Island 539 - Noonsbrough Broch, Shetland

Noonsbrough is a hamlet on the west coast of Voe of Clousta on the west side of Shetland Mainland. Noonsbrough Broch is on a small tidal island 50 metres off the coast at Noonsbrough.  It is linked to the coast at Noonsbrough by two shingle beaches.  It looks as though it would be accessible on foot at all times except during high spring tides. 

Brochs were Iron Age fortified dwellings built of stones.  The broch remains at Noonsbrough are a large mound of grass-covered rubble.  The broch would have been about 19 feet in diameter.  Later stone buildings were built next to the broch mound.  Some of these are up to about four feet in height.

Noonsbrough Broch from Noonsbrough

Noonsbrough Broch from Noonsbrough

Looking north west from Noonsbrough Broch

Noonsbrough Broch

Island 538 - Scarva Taing, West Burra, Shetland

Scarva Taing is an uninhabited small tidal island located 50 metres to the west of the headland of Atla Ness, which is immediately to the north of the village of Hamnavoe on the island of West Burra.  West Burra is located off the west coast of Shetland Mainland and is linked to it via two road bridges: the first links the island of Trondra to Shetland Mainland and the second links Trondra to West Burra.

Scarva Taing is about 70 metres from east to west and 50 metres from north to south. It is separated from Atla Ness by rocks, which are exposed at all but high tide.  The island is covered in grass.  There is some thrift growing on it, which wasn't in flower when I visited in mid May 2026.  Some of the rocks on the island are covered in patches of orange and grey lichens.  The remains of sea urchins were scattered over part of the island.  I wondered if they had been eaten by otters or gulls?

Fugla Ness Lighthouse from Scarva Taing

Hamnavoe from Scarva Taing

Scarva Taing from Atla Ness

The remains of sea urchins

Island 537 - Carraig Fhada, Islay

Carraig Fhada is a tidal rock located at the south end of Kilnaughton Bay on the island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides.  It is a mile south west of the harbour at Port Ellen.  

In 1832 a tower was built on the rock by Walter Frederick Campbell, in memory of his wife Lady Ellinor Campbell (née Charteris), who died in 1832 aged 36.   The town of Port Ellen is named after her.  There is a large plaque above the main door on the west side of the tower.  There is a poem on it, written by Walter Frederick Campbell as a tribute to his late wife.

The tower, which was built by David Hamilton, was used as a lighthouse from 1853, but didn't come under the control of the Northern Lighthouse Board until 1924. The light is displayed from a mast on top of the tower.

The lighthouse is very usual, as it has a stepped L-plan form.  The main tower is square with a smaller and shorter square tower attached to it, which contains the staircase.  The main tower has 3 storeys and a parapet at the top.

Carraig Fhada can usually be reached easily at low tide via a concrete walkway with a metal bridge section about halfway along it.  However, when I visited in June 2025 the bridge was usuable, as it had no floor and was roped off.  As it was low tide, I was able to scramble across the seaweed covered rocks underneath the bridge and access the island that way.

Low tide walkway

Broken bridge

Approaching the lighthouse

Tower and staircase

North door

Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses plaqye

Islay from Carraig Fhada

Arran - A Look Beyond the Obvious - see also Island 3

Arran was the 3rd island I ever visited, back in 1976.  I have returned three times since and this blog post highlights some of the less obvious interesting places to visit on the island.

Tin Tabernacle Church at Pirnmill

The church was built c1920.

Pirnmill Church Bell

Plaque outside the Co-op in Lamlash commemorating Donald McKelvie

Donald McKelvie (1867-1947) developed disease resistant potatoes, including the Arran Chief, Arran Victory, Arran Pilot and Arran Banner. The Maris Piper was bred from his Arran Cairn,  He also bred Highland ponies.  He was born on Arran and after training as an accountant in Glasgow he returned to Lamlash in 1894 to run his family's bakery business.  He became interested in horticulture and developed the new varieties in his garden and on fields where the high school now stands.

Igneous Dyke at Kildonan Shore

The southern coast of Arran around Kildonan has one of the best exposed igneous dyke swarms in the world.  They were formed when basaltic magma was squeezed up through vertical  cracks in the earth's crust, which formed as the continents of Europe and North America were pulled apart 60 million years ago.  Today they look like walls that extend out into the sea.

