Handa Island
Remote island with thousands of seabirds
Handa is one of Scotland's most intriguing small islands. For some time it was home to some extraordinarily hardy folk, who elected a queen and ran their own parliament, but all that came to an end in 1847 when the potato crop failed and the island was evacuated.
Now only seabirds live here in a thriving colony that includes arctic and great skuas, kittiwakes, razorbills and Britain's largest gathering of guillemots (around 65,000).
To visit, take a ferry (late-Mar–Aug Mon–Sat 9.30am–16.45pm. Last ferry to island at 2pm; Adults £25; +44 7780 967 800; handa-ferry.com); from Tarbet (postcode IV27 4SS), which lies around 1 mile northeast of the island.