About the island

There is so much to this island. The birds, alone are enough, but it also has the incredible scenery to match. The west side of Foula is very hilly. Shetland’s second highest hill, The Sneug, rises centrally above its two neighbours, Hamnafield and The Kame. As you climb to the summit of the Kame you are suddenly presented with a sheer drop straight to the Atlantic Ocean below. At 1210 ft, this is the highest sheer cliff in Britain. You could stand the Empire State Building beside it and still see over it!

The walk along this western edge of the island is simply stunning, and at the same time, daunting. Care has to be taken, as the cliffs do not generally drop below 800ft. But, it is only when you stand on this western side of the island, that you experience the true meaning of being on the edge of remoteness. The next stop west is Canada.

From the summit of the Sneug, you can often see Fair Isle to the South East very clearly. Sometimes, if you choose the right day, you can even see the Orkney Isles beyond, and the lighthouse of North Ronaldsay. To the east is the long spread of Shetland, from Unst in the north, down towards Sumburgh in the south.

The inhabited east of the island is relatively tamer. It also offers birds a more diverse range of habitat and shelter, with a mixture of peaty moorland, grassland, crops, gardens, burns, lochs, stone dykes and fences. Fortunately, this makes it slightly more manageable from a birder’s point of view. However, the island is definitely not for the feint hearted, or the birder who just wants to sit and wait for the find. This is not Scilly or Fair Isle. There is limited accommodation. There are no shops or pubs for refreshments. The find, if it comes, is never easy to access. It is a long walk – over three miles, north to south, down its one road, over undulating terrain (about ten miles a day is the average walked). There is usually a gale blowing into your face and a wade through long grasses and marsh, before you even start to look for, what is usually a skulker, somewhere within an large iris bed. All the time you are looking (or behaving like a demented dog, chasing the apparition of a fleeting dart into cover) you are, of course, wondering what the rest of the team may have found elsewhere! It is a dangerous game! But, that’s what it has come to be all about.