CANNA AND SANDAY

Canna and Sanday are two separate islands, but they are linked by a road and sandbanks at low tide. Canna is the larger of the two, but even it is only 4.3 miles long and 0.9 miles wide, dwarfed by its towering neighbour Rum. Canna is known as the "garden of the Hebrides" due to its temperate climate and fertile soil, and one of its claims to fame is that it is one of the best places in Europe for viewing white-tailed and golden eagles, added to which it hosts over 20,000 breeding seabirds including puffins, razorbills and guillemots. An Coroghon, or Coroghon Castle, at the eastern end of the island is a ruined medieval prison tower built on a stack overlooking the bay, while nearby Coroghon Barn was completed in 1805 and is an example of a traditional "bank barn". Canna House was occupied by a previous owner of the island, Dr John Lorne Campbell and his wife. Campbell was a champion of the Hebridean Gaelic tradition, and the house contains a large repository of works in Gaelic. Campbell died in 1996, after which the National Trust of Scotland installed an on-site property manager.  The house is currently closed for renovations, but visitors can still access the gardens.

Map of the island.

Canna Coroghon Castle (lhoon). Photo by LHOON, via Wikimedia Commons.