Shiant Isles
Local highlightThe Shiant Isles sit in the Minch, the strait between Skye and the Outer Hebrides, and have been owned by the same family, the Nicolsons, since 1937. Adam Nicolson wrote the islands’ history in his book Sea Room, and his son Tom now looks after them. Boats land on a shingle spit joining the two main islands, Eilean an Taighe and Garbh Eilean, where a single bothy, a basic stone shelter, is the only building.
The islands are made of dark dolerite, a slow-cooled volcanic rock related to the basalt at Staffa and the Giant’s Causeway, its columns rising to around 120 metres in places. Roughly a tenth of the UK’s puffins nest on the cliffs and grass slopes each summer, alongside large numbers of razorbills and guillemots. Boat trips run from Tarbert on Harris and from Stornoway, with a couple of hours ashore when the sea allows.
