- Isle of Coll is in Inner Hebrides, Scotland.
- Inner Hebrides
- Check access, weather and local guidance before travelling.
About Isle of Coll
Coll is a low-lying, sandy island in the Inner Hebrides, west of Mull and north-west of Tiree. Unlike its mountainous neighbours, it is mostly machair, dunes and freshwater lochs, and it remains one of the quietest of the inhabited Hebridean islands with a population of around 200.
The story of Isle of Coll
Breachacha Castle, a 15th-century tower house on the south coast, was the seat of the MacLeans of Coll and withstood sieges by the MacLeans of Duart before passing to the Campbells in the late 19th century. Coll suffered heavily in the Clearances: in 1851 the laird removed nearly half the population to make way for sheep, and the island's numbers fell from over 1,000 to a few hundred within a generation. The island is the setting for Mairi Hedderwick's Katie Morag children's books, whose fictional island of Struay draws directly on Coll's crofts, ferry and schoolhouse. Prehistoric standing stones and a Bronze Age cairn near Arinagour point to settlement stretching back thousands of years.
Visiting with care
Take the CalMac ferry from Oban to Arinagour, often combined with a Tiree sailing, and explore the island on foot or by bicycle. The dunes at Crossapol, the machair lochs and the white-shell beaches of the west coast are the chief draws, and corncrakes can be heard in the summer meadows.
Interesting facts
- Breachacha Castle on Coll was the 15th-century seat of the MacLeans of Coll before passing to the Campbells.
- In 1851 nearly half of Coll's population was cleared to make way for sheep farming.
- Coll is the real-life setting for Mairi Hedderwick's Katie Morag books, whose Struay is based on the island.
- The island is one of the most important remaining strongholds in Britain for the corncrake.
Getting there
Parking and access details — check locally for the latest information.