Longa Island

Longa Island lies at the mouth of Loch Gairloch on Scotland’s west coast. It is a small, uninhabited island of grass and heather, mostly covered in sandstone. The island stretches nearly one and a half kilometres in length and rises to seventy metres above sea level. Its thirty hectares sit at the edge of the Inner Sound, where the sea meets the loch. The only sound on the island now is the wind across the open grassland. A single ruined building marks the place where people once lived. In the early nineteenth century a small fishing community worked here. By the late nineteenth century the island had been abandoned. The last families left long ago, leaving behind only stone walls and memories. Today the island is used only for summer grazing by sheep. The grass is cropped short each season, keeping the land open and wild. No trees grow here, only hardy heather and tough grass. Visitors step onto a shingle beach where the tide laps at the shore. The island’s flat top offers wide views over the loch and the surrounding hills. The ruined walls stand near the centre, their stones covered in moss. From the highest point the whole island can be walked in under an hour. The sea is always close, its sound constant in the background. The air smells of salt and damp earth, with no other people in sight.