Canna is the westernmost of Scotland's Small Isles — a tiny Hebridean island of just 1,130 hectares and fewer than 20 permanent residents that combines an almost impossibly romantic setting with a history that stretches from Viking occupation to modern conservation activism. The island, along with its tidal neighbour Sanday (connected at low tide by a footbridge), has been owned by the National Trust for Scotland since 1981, when the Gaelic scholar and folklorist John Lorne Campbell donated it to the nation — ensuring that this green, fertile jewel in the Sea of the Hebrides would be preserved for future generations.
Canna's harbour, formed by the shelter of Sanday, is considered the safest natural anchorage in the Small Isles — a distinction that has made it a welcome refuge for sailors since Viking longships first navigated these waters over a thousand years ago. The ruins of a Celtic monastery on the hilltop above the harbour testify to early Christian settlement, and the carved Celtic cross that survives from this period is one of the finest examples of early medieval sculpture in the Hebrides. Compass Hill, at the island's eastern end, earned its name from the magnetic properties of its basalt rock, which can cause ship compasses to deviate — a phenomenon that bewildered early navigators and delighted later geologists.
The birdlife of Canna is extraordinary for such a small island. The sea cliffs on the northern coast support significant populations of Manx shearwaters, puffins, guillemots, and razorbills, while the island's interior — a mosaic of grassland, heather moorland, and the wildflower meadows that bloom with orchids, primroses, and marsh marigolds in summer — provides habitat for golden eagles, white-tailed sea eagles, and the corncrake, whose rasping nocturnal call is one of the most evocative sounds of the Hebridean summer. The rat eradication programme completed in 2008 has allowed ground-nesting seabirds to recover dramatically, and Canna now hosts one of the healthiest seabird populations in the Inner Hebrides.
The cultural heritage of Canna is as rich as its natural one. John Lorne Campbell's library — one of the finest private collections of Gaelic folklore and music ever assembled — is housed in Canna House, and the recordings he and his wife Margaret Fay Shaw made of Hebridean songs, stories, and oral histories are considered among the most important ethnographic documents of Scottish Gaelic culture. The island's traditional farming — cattle, sheep, and the cultivation of hay meadows using methods that have remained essentially unchanged for centuries — creates the landscape that makes Canna so beautiful, and the Trust's management balances conservation with the continuation of these agricultural practices.
Canna is visited by expedition cruise ships and the CalMac ferry from Mallaig, with passengers landing at the harbour pier. The best time to visit is from May through August, when the seabird colonies are active, the wildflower meadows are at their peak, and the Hebridean weather is at its mildest — though "mild" in the Hebrides is a relative term, and waterproof layers are essential in any season. The island has no shop, no pub, and no car traffic — visitors walk the tracks and footpaths that connect the harbour to the cliffs, the farmland, and the views that encompass Rum, Eigg, Skye, and the vast Atlantic horizon.