Looks Large

The Small Isles include the largest of houses, on Rum, and the impressive summit of Eigg, above. They are well worth seeing ... in a BBC programme presented by Paul Murton with an appropriate title, Small is Beautiful.

Scottish Islands Explorer - for all island matters, great and small

83 Years On

83 years after leaving St Kilda, Norman Gillies has died in Cambridge, aged 88. He was the oldest native male resident of that island group. The details of his life and times have been in the national newspapers this week and last and this BBC item records some of his memories. He lived in a house, appropriately named St Kilda, with his wife, Ivy, near Ipswich.

Scottish Islands Explorer - often features his island home

More Mackerel

Scientific research reports an increase in mackerel stock in the north-east Atlantic and so there is likely to be an increase in the quotas for fishermen. The details are to be found in a BBC item.

Scottish Islands Explorer - welcomes more fish in the sea

An Outpost

There's danger throughout the landing places for the more remote Scottish islands, but there's something about Hyskeir, beyond the Small Isles, that repels rather than attracts. However, the account by Marc Calhoun of the existing lighthouse and its former installations shows that he came to terms with the place and explored its component islets thoroughly. The vessel in the distance, moored off Hyskeir, is the Hjalmar Bjorge of Northern Light Charters - which undertook two trips during 2013 to the Lighthouses of the Western Isles.

Scottish Islands Explorer - makes light of lighthouse tours

For Warmer Waters

The MV Muirneag has been a customary sight conveying freight on the Ullapool - Stornoway crossing since 2002. Now she has been sold to a Turkish company, has left Stornoway for the last time and will undoubtedly now be spotted in the  Mediterranean rather than The Minch. A compilation of the ship's routes since the vessel was built in 1979 is featured in a Stornoway Gazette item.

Scottish Islands Explorer - remains on the Isle of Lewis

Rainbows All Round

Consider the different lifestyles on Scalpay between the present day when funding to assist the prospective buyout is supplied from tranches of cash, as indicated by this item on the BBC website, and the former days when Mrs Christine Morrison was bringing home ... whatever ... in a basket.

Scottish Islands Explorer - alert to the past; preferences for the present

Be Independent

This is a welcome sight for walkers who have climbed to a summit from Urgha, on the Tarbert to Scalpay road, and are about to begin the descent, via a zig-zag path, to Rhenigidale. The trek is described in detail by Mark Rowe in the newspaper feature, Walk of the Month, published recently in The Independent. Many of those who take this route, called The Postman's Path, will stay at the Gatliff Hostel in the small settlement where the footpath ends and a metalled road begins. This crofthouse has provided simple accommodation for 50 years, having been the product of endeavours by the late Herbert Gatliff.

Scottish Islands Explorer - aware of the contributions of many to the islands

Insular & Urban

Moncrieffe Island is deep in the heart of ... Perth. There are few settlements on both insular and urban land, although most of the activity here is on the allotments for which there is, as you can imagine, a waiting list. Take a colourful trip around some of them with this YouTube clip - possibly skipping the attention-seeking advertisements to get to the tranquil plots.

Scottish Islands Explorer - pleased to be growing interest

Bee Sanctuary

Bees are having a bad time in Britain - with environmental threats to their welfare. The Great Yellow Bumblebee thrived at one time on the machair and coastal areas of Scotland. Even these havens are no longer as secure. Read , in the Stornoway Gazette, an item on the efforts of Harris resident, David Jones, to create the right conditions for these relatively rare creatures on his croft at Northton.

Scottish Islands Explorer - rare in some parts of Britain

Worth Catching

The BBC Alba programme From Harris With Love is well worth catching on iPlayer. It focuses on the lives and work of several residents, including Angus Campbell of Kilda Cruises and Kate Langley who runs the Community Centre in Tarbert and is the warden of the Gatliff Hostel in her home village, Rhenigidale.

Scottish Islands Explorer - back issues of the magazine are also available