Our guests John and Jenny Bartram and Steve Lloyd are the first of our guests to send us images of the Flannan Isles. This new 10-night cruise is in our “far-flung islands” collection, calling in at Harris, Taransay, and the Flannan Isles with stopovers on Skye and the Small Isles en route. Highlights of the cruise included a shore visit to a beautiful Taransay beach, a visit to the Callanish Stones, and calling in at the amazing Shiant Isles. Perhaps the high spot of the cruise was being able to actually land on Eilean Mor on the Flannan Islands, with its famous lighthouse. Being able to land on Eilean Mor is a very rare occurrence so we were delighted to be able to provide this opportunity of a lifetime to our guests to go onshore to soak up the atmosphere and history of this evocative island.
There were also great wildlife sightings during the cruise, with a basking shark, common dolphins and Minke whales spotted. On the Flannan Isles, the bird list included fulmar, Manx shearwater, European and Leach’s storm petrel, great skua, greater and lesser black-backed gull, and herring gull. And of course the gannet colony.
John and Jenny and Steve have cruised with us several times before and we love having them on board. We look forward to their next trip with us next year aboard Emma Jane. View John and Jenny’s and Steve photos in the gallery below and a few of Skipper James's images from the same trip.
This was our third annual cruise with this excellent family business, and our first on the Elizabeth G (previously we had been on the Lucy Mary), and we are already booked back on the Elizabeth G in 2026 to the Flannan Isles. Getting to St Kilda has been on our bucket list for a long time, and when the weather turned bad two days before we embarked, we were resigned to being lucky to even get to the Outer Hebrides. During the early bad patch, skipper Iain worked his magic to keep us away from the rough seas and winds, whilst finding us idyllic inlets to explore and overnight in, whilst Trinity our steward and Izzy our chef kept our minds off the weather with great food and great service. Onboard and on our daily trip ashore, our wildlife guide Gill kept finding loads of wildlife and plants to wonder at and be educated on, so spirits were actually quite high despite the weather, which alleviated slightly a day or so in and allowed us to run across to the Outer Hebrides, where the pattern of great food, great service and great nature spotting continued. And then, late in our ten day window of opportunity, skipper Iain gave us the great news that the weather had improved to the point where a dash out into the Atlantic was feasible, but only for a one night stay. The next day, and with an extra early start, we hunkered down while the Elizabeth G used her stabilisers to the full in what was still a bit of a swell to us landlubbers, such that we arrived a few hours later “shaken but not stirred” at St Kilda. After a quick lunch, we headed ashore for a magical 5 hour visit, with incredibly clear and sunny skies overhead from the moment we arrived on the island, with rain only starting to appear as we headed back to our floating hotel for our well deserved dinner. The following morning we toured the rest of the archipelago, and marvelled at the stacks and the impossibly large numbers of seabirds everywhere.
John and Aileen MacLean: 31 May 2025St Kilda and the isles of the Outer Hebrides