Sanda Island

Hiking around Sanda

[Kyle]When we got up in the morning, all of the other boats were in the process of pulling up anchor. By the time the coffee was ready, we were the only boat left. We decided to go ashore and properly explore the little 1 mile long island.

First, a little about the island; Sanda , just two miles off Kintyre, has been occupied by Vikings, fisherman, farmers and shepherds. Robert the Bruce used the island as a lookout post. More recently, the island was uninhabited except for a lighthouse keeper and owned by a series of people, most notably the bassist from Cream. Dennis, the current owner, bought the island in order to escape the rat race. He has since restored most of the buildings, some of which he rents out as holiday cottages. He also built an award winning pub by bringing supplies over from the mainland with over 100 trips on his own boat. He now runs the island with his daughter and one Summer employee, dividing his time between herding sheep and, as people of a certain hair color are wont to do, complaining about the government full-time. I’m not sure what the deal is with the sheep. He says the price he can get for the wool by the time he’s taken it to the mainland isn’t worth shearing them. He’s constantly trying to herd them from one area of the island to another. Perhaps it’s to keep from overgrazing certain areas. I think mostly, it gives him something to do and thus complain about.

Not being in a city mood, our first hike was over to the other side of the island to the lighthouse. We had not seen it (or anything else) from the sea so had no idea what to expect. As we came over the hill, we were stunned. It lies atop a giant rock on one side of a natural archway and comes with its own helipad for access.

Sanda Lighthouse
From there we climbed in intermittent rain showers to the island’s highest point; Trig Point. Our chart says the elevation up there is only 122 meters (403 feet). I don’t believe it! That climb was long and steep. We were rewarded with stunning views of the great glacial valley that bisects the island as well as both Kintyre and the Northern Irish coast we had become so familiar with.

Back down at the shore, we had a stroll along the beach as far as we could go. At one point, we encountered a small cave with two adorable little birdies in a nest. We also found a couple of sheep carcasses that had obviously come a little too close to the cliffs.

It was kind of cool having the whole island to ourselves. Dennis came up to us as we walked back to the dinghy muttering under his breath about his sheep. As his entire economy is based on tourism (mostly yachts, although he does have a boat he can collect people with if they book a cottage), we decided we should have dinner at the pub. We asked him when he opened. His answer was, “Whenever you get there.” Sure enough, the employee outran us and had the pub open as we got there.

We spent the afternoon in the pub doing pub stuff. We started with some nice hot tea and passed the time playing darts and dominoes while the other three people on the island read and worked on the computer. After a while, some people from a boat that had been across the dock from us on Rathlin came in and we had a nice conversation. I must admit to some prejudice here. On the boat were a middle aged couple and their grown son. I had assumed the boat was theirs but it turned out to belong to the son. He had just really liked boats so he bought one and was busy learning to sail it. He was really keen and we had a good time trading stories, some of which I didn’t get because he had a wee thick Scottish accent. Once it got late enough, we had nice veggie lasagnas and topped it off by sharing a whisky sampler.

Between lessons from Maryanne when we first met, who was in the Whiskey Society at the University of St. Andrews and all of the distillery tours, I feel like I’m pretty up on whisky, but it’s always good to get an idea of what the local whiskies are like. We had four varieties from the four key Scottish regions: Highland, Lowland, Campbeltown and Islay. The sampler confirmed what they say about whiskey; that if you don’t like it, you haven’t found the right one. The Campbeltown and Lowland whiskies were nice, but we both really liked the Highland. It was yum, yum, yummy. The Islay, on the other hand, tasted like charcoal lighter fluid that had been strained through an old sock. Had that been the first whisky I had ever tasted, I surely would have had to been held down for more. Luckily, it wasn’t. Just for good measure and to keep the economy going, we also added in a t-shirt for Maryanne. Now we’re broke and Dennis is rich, but we’d hate for this little gem to not be here.


Sanda Free Range Chickens
[Maryanne]We were advised before we arrived to make sure we picked up some Sanda eggs. Free range chickens feeding on seaweed apparently make for an especially yummy egg and we weren't going to miss a chance to check them out. Apparently we are not the only ones: Princess Anne has even stopped off for eggs while cruising the Scottish Islands.

Scottish whisky has distinct flavours that can (broadly) be divided by the region it came from, traditionally the Island (Islay) whiskeys are very peat flavoured since the malted barley is dried over peat fires and picks up the smoke aromas. I prefer a more butterscotch flavour - but each whisky is different and you just have to try them all to be sure :-).