Handa Island

Handa is an island of around 760 acres in Eddrachillis Bay, off the west coast of Sutherland, rising to 123 metres. It is one of the great seabird islands of Britain, a Scottish Wildlife Trust nature reserve visited by around 5,000 people a year, who come to see its towering sandstone cliffs packed with guillemots, razorbills and puffins.

Landscape

Handa is made of red Torridonian sandstone, surrounded by cliffs alive with birds. In the north is a hill with two peaks, while the south and east are lower, with sandy bays and machair. The most famous sight is the Great Stack, a massive pillar of rock standing just off the northern cliffs, covered in nesting seabirds. Handa is part of the North-West Sutherland National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland.

History

The island’s name comes from the Norse Sandey, “sand island”, which became “Handey” and then “Handa” as Gaelic speakers added eilean and the sound changed. Handa was once home to a small community who, like the people of St Kilda, were said to have their own “parliament” and elected the oldest widow as their “queen”. The island was abandoned in the late 1840s, after the potato famine, when its people emigrated, many to North America.

Handa is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protection Area for its birds and coastal plants.

More about Handa

Handa is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protection Area for its birds and coastal plants. A path leads around the island, past the old settlement and up to the clifftops, where you can look down on the Great Stack and watch the seabirds coming and going. It is one of the most unforgettable wildlife walks in Scotland.

Visiting

A small ferry runs to Handa from Tarbet on the mainland in spring and summer, and boat trips also run from Fanagmore. The crossing takes just a few minutes. Please keep to the path to protect nesting birds. You can collect Handa as a sighting in your Island Passport.

Wildlife and area

Handa’s cliffs hold huge numbers of guillemots and Razorbill, along with Puffin, Fulmar and kittiwakes, and great skuas and Arctic skuas nest on the moorland. Look out for Grey Seal, Minke Whale and dolphins offshore. Other islands nearby include Eilean an Ròin Mòr, Calbha Mor and Calbha Beag.