A lifetime of Islands: Island 389

Fair Isle: 39 years after first seeing the island from the Lerwick to Aberdeen ferry (in those days it was the P&O MV St Clair), I finally made it to the island and it didn't disappoint. Fair Isle is similar in many ways to Lundy: both islands are about 3 miles long, both have more than one lighthouse, a crashed Heinkell III and Heligoland Bird Traps. However Fair Isle is like Lundy on steroids - the cliffs are much more dramatic with numerous stacks and arches and the seabirds far more numerous.

Fair Isle lies between Orkney and Shetland and is 24 miles south of Sumburgh Head on Shetland Mainland and 27 miles north of North Ronaldsay on Orkney. It has been owned by the National Trust for Scotland since 1954 and currently has a population of about 55. There is one shop, a church, a chapel, a primary school, a phone box, a medical centre and a museum.

Even in the 21st century getting to Fair Isle on time is not problem free. Having heard several horror stories about the pitching and rolling ferry, the Good Shepherd IV, I had booked to fly from Tingwall on Shetland Mainland at 9am on a Monday morning in mid June. However the day dawned grey and wet and we all (7 of us - it's a very small plane) sat and waited for a couple of hours in the waiting room before being sent away and told to come back in time to fly at 2.40pm, unless we were recalled earlier. I went to Scalloway to find a few geocaches and by 11.30am the sun had come out. At 1.15pm I was already on my way back to the airport from Lerwick when I received a phone call to say the flight had been brought forward to 2pm. However mobile phone coverage isn't great in Shetland and I couldn't actually hear what the person on the other end was trying to tell me but I guessed correctly and drove straight to the airport. We flew out over the western coast of Mainland and I finally saw Foula for the first time in the distance. 30 minutes later we were landing on the gravel runway at Fair Isle and the sun was still shining. Like the other people on the flight, I had booked to stay at the Fair Isle Bird Observatory (FIBO) and Susannah met us at the airport with a car and drove us to the Obs, as it is known locally. I had only booked to stay for 2 nights and so was travelling light in case I had to walk but a lift was much appreciated, as there was much walking to be done that afternoon and evening while the sun was still shining.

After a brief introductory talk and a welcome cup of tea and a biscuit, I set out to explore the north end of the island. The island has one metalled road which runs from the North Light to the South Light. All the houses are in the southern half of the island, only the staff at the Obs live in the northern half. The island's many sheep and the wind keep the grass and heather from growing very tall, which is just as well, as there aren't many footpaths or tracks. The main obstacles to free movement during the summer are great and Arctic skuas. They nest on the open moorland and try and deter you from getting too close to their nests by flying very close to your head. I am told they will occasionally hit you with their feet, although as they are seabirds these are webbed, rather than talons. I had taken my walking pole with me and so walked round with it in the air above my head, which seemed to do the trick. After walking to the North Light, I returned to the Obs via a blowhole.

If you stay at the excellent and spacious Obs, you get full board and they feed you very well - too well really. The Obs also has a large boot room, an information room, a large lounge/library and bar. There is plenty of reading material but it is all bird related. I hadn't taken a book to read to minimise the weight I was carrying. However I'm not a birdwatcher and by the second night of my stay, I was a bit bored of reading bird magazines. At 9pm each night they play "bird bingo" in the lounge, well that's what it seemed like to me! It is actually a log of all the birds that have been spotted that day: a list is read out and if you have seen that bird you shout out the number of them that you have seen. I thought I had seen and heard lots of stonechats that day but then I read that they were rarely seen on Fair Isle, so I think it was wheatears that I had seen.

On my first afternoon and evening I walked 9 miles around the north and eastern side of the island. As it was approaching the longest day, it never got totally dark and was still bright daylight at 10.30pm when I finally called it a day. After dinner I walked south down the road to find the wreckage of a crashed Second World War Heinkel III and the ruins of one of the click or horizontal watermills in the Gilsetter Valley. I finished the day with a visit to the puffin colony on Bu Ness, which is only 10 minutes' walk from the Obs. There were dozens and dozens of puffins coming and going and as usual, they showed no fear of people walking close to them.

