Tour Scotland travel video clip, with Scottish music, of Handa Island on visit off the West coast and waters of the Sutherland Scottish Highlands. Handa with over 400 feet high steep cliffs measures about a mile by a mile and a half. The island's name is of mixed Gaelic and Norse origin and means " island at the sandy river " It had a population of 65 in 1841, but following the 1847 potato famine the inhabitants emigrated to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, Canada. In some ways this is surprising, since it is recorded that the islanders had a fairly varied diet including oats, fish and seabirds, rather than depending heavily on a potato crop. The islanders had a parliament, similar to that of St Kilda, which met daily, and the oldest widow on the island was considered its Queen. Anciently the island was used as a burial place, and there are still the remains of a chapel in the south east, commemorated in the name Tràigh an Teampaill. The use of Handa as burial place is thought to be due to the fact that wolves would dig up graves on the mainland so frequently that the inhabitants of Eddrachillis resorted to burying their dead on the island. Each summer, nearly 100,000 seabirds breed here, including internationally important numbers of guillemots, razorbills and great skuas. These dramatic cliffs provide stunning ocean panoramas.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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