North Rona

North Rona is the most remote island in Britain to have been inhabited long-term. It can be considered the outermost of the Outer Hebrides, but it's as far away from the rest of that archipelago as it is from mainland Scotland - 44 miles / 71 km. Its last resident left in 1844. Historically its name was simply Rona (Scottish Gaelic: Rònaigh) but that name is also given to an island near Skye in the Inner Hebrides, similarly now referred to as South Rona.

Understand

St Kilda has become a symbol of remoteness in the British Isles, but it's not the most remote spot (40 miles / 64 km from populated North Uist), and is certainly not forgotten. Its last 36 residents were evacuated in 1930 in a time of press photography, oral history and documentary film-making, and boat trips visit to see its abandoned village. Rona by contrast has been forgotten as completely as if it sank beneath the waves 8000 years ago along with the Dogger Bank.

Rona is barely habitable, made of the same gneiss bedrock as Lewis and thus with similar poor soil for farming. Its population was wiped out by starvation in 1685 and almost again in 1695 by a boating disaster. Its last inhabitant was a shepherd, Donald M'Leod, and when he left for Lewis in 1844 he was just a drop in the wave of humanity abandoning the highland and island farm villages of Scotland and Ireland. Rona has since been used for sheep grazing, and a few hardy souls have had short stays, but it was never again inhabited long-term. Its Victorian landowner Sir James Matheson offered it to the government as a penal colony, but they declined. If only he'd called it North Rwanda.

Get in

You need to come in a covered boat, it's too far out for a Rib. However there's no harbour or sheltered anchorage, so you then transfer to a Rib or similar dingy to get ashore. Be prepared to scurry back at short notice if the skipper sounds the recall signal, if the weather changes and the boat has to move.

Specialist cruises such as those of the National Trust for Scotland occasionally come this way.

Get around

The island is about a mile across with just sheep tracks, so hike.

You might see the wildlife better by taking a Rib around the rugged coasts.

See and do

• 1 Geodh a Stoth is often the landing point and start of a visit. Being on the east coast it's sheltered from the prevailing westerly winds and swell, and the terrain is lower-lying in the north of the island hence less of a scramble from shore.
• 2 North Rona Lighthouse is automatic, at the highest point of the island at 108 m. Its range is the horizon at 25 miles / 41 km so your boat will be halfway here before the light comes into view above the earth's curvature.
• 3 Poll Thothatom on the south coast might be a landing point in northeasterly weather. But any breeze from the southwest will send breakers pounding into the gully, and it's a steeper scramble to get ashore.
• 4 St Ronan's Oratory is maybe 8th century. It may have been founded by St Ronan, Abbott of Kingarth in Bute (d 737) and functioned as a branch of that abbey - an oratory is where blessings are chanted for the dead, to lessen their time in purgatory. It was abandoned when the Vikings began raiding the Scottish islands.
• Beehive houses lie just south of the oratory, surrounded by runrig cultivation grooves. These are from a 12th century re-occupation of Rona: the oratory was not re-established, but a chapel for the islanders was added to the original structure.
• 5 Sula Sgeir is 12 miles / 18 km west of Rona so it's even more remote, but has never been permanently inhabited - winter waves break right over it and it lacks fresh water. However there's a bothy where a monk may have stayed awhile, and in legend Brenhilda, sister of St Ronan, lived out her last years here. The island is riddled by caves and has a large colony of gannets.

Buy

Approaching North Rona

Not a chance.

Eat

Bring everything you need with you.

Drink

Best bring your own. Boil any island water you take, the sheep and seabirds have already made use of it.

Sleep

You may wild-camp in any decent spot.

Connect

Your boat radio will be the only way to reach the outside world. For an extended stay ashore you might bring a satellite phone.

Go next

You'll go wherever your boat is going next: back to the mainland, south to the Hebrides, or east to the Orkney Islands.