Outlying Islands

As if the main islands of the Outer Hebrides didn’t offer enough opportunities for exploration, visitors can also enjoy the archipelago’s many uninhabited or abandoned outlying islands.

Charter boats and tours sailing out of many of the harbours in the Outer Hebrides offer trips to the outlying islands, each of which has its own unique identity and plays an important part in Hebridean history and heritage.

Mystery lovers should head for the Flannan Islands - the site of one of Scotland’s great unsolved stories. Sitting 20 miles to the west of Lewis, it was here that an entire crew of lighthouse keepers disappeared at the turn of the 20^th Century never to be seen again. Uninhabited since the automation of the lighthouse in the 1970s, the Flannans are now home only to some wonderful wildlife, with birds including puffins, fulmars and kittiwake nesting here and whales and dolphins commonly spotted in the surrounding Atlantic waters.

Over on the south east of Lewis, sitting five miles into the waters of The Minch, are the Shiant Isles, another popular destination for day trips. Privately owned, these islands provide nesting for seabirds, including guillemots, razorbills and gulls. The Shiants are also home to a rare colony of black rats – believed to be the descendents of ships rats that swam ashore here after a wreck.

Thanks to recently introduced new catamaran cruises, adventure lovers can now head for the remote rocky islet of Rockall – hundreds of miles out into the Atlantic Ocean. Best known for giving its name to an area featured in the shipping forecast, this volcanic outcrop represents the pinnacle of extreme – rarely landed, the rock is used as a waymarker for seafarers attempting to round Rockall and prove their marine mettle.