Igneous Dyke at Kildonan Shore

Waterfall at Kildonan Shore

Seat at Kildonan Shore

Eas Mor Waterfall

It was more of a trickle, than a waterfall when we visited in May 2022, despite a week of rain.

Paper lined hut near Eas Mor

Not sure what this was all about!

Outside of the paper-lined hut at Eas More

Bluebells near Eas Mor Waterfall

Sheep bollard at Glen Sannox

Elephant Rock near Sannox

Hutton's Unconformity, Lochranza

Fairy Seat at the Fairy Dell near Lochranza

Fairy Dell, Lochranza

Twelve Apostles, Catacol

This row of 12 cottages is known as the Twelve Apostles.  They were built in the 1860s to house people who had been cleared from their homes in the interior of Arran to make way for deer.  

Barking House, Catacol

This now ruined building is where local fisherman used to preserved their sails, ropes and nets by immersing them in a liquid known as cutch. Cutch was made by boiling the bark of the Acacia catechu tree (from India) in water.

St Bride's Church, Lochranza

The current church was built in 1795 on the site of an earlier church. It was enlarged in 1835 and restored in the mid 1890s by the Duke of Hamilton.

Stained Glass Window in Lochranza Church

This window was given by Miss Edith Kerr in 1931 in memory of the Reverend John Colville. It depicts the ship of the Gospel sailing through the troubled seas of life. The thunder and lightning represent the perils its experiences along the way. The lighthouse on the hill in the background is a guide to the ship's ultimate goal, the city of light and the harbour where the waters are calm.

Auchencar Standing Stone

Auchencar Standing Stone

Auchagallon Cairn

Coast Path near the King's Cave

Cave near the King's Cave

Entrance to the King's Cave

According to legend, a despondent Robert the Bruce sheltered in this cave before the Battle of Bannockburn and it was here that he saw the famous spider that took numerous attempts to create its web but never gave up on its task.  This inspired him to have another go at claiming the Scottish throne.  However, the story is probably not true and the cave is one of a number that claim to have sheltered Robert the Bruce on that occasion.  The caves along this part of the coast to the north of Blackwaterfoot were eroded into the New Red Sandstone cliffs by the sea during the last ice age when glaciers covered much of Scotland and caused isostatic depression of the land.  When the climate warmed the glaciers melted and the weight of the ice was removed from the land, which caused it to rise up relative to the sea and to form the raised beaches, which are a feature around most of the coastline of Arran.

Cross carving in the King's Cave

Looking out of the King's Cave

King's Cave

Caves close to the King's Cave

Entrance to the King's Cave

Rock sculptures in a cave to the north of the King's Cave

Unusual rock formation near the King's Cave - is this an example of pillow lava?

Beautifully carved wooden otter gate at Corrie

Island 499 - St Ninian's Point, Straad, Bute

St Ninian's Point is a flat tidal island located off the west coast of the Isle of Bute at the hamlet of Straad.  It is about 600 metres from north to south and 250 metres from east to west.  It is only cut off from Bute at high spring tides.  It is separated from Bute by a beach of flat pebbles.  There are two houses and a ruined chapel on the island.

The chapel site was excavated in 1952 and 1954 and an earlier pagan burial site of long cists was found underneath it.  The chapel was founded from Whithorn (St Ninian started his missionary work in Scotland there in 397AD) in the 6th or early 7th century and possibly abandoned in the 9th century when Norse people arrived.

When we visited in mid May 2022 we identified scurvy grass, lousewort, daisies, dandelions, bird's-foot trefoil, buttercup, cranesbill, celandine, silverweed, cuckoo flower, thrift and iris growing on St Ninian's Point.

One of the two houses on St Ninian's Point

The other house on the island

Chapel ruins

View from inside the chapel

Chapel ruins

Looking north towards the two houses

Freshwater sump on St Ninian's Point

Gap between St Ninian's Point and the Isle of Bute

Looking west towards Inchmarnock from St Ninian's Point

Thrift in flower on St Ninian's Point

Looking south from Bute to St Ninian's Point

Standing stones on Bute just to the north of St Ninian's Point