Muckle Flugga
Muckle Flugga is a small, dramatic rocky islet situated at the very northern tip of Unst, which is itself the northernmost of the Shetland Islands. Perched atop its wave-lashed summit is one of the most remote and celebrated lighthouses in the British Isles, making the site arguably the most northerly point of significant human habitation in the United Kingdom. The islet sits in the turbulent waters of the Burra Firth sound, just off the northern coast of Hermaness on Unst, and it is geographically remarkable for being located further north than parts of southern Norway and further north than virtually any other piece of the British landmass. The name itself derives from Old Norse, with "muckle" meaning great or large and "flugga" thought to refer to a steep-sided rock or cliff, a fitting description for this imposing stack of gneiss that rises sharply from the sea.
The lighthouse on Muckle Flugga was built with extraordinary urgency during the Crimean War, constructed by the celebrated engineer David Stevenson — a member of the famous Stevenson engineering dynasty that also produced the author Robert Louis Stevenson — between 1854 and 1858. The Royal Navy required a navigational light to guide warships travelling through northern waters to the Baltic, and so a temporary light was established first before the permanent tower was completed. The structure itself is a testament to Victorian engineering determination, built in one of the most hostile and exposed positions imaginable, where workers had to be hauled up the rock face by rope and where storms regularly interrupted construction. Robert Louis Stevenson visited the site with his father, the engineer Thomas Stevenson, as a young man, and it is widely believed that the wild, storm-battered landscape of Unst and its surrounding waters inspired elements of his novel "Treasure Island," with some scholars suggesting the dramatic outline of Unst's northern coast may have influenced the shape of the fictional island itself.
The physical experience of Muckle Flugga — seen from the Hermaness headland on the Unst coast, which is as close as ordinary visitors can get — is genuinely arresting. The white-painted lighthouse tower clings to the very summit of the islet with a confidence that seems almost defiant given the fury of the sea around it. The rock itself is dark, ancient Lewisian gneiss, streaked and fissured by millennia of Atlantic battering, and it rises steeply from boiling white water even on relatively calm days. The sound of the place is equally powerful: the wind is almost constant, often howling in from the north-west, and the crash and hiss of waves against the surrounding skerries creates a continuous, rhythmic roar. On still days, which are rare but do occur in summer, a strange quiet descends and the lighthouse seems to float above the metallic sea in an almost dreamlike stillness.
The surrounding landscape of Hermaness, from which Muckle Flugga is viewed, is itself one of the great wildlife spectacles of Britain. Hermaness National Nature Reserve, managed by NatureScot, protects a vast moorland and clifftop habitat that teems with seabirds during the breeding season. Great skuas, known locally as bonxies, nest in huge numbers on the moorland and will aggressively mob walkers who pass too close to their nests — the experience of navigating through a bonxie colony while birds dive-bomb overhead is thrillingly, slightly terrifyingly memorable. The clifftops also support enormous colonies of puffins, gannets, fulmars, guillemots and razorbills, making Hermaness one of the premier seabird-watching destinations in Europe. Out Stack, or "Ootsta" in the local dialect, lies just beyond Muckle Flugga and is a further, even smaller rock that represents the absolute northernmost point of the United Kingdom.
The lighthouse was automated in 1995 and its keepers were withdrawn, ending over a century of continuous human habitation on the rock. The keeper's cottages on the nearby shore at Burrafirth have since been converted and are available as holiday accommodation, offering perhaps the most extraordinary opportunity in Britain to sleep within sight of a lighthouse that is genuinely at the edge of the world. The lighthouse itself is maintained remotely and is now managed by the Northern Lighthouse Board. Its light has a range of approximately 22 nautical miles and continues to serve as a vital navigational mark for shipping passing through these northern waters, though the volume of commercial traffic is far less than in the Victorian era that necessitated its construction.
Getting to Muckle Flugga requires considerable commitment and planning, but the journey is richly rewarding in itself. Visitors must travel to Shetland, most practically by flying into Sumburgh Airport from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness or Bergen, or by taking the NorthLink ferry from Aberdeen to Lerwick, a crossing of around twelve to fourteen hours. From Lerwick, the journey to Unst involves driving north through the Shetland Mainland and crossing two ferry crossings — first from Toft to Ulsta on Yell, and then from Gutcher on Yell to Belmont on Unst. The ferries are regular, efficient and quite short, but they add to the pleasing sense of progression towards the edge of the map. From the village of Haroldswick or the small settlement at Burrafirth on Unst, the walk through Hermaness to the clifftop viewpoint above Muckle Flugga takes roughly two to three hours return and follows a waymarked path through the nature reserve. The path can be boggy, and appropriate footwear is essential.
The best time to visit is between late April and early August, when the seabird colonies are at their most spectacular, the daylight hours are extraordinary — midsummer brings virtually no true darkness at this latitude, with a phenomenon known as the "simmer dim" giving a golden twilight that barely fades between midnight and dawn — and the weather, while never guaranteed, offers the best chance of visibility. Outside this window, the clifftops and moorlands can be bleak and the light for photography poor, though there is a stark, magnificent loneliness to Hermaness in winter that appeals to those seeking genuine remoteness. There is a small visitor centre at the Hermaness reserve entrance with information about the wildlife and landscape. The sense of standing at 60.85 degrees north, looking out at Muckle Flugga and then Out Stack beyond it, knowing there is nothing between you and the North Pole except ocean, is one of the most powerful geographical feelings available to any traveller in the British Isles.