Pladda

Pladda is a small, flat island shaped like a teardrop, lying just one kilometre off the south coast of Arran in the Firth of Clyde. It rises only twenty-seven metres above sea level and is privately owned, having been sold in 2022 for £350,000. The island has its own fresh-water spring, which is unusual for such a tiny place. It shares its name with a smaller islet in the Lynn of Lorne, between Lismore and Ardmucknish Bay. Historical records mention a church dedicated to St Blase, but nothing now remains of the building. The island’s main landmark is the automated Pladda Lighthouse, standing at its southern tip. The lighthouse has appeared in Peter Hill’s memoir Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper and in the first episode of The Crown’s fifth season. Chroniclers from the 15th and 16th centuries wrote about the isle of St Blase of Pladda, though its exact location is no longer known. The lighthouse and its outbuildings form the only visible structures on the island today. Visitors reach Pladda by boat from Arran and find a quiet, open landscape with few traces of human activity. The lighthouse and its ancillary buildings stand at the southern end, while the rest of the island is open grassland. There are no shops, cafes or marked paths, only the natural shoreline and the sound of seabirds. The view across the Firth of Clyde to Arran and the surrounding hills makes the short crossing worthwhile.