Between West Loch Tarbert and Loch Roag there are the more easily accessible and stunning islands of Taransay and Scarp.
Perhaps the best known of the outlying islands of the Outer Hebrides is Taransay, two miles to the west of Harris. The largest uninhabited island since its abandonment in the 1970s, Taransay rose to fame in the year 2000 when it was used as the location of the groundbreaking reality TV show Castaway, which followed the fortunes of 36 “competitors” tasked with creating their own Outer Hebridean island community.
Now home only to red deer and sea birds, Taransay is also a stunning site for Hebridean flora – with wonderful wildflower-filled machair grasses bordering its beautiful white sand beaches.
Scarp is off the coast of Huisinis in North Harris. The last permanent inhabitants moved to Harris in the early seventies. However, a few houses on the island are still in occasional use as private holiday homes. The island is famed for the film The Rocket Post (2004) which was loosely based he story is very loosely based on experiments in 1934 by the German inventor Gerhard Zucker to provide a postal service to the island of Scarp by rocket mail.
