Tiny Scots island’s first ever road will ‘transform’ the lives of all six residents

THE first road has been opened on a tiny Scottish island with just six people.

The 10ft-wide, mileand-a-half-long route has been constructed on Sanday, which is connected by a bridge to the neighbouring Isle of Canna in the Inner Hebrides.

Only islanders’ and contractors’ vehicles are allowed on the islands.

The road, which does not have tarmac, is a replacement to a rough shoreline track that was covered by water at high tide.

Isle of Canna Community Development Trust (ICCDT) helped with a crowdfunding campaign to raise more than £31,400 to pay for the construction of the road.

The National Trust for Scotland, which owns the two islands, also contributed to the cost.

Fifteen people live fulltime across the two islands of Canna and Sanday. Sanday is joined by a bridge to Canna – one of the Small Isles off the west coast.

The bridge can take vehicles but there is no road on Sanday.

Liz Holden, secretary of the ICCDT, said the islands’ mothballed school was also on Sanday. It is hoped that children will again be taught there.

“This road will transform life on Sanday,” she said. “No ordinary vehicles could use the old track because of the clearance needed and you only get around along the foreshore when the tide is out.”

The road will give 24-hour access and is also vital for a new renewable energy scheme which will start producing electricity in a few months.

The road stretches from the Canna bridge to St Edward’s Church. Alongside the track, the trust wants to create a trail to link the sites of interest on Sanday together. These include the bridge itself, the shrine, machair and sand dunes, bird colonies, St Edward’s Church, Sanday lighthouse and local archaeology.

Canna is just over four miles long and one mile wide. The tidal island of Sanday is much smaller.

Canna and Sanday, 23 miles out into the Atlantic, have no mains electricity and currently rely on diesel generators.

The isles attract 10,000 visitors each year

Canna once supported a population of more than 400 people in 1821. The islands were left to the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) by their previous owner, the Gaelic folklorist and scholar John Lorne Campbell in 1981, and are run as a farm and conservation area.

The place is renowned for its sea eagles and golden eagles, and thousand of puffins, razorbills and Manx shearwaters.

„ Ian Lavender holds a print of himself in character as Private Pike, as a new set of eight stamps is being issued to mark the 50th anniversary of TV comedy classic Dad’s Army.

„ The bridge connecting Canna and Sanday.