Canna
Canna is the westernmost of the Small Isles off the west coast of Scotland. It's joined by a road to the smaller tidal island of Sanday. Canna, Sanday and their surrounding skerries are managed by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), and are run as a farm and conservation area. The people of Canna (numbering 15 in 2021) all live near the ferry pier at the east end of the island, while the west end and Sanday are uninhabited.
Get in
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First get to Mallaig by train, bus or car. You'll need an overnight stop before taking the Calmac ferry onward next morning, except perhaps for the Saturday afternoon sailing.
The ferry sails to different Small Isles on different days. April-Oct it calls at Canna and returns to Mallaig on M W F Sa & Su. Day trips from Mallaig to Canna can be made on Saturday, with 8 hours ashore. Nov-March the ferry calls on Tu and Th, plus Sunday on request; no day trips are possible.
Sightseeing trips from Arisaig frequently visit Canna from May to September.
All routes are for foot passengers only; dogs and bikes welcome but you can't bring a car. Until end of March 2025 the return fare from Mallaig is £12.90 adult, £6.60 child.
1 Canna Ferry Pier is on the east side of the island. This is the best anchorage with your own boat, sheltered by Sanday.
Sailors beware that the high point Compass Hill is iron-rich and deviates compasses.
Get around
[edit]Walk, it's not worth bringing a bike, and of course you can't bring a car. Canna extends 4½ miles east-west by a mile north-south. A graded but unpaved lane courses for a mile from the ferry pier to the bridge to Sanday, then a rough track continues west for a further mile. A track also runs across Sanday from the bridge to St Edward's Chapel. The rest is sheep trails over soggy moorland.
See
[edit]- Canna Rhu Church 200 yards north of the ferry pier is better known as the "Rocket Church", and officially as the Presbyterian Church of St Columba. It was completed in 1914 by the Thom family; Joanna and Allan Thom are the only occupants of its graveyard. For reasons unknown it's oriented ENE-WSW not east-west; the "rocket" is a replica Celtic Round Tower, with the gable end providing the fins. The wrought iron gates were added in 1969. Although still consecrated, the church is seldom used, as most islanders are Catholic.
- 1 Canna House. Closed until April 2025. Villa built in 1863, but furnished as for mid-20th century when the owners amassed a collection around Gaelic culture and language, and butterflies and moths. They gifted the house to the National Trust for Scotland, and it's those collections rather than the architecture that make it significant. It's long been closed for refurbishment but this work is nearing completion.
- 2 Coroghan Castle is a fortified sea stack, best not climbed. The crumbling bastion looks to be 17th century and is also known as "prison rock" as it was supposedly a lock-up. There are no signs of earlier use, but every likely-looking crag in the Hebrides was fortified in ancient times, and no self-respecting Pict would ignore this one. Alman is the tidal islet just beyond.
- 3 Compass Hill is only 456 ft / 139 m but commands fine views from the east of the island.
- 4 Celtic Cross is a carved monument from 7th-9th century AD, missing its arms. This area is known as A'Chill or Keill, indicating a church, and was probably once a monastery.
- Punishment Stone stands 100 yards west of the cross. It's a dressed stone 2 m high, with a little notch near its top, and the legend goes that offenders had their thumb jammed into the notch. Not a scrap of evidence for this.
- St Columba's RC Church is near the start of the path to the Celtic Cross, 100 yards beyond the Post Office. It was built in the 1770s but disused once the chapel on Sanday was complete. That too fell out of use in the 1960s, whereupon St Columba's resumed its role.
- 5 Sanday Bridge was first built as a footbridge in 1905, as the children of the tidal island had too good an excuse for not coming to school on Canna. It was wrecked by a storm in 2005 and replaced by a road bridge, though the adjoining track was still awash at the top of the tide until improved in 2018. 100 yards beyond the bridge is the two islands' best beach, which of course is sandy.
