Island 253 - Sheep Island, Dornie, Highland

Sheep Island is a small tidal island located 150 metres off the south east shore of the surprisingly short Loch Long, half a mile to the north east of the delightful village of Dornie and close to the hamlet of Carndu.

All the attention in this part of the world goes to the very photogenic Eilean Donan half a mile to the south of Dornie.  There is also an Eilean Tioram half a mile south west of Dornie.  Eilean Tioram means Dry Island but the evening I visited it was a neap tide and the 400 metre gap between Ardelve Point and the island didn't look dry to me even at low tide.  Maybe it dries out when the tides are lower.

Anyway, back to Sheep Island, which I did visit.  It is treeless and mainly covered in grass.  There was no sign that it had been grazed by sheep or any other animals recently.  There were a few wild flowers - Michaelmas daisies, devil's bit scabious (this lovely powder blue flower was present on virtually all the 30 islands I visited in September 2014), tormentil, sea mayweed and thrift.  There is a tumbledown dry stone wall around part of the island and a satellite dish in the middle of it.

 Carndu from Sheep Island

 I'm not sure what this satellite dish is doing on Sheep Island or to whom it belongs.  Maybe all the surrounding mountains interfere with the signal and this is the best place to locate it?

Looking up Loch Long from Sheep Island