UK Nature and Environment

On the tiny Hebridean island of Gigha, a 20-minute ferry hop from Tayinloan village on the Scottish mainland, Marion Stevenson drives along the only main road, pointing out white beaches and new “wilderness paths”. The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust recently built 14 miles of the paths to encourage eco-tourism. A site in the north of the seven mile-long island has been awarded “dark skies” status – on a clear night you can see the Milky Way.

On the west coast, there are just a handful of houses, cliffs and stunning views across the sea to Jura and Islay. But it is here that Bakkafrost, a Faroese salmon company, proposes siting eight 160-metre-wide cages and a feed barge.

“It will be about 100 metres out to sea,” says Stevenson, who is the treasurer of Gigha community council but stresses that she does not speak for them, as she points past the cliffs below. “There is nothing man-made. The Vikings on Gigha looked at the same view – can’t they just leave it this way?”