Eilean Sionnach Lighthouse Cottage

There are remote houses, and then there is Eilean Sionnach: a whitewashed lighthouse keeper's cottage set on a small private island off Isleornsay, on the southern shore of Skye, reached only by boat across a narrow neck of the Sound of Sleat. Beside it stands the Stevensons' Isle Ornsay light, first kindled in 1857 to guide herring boats through the sound, and beyond it the mountains of Knoydart and the mainland rise straight from the water. It is, by any measure, an extraordinary place to get away from it all.

The cottage was built to house the keepers and their families, and it keeps their solid, weatherly proportions still: thick harled walls, deep window reveals, and a chimney that has stood every gale the Minch can throw at it. Within, it has been quietly and beautifully brought up to date: four bedrooms, each with its own deluxe ensuite, a characterful sitting room gathered around a wood-burning stove, and a kitchen and dining room where every window frames the rocks, the sea and the light beyond. It sleeps eight in unhurried comfort.

Here the day is dictated not by the clock but by the rhythm of the tide. You might watch the ferry slip between Armadale and Mallaig, walk the rocks for seals and otters, or simply sit by the fire with a book as the weather rolls through. Skye proper is a short crossing away, Plockton, Glen Shiel and the road to Morar all within reach, but the truest pleasure of Eilean Sionnach is staying put, on your own island, under some of the darkest skies in Britain.