- 6 St Edward's Chapel was built in 1890 for the fisher folk of Sanday, replacing the RC St Columba's for a time. But it keeps letting in water and is now disused.
- 7 Canna Island Lighthouse at the east tip of Sanday is no longer in use. Puffins and other seabirds nest on the cliffs.
- 8 Carn a'Ghaill is the island's high point at 689 ft / 210 m. It means "rocky hill of the storm", which is sure to pour down before you can reach shelter.
- 9 Souterrains are a pair of underground chambers driven into the slopes of Beinn Tighe. Neolithic pottery was found here, but the structures' age and purpose are unknown,
- 10 King of Norway's Grave is the largest of three rectangular stone layouts on Rubha Langanes peninsula. They resemble 9th century Viking burial cairns elsewhere in the Hebrides, though this purpose is not confirmed.
- Tarbert in Gaelic means a neck of land where boats can be portaged from one body of water to another. It's a common Highland place name, and on Canna the neck is the low-lying farmland where the lane ends. However the name has stretched to encompass all the land beyond, the rugged western third of the island grooved by fault lines.
- 11 Sgor nam Ban-Naomha is a hermitage dramatically perched on a grassy terrace between upper and lower sea cliffs. The name means "cliff of the holy women", a nunnery, but more likely it was a 7th century outpost of the monastery at A'Chill.
- 12 Hyskeir is a rocky islet with a lighthouse 6 miles southwest of Canna. It was used for summer sheep-grazing and never permanently inhabited. The lighthouse was designed by the Stevensons and completed in 1906: it marks the south entrance to The Minch, the channel between Inner and Outer Hebrides. Garbh Sgeir is a small skerry just west that shelters the landing stage. The lighthouse was automated in 1997 and that spelt the end of the keepers' golf course, which had one hole.
Do
[edit]- Birdwatching: look out for sea eagles, golden eagles, buzzards, puffins, shelducks, and merganser ducks.
- Report a rat! Brown (Norway) rats practically devoured this island in the 20th century, but were systematically eradicated by 2008, and Canna is now rat-free. Ground-nesting birds such as the Manx Shearwater depend upon this. So report it if you think you see a rat, but don't try to whack it yourself. You'd only succeed if it was something else, e.g. a wood mouse or shrew. The NTS have similar ambitions for the island's rabbits.
Buy
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- Canna Community Shop by Canna House is unstaffed but accessible 24 hours with an honesty box. You can have provisions sent over from Mallaig, see Small Isles#Buy.
- Canna Post Office 200 yards west along the lane is open M-F noon-PM, Sa 10AM-1PM.
- No ATM on the island.
Eat
[edit]- Cafe Canna, West Bothy (by Canna House), ☏ +44 1687 482488. May-Sep W-M 11AM-10PM. Delightful little licensed café with fresh Scottish cooking, mostly locally sourced. Booking recommended.
Drink
[edit]- The cafe is licensed, else byob.
Sleep
[edit]- 1 Canna Campsite, ☏ +44 1687 462963. Sheltered campsite and hostel open all year. 8 tent pitches, 2 caravans sleep 4-6, bunkhouse with 6-bed and 2-bed rooms, 3 camping pods sleep 5-8. Sleeping bags etc can be hired. With cook shack and shower block. Tent pitch £12, bunkhouse £20, caravan £75, pod £45.
- 2 Tighard Guest House, ☏ +44 1687 462474. Splendid welcoming B&B with 3 rooms en suite (one king, two twin). Evening meals by arrangement. Dogs only accepted Sep-March. B&B double £180.
Connect
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As of July 2024 there is a patchy signal from all UK providers in the main settlement thanks to Hebnet, a community initiative that relays mainland networks from one island to another.
The red telephone box at the post office is often out of order.
Go next
[edit]- On Saturday a day-trip is possible from Canna to Muck (4 hours ashore) and Eigg (3 hours). Transfers to Eigg, Muck and Rùm are possible on other days.
- Eventually you have to circle back to Mallaig on the mainland.