Hans J Marter

12 August, 2009



AN ISLAND adventurer has become the first person to visit Scotland’s four extreme points, two of them in Shetland.

Andy Strangeway completed his round trip on Saturday when a local boat owner took him to Out Stack, north of Muckle Flugga.

The previous weekend he had been to east to Bound Skerries, part of Out Skerries, in March he reached the Mull of Galloway in the south, after making the island of Soay, part of the St Kilda group, two years ago.

The Yorkshireman attained his initial goal of staying overnight on all 162 Scottish islands measuring more than 40 hectares, in summer 2007.

Mr Strangeway said there was no chance to stay any longer than 15 minutes on Out Stack due to the weather conditions and the strong tide.

“All these remote islands are the last places of wilderness left in the country – and I feel at one with nature when I’m out there,” he said, explaining the kick he gets out of his adventures.

He will now attempt to land and camp on Rockall, a 21 metre high rock 286 miles west of the British mainland, in summer next year.

Rockall was annexed by the UK in 1955, but remains a disputed territory with Ireland, Faroe and Iceland all claiming the rock and the subsequent fishing rights as theirs.

The rock was last seized by Greenpeace members in 1997 to protest against oil exploration.