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Canna Visitor Information Guide

Canna The most westerly island of the Small Isles parish of the Inner Hebrides, Canna has held a special place in Highland clan and religious history over many centuries.

It has a base of basaltic rock and this forms a soil that grows good, lush grass on which high-quality sheep and cattle are raised. Since 1938 Canna has been under a form of land ownership that is somewhat rare in the Highlands: committed, progressive, sympathetic, and caring [or both land and population.

In 198I Canna was handed over to the care of the National Trust for Scotland, along with a large and extensive library of Gaelic literature and Gaelic song collections, Canna contains many relics of bygone occupations, from the well-preserved Viking ship burial to the remnants of an early 7th-century church and a medieval prison tower.

Canna the outermost of the Small Islands of the Inner Hebrides, a site of continuous settlement for 9,000 years, with a small population of inhabitants remaining to this day.

The Island can be accessed by the Caledonian MacBrayne Ferry, which links Canna, and the neighbouring Small Isles of Rum, Eigg and Muck to the mainland port of Mallig offering accommodation Bed and Breakfast about 2 hours and 30 minutes away the ferry is capable of carrying motor vehicles, although permission is required to land them on the Island.

The harbour is sheltered and is the only deep harbour in the Small Isles, and is very popular with west coast yachting traffic out of Oban and Arisaig. yachtsmen and campers,are welcome in small numbers.

The Island is 4.3 miles long and 0.9 miles wide. The mail-boat from Mallaig calls three times a week. The people who live here are crofters and estate employees

Canna House contains an extensive and unrivalled Gaelic library, curated by previous owners, Dr John Lorne Campbell and his wife Margaret Fay Shaw. The neighbouring small island of Sanday to the South east gives protection to Canna's fine harbour and is joined to it at low tide, by a footbridge. Canna's coast is mostly rocky, with impressive caves, but there are one or two sandy bays.

At the North East of the Island is the well-known Compass Hill, From the West at Carn a Ghaill there is an unsurpassed panoramic view of Skye, the Hebrides and the mainland, at its widest point,the Island it is blessed with fertile soil,and a remarkably early spring, it is rich in bird-life and seafood.