Monach Isles
Local highlightWest of North Uist, and reachable only when the weather allows, the Monach Isles are a low scatter of machair, the sandy turf common along this coast. Ceann Ear, Ceann Iar and Shivinish, the three main islands, are joined to one another at low tide, with Shillay a little further out. People lived here for centuries, fishing and gathering kelp, until the last families left in the 1940s. Day boat trips run out in settled weather; Lady Anne Wildlife Cruises sails from Kallin harbour on Grimsay, usually landing on Ceann Ear.
The islands are now known mostly for grey seals: about 10,000 come ashore each autumn to pup and mate, one of the largest such colonies in Britain. Shillay’s lighthouse, built in 1864 by the Stevenson engineers, was decommissioned in the 20th century and later reactivated to mark the deep-water shipping route west of the Hebrides.
