Canna

Canna is not just a magnificently safe and attractive anchorage (but watch the kelp), and easy to get in and out of, it is special. It has been special for me, right from the first time I sailed into Canna Harbour on a chartered Rival 34 in 1975. What a wonderful serene and scenic anchorage on a quiet evening in summer sunlight. Outside it may be blowing hard, but inside it is pastoral, you are surrounded by the farmland so lovingly tended by the MacInnon family. It also was special when I sailed my first young family there in our newly acquired Contessa 32 in 1988. And it was very special for family holidays in the 1980s and 90s when Ben, Margaret and Oli were growing up. Year after year we rented Tighard from John Lorne Campbell who had owned the island from 1938 until he gave it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1981, sometimes just the family, sometimes with friends. It is the Edwardian house peeping through the trees above the big house. There are not many places on the west coast where you can rent a place to park the family with easy access to a safe anchorage for day or longer trips by boat, and Canna must be the best. But alas, Tighard is now a bed and breakfast establishment – which may have its uses for a cold, wet and disgruntled crew member who wants a comfortable night ashore. We made up Canna Tig around Tieghard; the hunter stands at the front door with their eyes shut to the count of 20 while everyone else disperses to hiding places around the outside of the house, but within range. The idea is that one has to get to the front door without being caught by the hunter. Great fun on a summer evening.

Notwithstanding the tiny population of around 20 people, there is a surprising amount to see and do on Canna and the immediately adjacent island of Sanday connected by a bridge, but maybe this is a bias because I know the place so well.

First up from the anchorage is the small church with the round tower – not as old as it looks, completed in 1914 and used for occasional Church of Scotland services. It is rather pretty inside, but I am not sure about the ornate gate to the churchyard.

The larger late 19th Century Roman Catholic Church of St Edward the Confessor on Sanday – a seamark if ever there was one - has been sadly neglected for years but the Trust are now trying not very successfully so far to do something with it.

The only active church is the small Roman Catholic Chapel on the track to the farm; it has been lovingly restored and is quietly attractive. Behind the chapel a track runs up to an old graveyard and the remains of an 8th or 9th century Celtic cross.

The impressive big house - Canna House - (circa 1865) contains an internationally renowned collection of Gaelic literature but is not yet open to the public.

Much longer walks are to the souterrain and remains of a Viking grave, but you need the OS map to find them.