Muckle Flugga

Muckle Flugga is a small, rocky island of around six acres north of Unst in Shetland. It is the most northerly hill in Scotland and is often described as the northernmost point of the British Isles, although the tiny islet of Out Stack is in fact a little further north. Its lighthouse, built in the 1850s, stands on the summit, battered by some of the wildest seas in Britain.

Landscape

Muckle Flugga is a jagged rock rising steeply from the sea off the cliffs of Hermaness, Unst’s great seabird reserve. Its name, like that of neighbouring Little Flugga, comes from the Old Norse Flugey, “cliff island”, and it has often appeared on lists of unusual place names. Out Stack lies just to the north-east, the very last speck of land before the Arctic.

History

Muckle Flugga Lighthouse was built in the 1850s by the Stevenson brothers, Thomas and David, in extraordinarily difficult conditions, with storms sending waves over the rock. Robert Louis Stevenson visited in 1869, and the island is sometimes said to have inspired the map in Treasure Island. For more than a century Muckle Flugga was the most northerly inhabited place in Britain, home to the lighthouse keepers, until the light was automated in 1995 and they left, passing that title to Unst.

A novel set on the island, Muckle Flugga, by Michael Pedersen, was published in 2025.

More about Muckle Flugga

Local folklore says that Muckle Flugga and Out Stack were formed when two giants, Herman and Saxa, fell in love with the same mermaid and fought over her by hurling rocks at each other. To be rid of them, the mermaid offered to marry whichever would follow her to the North Pole, and both drowned, as neither could swim. Hermaness and Saxa Vord on Unst are named after them. A novel set on the island, Muckle Flugga, by Michael Pedersen, was published in 2025.

Visiting

There is no landing on Muckle Flugga. The best view is from the clifftops of the Hermaness National Nature Reserve on Unst, a walk of a few miles through moorland where great skuas nest. You can collect Muckle Flugga as a sighting in your Island Passport.

Wildlife and area

Hermaness and Muckle Flugga are home to huge numbers of Gannet, Puffin, Fulmar and guillemots, and great skuas nest on the moors. Look out for Grey Seal and Orca offshore. Other islands nearby include Out Stack, the Holm of Skaw and Unst.