Holy Isle

A short crossing from Lamlash on Arran, Holy Isle has belonged to a Tibetan Buddhist community since 1992, when the Rokpa Trust bought it. A retreat centre at the north end, the Centre for World Peace and Health, runs courses for visitors, and the south end is kept for closed retreats that can run up to three years, based in cottages built around the island’s old lighthouse. Between the two, a path climbs Mullach Mor, the summit at 314 metres, and a lower coastal path leads round to the lighthouse instead for anyone who would rather not. St Molaise’s cave, named for a sixth-century hermit monk, has runic writing cut into the rock of its roof, thought to have been left by Norse sailors when King Haakon’s fleet anchored in the bay before the Battle of Largs in 1263. Eriskay ponies, Saanen goats and Soay sheep roam freely, part of efforts over recent decades to let the island return to a wilder state. A passenger ferry crosses from Lamlash between April and October, a booked trip that allows a few hours ashore before the boat back.