On my second and only full day on Fair Isle I started with a 7am walk around some of the Heligoland bird traps with one of the wardens, to see what birds we could find - just one young starling. After a hearty breakfast I set out to explore the south and west of the island. I walked 16 miles in total during the day. In the morning I found the only geocache on the island on the west coast and then walked down the west coast via the ruins of an 18th century stone watch tower on Malcolm's Head to the South Light and then back up the road via the Church of Scotland Church (which has some beautiful modern stained glass windows) and shop to the Obs in time for lunch, which was delicious but very filling.

After lunch I walked round the north west coast and up to the top of Ward Hill, which is the highest point on the island at 217 metres. As well as a trig point, the top of Ward Hill is littered with the smashed concrete remains of a Second World War radar station. I then walked further south to look at the Feely Dyke. This is a turf dyke with a stone foundation, which runs diagonally across the middle of the island from north west to south east and is thought to possibly date from the Neolithic period. For much of its length it is still 2 metres high and can clearly be seen. Close to Vaasetter there are four prehistoric burnt mounds. Stones were heated in fires and then used to warm water. After a few uses they cracked and were discarded and after many years a huge mound of stones developed. The biggest of the four mounds is the largest known burnt mound in Shetland. However I have to say that I was rather underwhelmed by it.

The weather during my second day on Fair Isle was cloudy with light winds and occasional sunny intervals. However the forecast for the next day - Wednesday - wasn't good - strong south easterly winds, which would prevent the plane from operating, as this would be a crosswind. I was scheduled to fly back to Shetland at 15.35 but this flight was likely to be cancelled. The morning flight was going ahead but there was no room on it for me, so it looked like I might have to stay another night at the Obs and catch the early morning ferry on Thursday. As my car was in Tingwall and not Grutness, that wasn't very convenient but it was better than being stranded on Fair Isle for days, as I was due to sail back to Aberdeen on the Friday. However after several changes of plan, it transpired that there was room on the morning flight, so I went for that option. It meant that I missed most of a day on Fair Isle and I was glad I had done so much walking the day before. I didn't visit the museum, which wasn't open on Tuesdays, or the chapel but I saw pretty much everything else I wanted to see. On the Wednesday morning a small cruise ship docked at North Haven and a hundred or so people, all dressed in identical coats, walked past as we were eating our breakfast. The pop up craft/knitting shop was opened in the community hall for them and I missed this too. David Parnaby, the Obs Warden gave me and another couple a lift to the airport for the 10.30 flight and it was time to say goodbye to Fair Isle. We flew back to Tingwall up the east coast of Shetland Mainland and over the island of Mousa.

A visit to Fair Isle is definitely worth the effort, even if you aren't particularly interested in birds. However it is advisable to time your visit towards the beginning of your stay on Shetland, as flights are often cancelled due to high winds, crosswinds or poor visibility, even in the summer months.

Fair Isle Airport

North Haven looking towards the Good Shepherd

Good Shepherd IV

Looking south from South Haven towards the Sheep Craig

Natural Arch on the North Coast

North Light

Path to Foghorn, North Light

Natural arches, north east coast

Black lamb

Double Heligoland Bird Trap

Ruined Mill in the Gilsetter Valley

Sheep Craig, east coast

Remains of crashed Heinkel - fuselage

Remains of crashed Heinkel - wing

Remains of crashed Heinkel - engine

Medical Centre

Fire Station

School

Geo on the West Coast

Stack

Ruined watchtower on Malcolm's Head

South Light

Fair Isle's South Light, built in 1892 by David Stevenson, was the last manned lighthouse in Scotland and was automated in 1998

Fair Isle South Light was hit by German bombs in 1941 and 1942. The wives of two lighthouse keepers were killed, as was one of their daughters and a soldier. This plaque is a memorial to them.