Housay and Bruray, joined by a bridge across the harbour, make up Shetland’s most easterly community, a huddle of three rocky islets with a school, two shops and a working harbour. Grunay, the third island, has been empty since the keepers left Bound Skerry lighthouse in 1972; the light itself flashes from a stac, a small rocky islet just offshore, at Scotland’s most easterly point.
A car ferry sails from Vidlin, on the Shetland Mainland, a crossing of about ninety minutes, switching to Laxo in strong northerly winds; a direct sailing from Lerwick runs twice a week, and there’s a small airstrip on Bruray too. Fishing still pays most of the wages here. Rare migrant birds blown off course make landfall on the Skerries most autumns, and birdwatchers take the ferry out to see them; on a clear day you can also see across to Whalsay, the nearest of the bigger islands.
