Fair Isle, Scotland

Fair Isle – One of Britain’s most Remote Inhabited Island – Northern Scotland

Fair Isle is located halfway between mainland Orkney and Shetland and is one of Britain’s most remote inhabited island in northern Scotland.

It is three miles long and one and a half miles wide and is famous for its bird observatory as well as traditional style of knitting. The Bird observatory and the Lodge are major attractions where bird watchers tend to relax in comfort observing some of the 350 species which have been recorded in this place and a twitcher’s paradiseat the time of bird migratory seasons.

Being a crofting community and thriving with traditional industry, one can see the crafts people of this island at work like boat building, weaving, spinning and knitting. Knitwear originated from Fair Isle and it is still the only place in the world producing these articles.

Besides being known for various species of birds, Fair Isle also has more than 250 species of flowering plants. During summer, the wetlands are covered with bright yellow Bog Asphodel and deep purple Early Marsh Orchids which looks amazing, Towards late May, the cliffs are covered with delicate blue to Spring Squill while in June it changes to a bright pink carpet of Thrift. Rare species of plants include Frog Orchid.

Archaeological Remains/Unusual Flora/Military Relics/Wildlife

One will find archaeological remains, unusual flora, military relics and plenty of wildlife together with amazing cliff scenery. Fair Isle had been carefully studied by archaeologists than any area in Scotland and evidence are found that the Isle could have been settled by Neolithic inhabitants around 5000 years ago.

Besides, there have been traces of oval shaped stone houses which could probably be 3000 years old with line of turf and stone wall which pass across the landscape. The archaeological remains comprises of burnt mounds which are piles of blackened stones that seems to have been heated in fire and dropped in stone trough to warm the water but the purpose is not clear.

It could have been used for cooking, tanning, preparing cloth or for primitive sauna. Besides these, there are also two known Iron Age site, the foundations of a house underlying an early Christian settlements at Kirkigeo and a promontory fort which is at Landberg.

Useful Landmark for Shipping 

For many years, Fair Isle had been a very useful landmark for shipping though in fog and storms, the coastline seemed to be very dangerous.

Fair Isle, in all has around fourteen scheduled monuments which range from the earliest signs of human settlement to the remains of World War II radar station with two fine lighthouses which have been automated and are listed buildings.

From 1982, around two thirds of the power had been supplied through wind turbines with a third by diesel generators. Since Fair Isle is not connected to the national grid, its power supply is being provided by the Fair Isle Electricity Company where power is generated by two wind turbines and two diesel generators.

Diesel generators gets automatically switched off when the wind turbines tend to provide adequate power and additional capacity is distributed through separate network for the purpose of home heating or if insufficient, through a dump load.