Rum, an t-eilean beag mor, 'the big Small Isle', is the largest of the Small Isles in all aspects, other than population. Many of the hills and place names are Norse in origin and the earliest known human settlement in Scotland has been found in Kinloch-8500 years old!
Like many places in the West, the island was cleared in the 19th century.

This was followed at the turn of this century, by it's most famous/infamous owner, George Bullough, the builder of the idiosyncratic Kinloch Castle (tours available). He also had built an incongruous mausoleum at Harris on the West of the island.

The island was handed over to the nation in the form of the Nature Conservancy in 1957 and now Rum is run by Scottish Natural Heritage as a National Nature Reserve.

The whole island is used for research into Red Deer and tree regeneration. It has a large colony of Manx Shearwaters on Hallival and Askival (they nest high up on the mountains, and only come ashore to visit the burrows when it is completely dark). Also it was used as the base for the reintroduction of White Tailed Sea Eagles to Scotland, which has been successful. Rum's geology is fascinating, and accounts for many of it's special conservation designations.

All photographs on this site were taken at Doune and around the islands of the Hebrides.