are still those who write a letter, send a card for a birthday or Christmas. This post box in the picture lies on the “String Road” between Brodick and Blackwaterfoot near the Machrie Moor Standing Stones. It may seem like a nostalgic anachronism, a postcard of bygone days but, after it was knocked over in an accident, they were right to build it back. It’s almost like a piece of living sculpture.
8. Bute
Driving north out of Tighnabruaich in the heart of Argyll, we come to one of Scotland’s great views: the breathtaking watery vista of the Kyles of Bute. Round the head of the short sea loch, the ferry from Colintraive eases gently into the understated ambience of the Isle of Bute. For some, Bute is Rothesay: a seaside/Clydeside town, the Pavilion and the Victorian Toilets, the West End’s fish ’n’ chips. But Bute can also boast of its beaches: Kilchattan Bay beyond amazing Mount Stuart, Kerrycroy, Scalpsie Bay and, north of that, ethereal Ettrick Bay, and its famous tearoom. What’s important to remember about Bute, not so far from Glasgow, is that it’s a rural, almost bucolic place. There are forgiving hills (Windy Hill the highest at 913 ft) and farms and village pubs.
9. Mount Stuart
One of Scotland’s secret jewels, this astounding Victorian Gothic house on the Isle of Bute has magnificent gardens and woodlands that stretch to the Clyde. It makes for a perfect day out. The House echoes the passion for mythology, astronomy, astrology and religion of the third Marquis in fascinating detail. Contemporary art commissions in the grounds and the strikingly modern visitor centre complement the Bute collection of masterpieces. And the Gardens: Kitchen, Rock, ‘The Wee’ and the Pinetum are all a joy too. Leave your humdrum life behind, everything here is in the best possible taste.
10. Great Cumbrae
Generations of west-coast tourists have come to Great Cumbrae for the beach, maybe a dook and a peach melba at the legendary Ritz Café. Ten minutes by ferry from Largs, Millport on Great Cumbrae was the port of call going “Doon the Water” in the Glasgow Fair Fortnight.
Great Cumbrae’s salty air also comes with a heady tang of nostalgia. Millport’s sandy bay takes up most of the south coast, but the other great delight here is that you can get round the island in an easy walk and, especially, on a bike. The highest point in the middle of the island, marked by the Glaid Stone (a naturally occurring stone) is a doddle. Nearby, the Cathedral of the Isles is the smallest cathedral in Europe, its grounds are a profusion of white wild garlic in spring.
Shetland & Orkney
1. Stromness
The sea has shaped the history of the settlement that the Vikings called Hamnavoe (haven in the bay). Fishing flourished in the abundant but perilous waters of the Pentland Firth, as did shipbuilding and whaling (the men who crossed to the Hudson’s Bay Company returned the richer). Stromness, with its alleyways, braes and unexpected piers, seems like a place apart, somewhere in Northern Europe, perhaps where once it traded with the Baltic ports (and as far as the American colonies). Stromness is a quieter, more reflective place now. Ferries arrive from the north coast of Scotland, smaller boats from Hoy. Folk disembark and seem quickly to be absorbed into the stone streets. Not gentrified, effortlessly authentic, it’s one of the most atmospheric towns in Scotland. Go quietly.
2. The Pier Art Centre, Stromness
On a landing between the main street and the sea, the Pier Art Centre is a fascinating, uniquely important art gallery. It houses the collection of Margaret Gardiner (1904–2005), regarded as one of the finest collectors of contemporary 20th-century British art; it is partnered with the Tate. Gardiner knew many of the artists, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Stanley Cursiter, personally. More recent acquisitions – Sean Scully, Olafur Eliasson, and also in the permanent collection, notable contemporary Scots Martin Boyce, Douglas Gordon and Callum Innes – offer an impressively curated and surprising exposure to good modern art. Howell also kept company with other luminaries and writers of the period, and was a close friend of the internationally revered writer, George Mackay Brown, for whom Stromness, his birthplace, was a lifelong inspiration.
3. Standing Stones of Stenness
The Stones of Stenness stand just off the Kirkwall to Stromness A965, on the road that also leads to the Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae. Maes Howe, a pre-eminent chambered cairn, is nearby. Together these four sites constitute Orkney’s outstanding and easily accessible World Heritage Site.
Skara Brae is the prize, one of the best conserved prehistoric sites in the world, its stone houses offering a uniquely thought-provoking glimpse of life an inconceivably long time ago. As the excellent Visitor Centre explains, the compact shoreline village of 5,000 years ago was engulfed in a sandstorm six centuries later and lay preserved until discovered by the Laird’s foraging dog in 1850. To my mind, the Stones of Stenness are the most aesthetic of the ancient monoliths, elegant and particularly enigmatic as the sun goes down.
