Carefully Selected Scottish Holiday Homes in Beautiful Locations
Foula
Southwest of Walls, at "the edge of the world", Foula is without a doubt the most isolated inhabited island in the British Isles, separated from the nearest point on Mainland Shetland by about fourteen miles of often turbulent ocean. Seen from the Mainland, its distinctive mountainous form changes subtly, depending upon the vantage point, but the outline is unforgettable. Its western cliffs, the second highest in Britain after those of St Kilda, rise at The Kame to some 1220ft above sea level; a clear day at The Kame offers a magnificent panorama stretching from Unst to Fair Isle. On a bad day, the exposure is complete and the cliffs generate turbulent blasts of wind known in Shetland as "flans", which rip through the hills with tremendous force.
Arriving on Foula, you can't help but be amazed by the sheer size of the island's immense, bare mountain summits. As well as having forty human inhabitants, the island, whose name is derived from the Old Norse for "bird island", also provides a home for a quarter of a million birds. Arctic terns wheel overhead at the airstrip, red-throated divers can usually be seen on Mill Loch, while fulmars, guillemots and gannets cling to the rock ledges, but it is the island's colony of great skuas or "bonxies" whom you can't fail to notice.
It's essential to book and reconfirm the summer passenger ferry from Walls (Tues, Thurs & Sat; 2hr 30min; tel 01595/810460). The boat arrives at Ham, in the middle of Foula's east coast, and has to be winched up onto the pier to protect it. Aside from Tuesdays, day-trips are possible by flying from Tingwall (Mon-Wed & Fri; around £22 one-way; tel 01595/753226). Foula's only B&B is Leraback (tel 01595/753226; £50-60), near Ham, which does full board only, though they can also rent out a self-catering cottage on a daily basis.
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