Inhabited west coast Scottish islands - Muck

The isle of Muck is one of the Small Isles which is a small group of islands (normally given as four) just to the south of Skye. I say ‘normally given as four’ because, since I’m including tidal islands in my inhabited, west coast island tour as separate islands, then there are five islands in the group. The fifth, and smallest, is Sanday which is tidally connected to Canna. Muck is the smallest of the four but the second smallest of the five. It is the most southerly of the Small Isles. It lies roughly east to west, and about 2.5 miles long measured that way, and about 1 mile south to north at it’s widest. It has a permanent population of between 30 to 40 (depending upon which article you read - but not very many, anyway). It is fairly low lying with the highest point being Beinn Airen at only 449 feet. Beinn Airen is located on the western part of the island close to the southern coast. The main habitation is at Port Mor on the south coast which is reached by the CalMac ferry from Mallaig or on the Shearwater from Arasaig. There is only one road on the island (apart from a couple of brief, dead end branches to various houses) which runs north out of Port Mor to the north coast where it turns west and goes a bit further to Gallanach, where there is a fine sandy beach and (it seems) a good anchorage for yachts. The eastern and western sides of the island are both uninhabited. My maps indicate that there is a track that continues, from near the road end at Gallanach Farm (where the public road ends), into the western wilderness but I’m not sure if that track is only for foot use or, say, bike or vehicle use. Note, however, that there is no access to the island for visitor’s vehicles (and there would not be much point in bringing a car anyway, given the size of the island) but I think residents can bring farm vehicles and cars over if required.
Muck is pretty arable and crofting and farming have flourished there for centuries, added to, these days, by fishing and tourism. Crops grown, these days, only seems to be hay for feeding the livestock over the winter. The livestock includes sheep, cows, hens (the keeping of which seems to have fallen away in most areas in recent years). There are also horses and ponies freely wandering about. There are no rabbits or red deer on Muck but there are the usual otters and the seas around the island host the usual variety of species that are found around all the other islands in the area (including porpoises which seems to be the Gaelic source of the island’s name). Apart from hay, the other things grown on Muck seem to be a variety of vegetables for local use  - which will help with the fact that there is no shop on the island (or church, post office, post box or doctor). There is a cafe and gift shop, a primary school and two hotels (Port Mor House Hotel and Gallanach Lodge) but not much else in the way of facilities (so bring supplies with you if staying for more than a brief day visit). I did not read about any rare or unusual plants or flowers or unusual insects. There are a few wooded areas, but I’ve read that they were all planted fairly recently. There is a small area of wood land just south of the road at Gallanach and on my way back to Port Mor I heard, as I passed it, what I thought to be a wood pigeon hidden in the trees (although I have to admit that I’ve no idea what a wood pigeon sounds like). Note that the wood in question is shown in photo 4, below. Apart from (maybe) wood pigeons it would appear that the island hosts corncrakes and puffins - and that eagles might also be seen (although they are probably visiting from more mountainous areas). I would suspect that there are several other species of bird that are either residents or seasonal visitors.
What is there to do on Muck once you get there (assuming you’re not on a brief day visit)? Muck is very small without a lot of variety in available activities. So maybe not the best destination unless you are mainly looking to kick back and relax or do some easy walking. There is the beach at Gallanach and, I read, a few others tucked away that require a hike to get to them. Given Muck’s terrain, I suspect that such explorations will not be difficult. The same goes for general exploration of the uninhabited areas of the island. I read that there are a few ancient monument sites but I didn’t see any on my brief, roughly two hour, visit and I couldn’t spot too many marked on my maps, either. There’s also not much in the way of hill walking. There is, of course, always wild life spotting to take up some time. Although another visit to Muck would be fine, I would not plan staying over for more than two to three nights and I have to be honest and say that I think I’d find staying for more than about five days a bit boring - unless the weather was good enough to just lie about in the Sun. I’m not saying Muck is not worth a visit just that, given it’s size, there’s not much to do and see once you get there. Given Muck’s fertility, it has a history of battles and changing ownership (food sources have always been the cause of such violence) and as a result there is quite a bit about Muck, and it’s history, to be found on the Internet. I’ll therefore say no more and leave it up to those interested to do their own research.

As always, I end this post with a few photographs I took while there. Due to it's small size and brief time ashore, I did not take very many photos while there - hence only five included here.

The photo above is from the ferry as it approaches the jetty at Port Mor.

 

The above photo was taken on Port Mor's main road, heading away from the jetty.

 

The above photo was taken on the road to Gallanach looking back towards Port Mor.

 

The photo above was taken from about where the road from Port Mor turns west along the north coast of Muck. Just hidden are the sands at Gallanach Bay.

 

The above photo is of just one section of the sands at Gallanach bay.