Sanda Island

The pub is the thing to see and do on Sanda Island, as well as the more obvious walks and views. Where once there was a community of maybe a hundred people on the island there are now three – Charles and Wendy McVey and their toddler. In 2010 they came back to run the pub (and the restaurant, the holiday lets, the fire service, the post, and 300 sheep) for the new owners of the island who bought it for £2.5 million (Swiss apparently, presumably looking for an away from it all kind of a place). It had been owned by Dick Gannon, an irascible Englishman by all accounts, who was responsible for restoring the old buildings by the pier (very nicely) and building the pub itself, although you wouldn't think it was 'new' to look at. This pub must outclass the Old Forge on Knoydart as the most remote pub in the UK, there is not even a scheduled ferry service (ph 07826 559398). Well good luck to them. They obviously know what they are doing having done the same job for Dick Gannon, albeit at a time when they didn’t have to think about how to get their child to nursery across the Sound of Sanda.

The pub’s name is interesting – the Byron Darnton Tavern. This was the name of the Liberty ship which foundered off the island in 1946 while taking American servicemen and their families back to the US after the war. The ship’s name was derived from a renowned American war correspondent who had been accidentally killed by a bomb dropped by an American plane.

Along by the boat house (conspic. and crucial for entry without a chart plotter) you will find St Ninian’s late medieval chapel (remains of) along with a very weathered slab and cross. This is where Charles and Wendy got married, certainly an original venue.

It is well worth the 20-30 minute walk across to the lighthouse, Stevenson again. It is set on a most spectacular outcrop right next to a natural arch, with the tide swirling all around and a bit of the Byron Darnton still visible at low water.