4. The Old Man of Hoy
Famous is the Old Man of Hoy, like Scotland’s other old men, Stoer and Storr. At 449 ft, this Old Red Sandstone sea stack hit the news when it was conquered by Chris Bonnington in 1966. But the Old Man is only part of the reason many come across to Hoy (from Stromness preferably, or Houton). Hoy is where the big scenery is, the hills reminiscent of Highland Scotland. You can cross the island by foot or bike; a bus meets the Stromness ferry at Moaness and takes you to Rackwick, where the walk to the Old Man of Hoy begins (6.5 miles; 3 hours). However, it would be a pity not to allow time to walk on, or swim from Rackwick Beach, its headland rising massively above.
5. The Italian Chapel
Many of the remnants of the Great Wars in Orkney are evocative and have an air of melancholy, of abiding interest, mainly for followers of naval history and nostalgia enthusiasts. The Italian Chapel, near the first Causeway and Churchill Barrier on the A961, six miles south of Kirkwall, is different. It’s inspirational. In 1943, Italian POWs captured in North Africa and transported here to Lamb Holm in Orkney were given permission by the Camp Commander to transform two Nissen huts into a place of worship. Using the most meagre materials, they created a remarkably ornate chapel, completed at the end of the war in 1945. The meticulous trompe l’oeil and wrought-iron work, a team effort led by Domenico Chiocchetti, remain to this day, a deeply affecting affirmation of faith. Domenico returned after the war, an honorary Orcadian.
6. North Ronaldsay
North Ronaldsay, the farthest north of the North Isles and the farthest away from Kirkwall and mainland Scotland, is home to 60 people. Jim Richardson’s study focuses on the boat — a praam (or pram), designed and built only here. Copied from a boat being transported by a Norwegian ship passing by in 1926, this sturdy unique wooden fishing boat was adapted to account for North Ronaldsay’s skerry-lined coast and steep beaches. The one here had been lobster fishing. There are few praams left now, though one, Pearl, has been recently restored. At 139ft, the Dennis Head Lighthouse is the highest land-based lighthouse in the UK. North Ronaldsay also has its own eponymous breed of sheep. Not bad for an island where ‘remote’ doesn’t quite cover it, to have its own boat and its own animal.
7. The Brough of Birsay
At the northwest Point of Orkney Mainland in Birsay Bay, the Brough is a low-lying island joined to the mainland by a tidal causeway that you can cross only two hours either side of low tide. This makes for a slightly edgy walk because, if the tide races in, you could be stuck for eight hours – obviously there’s no pub, only a lighthouse and a few thousand seabirds. The views and the sunset can be epic, though, and the walk is one of the most popular sections of the West Coast Walk. From Birsay Village it’s two hours return. There is a proper path going up the Brough on the either side. In Birsay are the ruins of the Earl’s Palace, a 16th-century courtyard castle. The estimable Birsay Tearoom is nearby.
8. St Ninian’s Isle
St Ninian’s Isle is a curious offshore island north of Sumburgh and the seaway known as the Sumburgh Roost at the very south of Shetland. On the west coast, it faces the ocean. St Ninian’s is notable because the crescent beaches you cross to get there comprise the largest tombolo, or sandy isthmus, in Britain. Through the deposition of sand, the island becomes attached to the mainland and becomes a ‘tied island’. Shetland is full of topographically fascinating features like this. Mostly they go unnoticed and unreported, which makes them even more intriguing and open to discovery. The tiny island is only accessible at low tide.
9. Lang Ayre Beach
Folk say this is ‘the most amazing place on Shetland’. Its isolation, the fact that it can take three/four hours to get there will contribute to that perception. The beach itself, stony with some sandy sections, is red from the granite cliffs and the hill above it. Two enigmatic jaggy islets, sit just offshore. The given path leads first to Ronas hill, at 450m the highest point on Shetland. On a good day you can see Saxa Vord Hill on Unst, the farthest high point north on Shetland; Fitful Head, almost the farthest sea point south, and even Fair Isle, 50 miles away. There’s a rope to help your final descent down a small ravine to the beach. Lang Ayre is not even in many atlases and Google haven’t been there either. But go and find it.
10. Muckle Flugga
Muckle Flugga does sound like a muckle (big) far-flung place. Its name is from old Norse, meaning ‘big steep-sided island’. Muckle Flugga is the most northerly lighthouse, the furthest human place in these many British Isles. For long-distance walk baggers, it makes John o’ Groats seem like a halfway house. The lighthouse was built by the Stevensons, of course Thomas and David, in 1854. It has 103 steps to the light. 200-ft waves crash over the summit of the rock from the unending sea. We might well ask: ‘How on earth did they build that?’ I for one have never been to Muckle Flugga, but I appreciate its symbolic eminence in lighthouse lore and the entrenched ambition of Britannia to Rule the Waves. To get here, you must travel across Unst, where a Space Base will soon send rockets into the unending heavens.
Scotland the Best: The Islands by Peter Irvine (HarperCollins; £15.99)
