The Islands - Various Cruise Itinerary Destinations
St Kilda
St Kilda is a remote archipelago situated 40 miles west of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides.
Towering out of the Atlantic Ocean, its cliffs and sea stacs are home to hundreds of thousands of seabirds. The archipelago is the UK’s only dual UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of only 35 in the world.
Internationally recognised for its birdlife, St Kilda is no less famous for its human history. A community existed here for at least 4,000 years, exploiting the dense colonies of gannets, fulmars and puffins for food, feathers and oil. The final 36 islanders were evacuated in 1930.​
The Flannan Isles
The Flannan Isles comprise seven islands, around 20 miles west of the Isle of Lewis. Each island has its own unique identity and plays an important part in Hebridean history and heritage.
Mystery still surrounds the loss of three lighthouse keepers, who disappeared without trace in 1900 – the site is one of Scotland's great unsolved stories.
Uninhabited since the automation of the lighthouse in the 1970's, the Flannans are now home to some wonderful wildlife, with birds including puffins, fulmars and kittiwake nesting here and whales and dolphins commonly spotted in the surrounding Atlantic waters.
The Monach Isles
The Monach Isles are an uninhabited island group lying 4 miles west of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides.
The islands are designated as a National Nature Reserve, a Special Protection Area, a Special Area of Conservation, and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The islands are home to one of largest grey seal colonies in the world where 10,000 seals come ashore each autumn to have their pups and mate. Over 100 bird species have been recorded on the islands which have a rich flora with stunning beaches and sheltered anchorages.
Taransay
Perhaps the best known of the outlying islands of the Outer Hebrides is Taransay, two miles to the west of the Isle of Harris.
The largest uninhabited island since its abandonment in the 1970's, Taransay rose to fame in the year 2000 when it was used as the location of the groundbreaking reality TV show Castaway, which followed the fortunes of 36 'competitors' tasked with creating their own Outer Hebridean island community.
Now home only to red deer and sea birds, Taransay is also a stunning site for Hebridean flora – with wonderful wildflower-filled machair grasses bordering its beautiful white sand beaches.
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Scarp
Scarp is a small island, which once supported some 200 residents, situated to the west of Hushinish on the Isle of Harris. The last permanent inhabitants moved to Harris in the early seventies. However, a few houses on the island are still in occasional use as private holiday homes.
At 1,011 feet, the summit of Scarp offers breathtaking panoramic views of the North Harris Hills, St Kilda and the nearby sea lochs of Lewis. From the same vantage point you might also catch a glimpse of one of a pair of sea eagles seen regularly in the skies above Scarp.
The island is famed for the film The Rocket Post (2004) which is very loosely based on experiments in 1934 by the German inventor Gerhard Zucker to provide a postal service to the island of Scarp by rocket mail.​​
The Shiant Isles
The Shiant Isles, to the east of the Isle of Harris, sit five miles into the waters of The Minch, and are a popular destination for day trips.
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These wild and stunningly beautiful isles are one of the great bird-stations of the northern hemisphere, with some 300,000 seabirds, including puffins, guillemots, razorbills, shags and great skuas, arriving there in the summer to breed.
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The waters around the Shiant Islands are home to a fantastic variety of marine wildlife including grey and harbour seals, fin whales, killer whales, dolphins, basking sharks,and porpoises.
North Rona
North Rona, the most remote island in Britain to have been inhabited long-term until the 19th Century, lies about 44 miles north from the Butt of Lewis.
The island is also 10 miles from Sula Sgeir, famous for its Ness, Isle of Lewis based Guga Hunters.
The island, which is a Special Area of Conservation, is the third largest breeding ground for grey seals in the UK. They use the labyrinth of sea caves along the coast for breeding and shelter. It is also home to large breeding colonies of storm-petrel, guillemot, gannets, puffins, fulmar, and kittiwake.
