Expert: Willie Wallace - 2/29/2004

Question
 i amn interested in visiting islands of united kingdom . and would like to learn about islands and the life on island . can u please let me know something about it as weel as suggest me some sites and <a href="http://go-acct.com?go=books" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: books';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''">books</a> too which can help me to find more about it . ?


Answer
Hi Ravi,

There are some small islands off the coasts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, not too many and not many of which are easily visited, as there are few, or no ferry ervices.  The obvious exceptions are the Isle of Wight off Southern England and the Isle of Man between Northern England and Ireland.  These are LARGE islands with quite large populations and certainly in the case of Wight are very similar to living on the mainland.  

One island which should be mentioned off the North East coast of England, is Holy Isle,  Here there are a lot of historical sites and the Lindisfarne Monastery especially and the castle are worth visiting.  The island is cut off at high tide, as it is reached by a causeway, submerged when the tide comes in.  

There are over 700 islands off the coast of Scotland, with more than 70 of them lived on.  Populations on many are in the low hundreds.  They are gathered in distinct groupings mostly, with a few odd ones dotted here and there.  The Orkneys (especially) and Shetlands off the North of Scotland host a feast of prehistoric remains.  Orkney is one of only four Unesco World heritage sites in Scotland.  See

http://whc.unesco.org/sites/514.htm

Other island groups are The Outer Hebrides and the Inner Hebrides and two islands tend to stand alone, Arran and Skye.

The islands of Scotland are all unique and all beautiful, some with a peaceful tranquility, others with a storm tossed ruggedness, and yet others, Iona in particular, with a strong spirituality.  Many will say Skye is the most beautiful and it is certainly the most visited, with an "in-your-face" beauty.  There is a bridge linking Skye to the mainland, a source of much dispute, but although there are only a couple of small ferry crossings to Skye now, the "Road to the Isles" which leads you to the West coast and the crossing to Skye, is a beautiful route and well worth the travelling.

Caledonian MacBrayne (Calmac) run ferry services to 32 islands and there are other smaller companies going to some of the smaller islands.  Northlink Ferries connect Orkney and Shetland with the mainland and there are several other ferries linking the smaller islands in these two groups,  It is possible to take a ferry to either Barra at the South of the Outer hebrides, or Stornoway on Lewis at the North and then island hop up or down the archipelago.  Each island is completely different from it's neighbour.

The Island of Arran is described by the Scottish Tourist Board as Scotland in Miniature.  It's not often the tourist board get it rght but with Arran they're spot on.  With a population of around 3,000, Arran is about 20 miles by 10 and stuffed onto it are mountains, glens, fast flowing rivers and streams, waterfalls, peat bogs, countless tiny lochs and lochans (lakes and very small lakes) left by the last ice age, beaches, prehistoric stone circles and single standing stones, viking and iron age forts, forests, caves, seals, otters, eagles, deer and a distillery (let's not forget the distillery!).  The geology of Arran is unique and has some of the oldest stone in the world.  You always know when Spring has arrive on Arran, when the fery starts disgorging geology students, with their little hammers hanging off their rucksacks and their big shiny new boots causing them to hobble.

Arran is a popular destination for Scottish holiday makers, but numbers have fallen as it has become easier to fly to warmer climes.  It is never too busy that you can't find your own peaceful part of the island.  

Now, one of the best things about Arran for visitors from outside Scotland, it is about 40 minutes drive from Glasgow Airport to the ferry port of Ardrossan and then 55 minutes on the ferry for the 15 mile crossing to the island.  Add the 30 minutes ferry check-in time and you are on the island a little over two hours after driving your rental car out of the airport.  If you fly into Prestwick, you are slightly closer to Ardossan.  Even Edinburgh Airport is only an hour further away.

Once you are on the ferry to Arran, no, once you are on the ferry to ANY of Scotland's islands, you have entered a completely different world.  Tension and stress ebbs away as the sea air blows off your cobwebs and the seagulls following the ship take your attention and in the case of some of the Outer crossings, whales and dolphins are sometimes there to completely captivate you.  

In recent years, many of my friends have seen both whales and dolphins on the 2 hour crossing to Islay, but I haven't, so I'll be watching carefully when I go over in 2 weeks time.  The last time I was on the crossing to Stornoway from Ullapool, an air sea rescue helicopter rendevoused with the ship as we travelled at full speed and lowered a crew member to the ship and then came and retreived him, as part of an exercise.  You never know what you are going to see next on Scottish ferries and you never know what you are going to see next, or who you will meet next, on Scotland's islands.

I hope that has been helpful to you.  Here are some web sites which will help you.

http://www.calmac.co.uk

http://www.northlinkferries.co.uk

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.com

http://www.rental-cars-scotland.co.uk

Have a great trip,

Willie Wallace