A Refuge for Someone

Imagine being wet and cold on Barvas Moor, the Isle of Lewis, and this building comes into view. Some refuge would be offered. The image was captured by David Wilson, The Hebrides Photographer.

Scottish Islands Explorer - unlikely to find a copy within these doors ...

Digital Edition: ... but with the right internet connections?

Returning to Unst

These three observers of Muckle Flugga, Unst, Shetland, the most northerly part of Britain, are undoubtedly visitors. Perhaps they will return. There is, however, a definite tendency among those brought up on the island to come back and settle down. See the item on the BBC website.

Scottish Islands Explorer - has readers there

Digital Edition: able to reach despite patchy reception 

The Sandwood Shepherd

Getting to Sandwood Bay in the far north-west of the Scottish mainland is considerably more arduous than reaching many islands. However, its massive beach is well worth the effort and just offshore is the sea-stack, Am Buachaille, known as 'The Shepherd'. It was first climbed in 1968 and on YouTube is the opportunity to see a more recent ascent. If you have heights to reach this week, here's one to savour on your screen without effort.

Scottish Islands Explorer - goes to lengths to reveal
Digital Edition: available on the stack with the right kit

A Vatersay Stay

Airbnb enables you to look ... and book ... accommodation all over the world. Where better to start than at the foot of the Outer Hebridean chain and the island of Vatersay? Here is a caravan which offers static transport of delight in an idyllic setting.

Scottish Islands Explorer - accommodation is often suggested
Digital Edition:  a magazine through the air-waves

Back to Rockall

If your appetite for the remote was whetted yesterday, then return to Rockall today in the company of a group who visited in the Summer of 1982. It's a good story, well told.

Scottish Islands Explorer - always keen to know more about this outlier
Digital Edition: willing to go anywhere

Operation Top Hat

Rockall-watchers certainly well outnumber visitors to that far distant islet. Two strands of information regarding  putting a permanent light there are interesting. One concerns the decapitation of the summit in 1971 - the so-called Operation Top Hat - in 1971; the other is about the Solar Beacon placed there by Greenpeace in 1997.

Scottish Islands Explorer - needs comparable publicity
Digital Edition: reaches remote places with technological support

Foula in Focus

For a close-up series of fascinating views of Foula, in the Shetland group of islands, go to The Sun.

Scottish Islands Explorer - likes to explore in detail
Digital Edition: closes in quickly

Inching into Space

Saxa Vord and Burra Firth are at the top end of the country's most northerly island, Unst. Here plans are being made to create a viable company, Shetland Space Centre Ltd, to operate a launchpad for rockets to take spacecraft places. Read in Shetland News about the initial steps.

Scottish Islands Explorer - down-to-earth coverage
Digital Edition: travels through space to deliver

Pentland Road

The BBC's Your Pictures of Scotland was light on island images last week, but Morris MacLeod's photograph of sheep on the Pentland Road, Lewis, more than made up for the shortfall. Below is a reminder of how that long and high road beyond Stornoway looks later in the year.

Scottish Islands Explorer - tends to favour summery shots
Digital Edition: gets through regardless of obstacles

Roots, Shoots & Fruits

2018 should be another formative year in the development of the Raasay Walled Garden with its promise of roots, shoots and fruits. Go to The Skye Times for details.

Scottish Islands Explorer - needs to be opened, not restricted
Digital Edition: a slick click and its fixed