Visiting St Ninian's Isle, Shetland

When you spend your 29th birthday visiting a Scottish island, how do you spend it?

My birthday falls on the day before the autumnal equinox, the 22nd of September. I love my birthday and I love being able to celebrate this time of year as such a special time of year. Something I have grown to love since moving to the Scottish Highlands is exploring the beaches around the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There are just so many interesting beaches and coves around the Scottish Highlands and Islands that make for such unique and interesting adventures.

During our trip to Shetland in late September, visiting St Ninian's Isle was high on our bucket list. I've seen photos and videos from the beach and I knew that it would be such a beautiful place to visit.

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We arrived in the late afternoon (probably around 4pm) and, even though this beach is incredibly famous, we still only amongst a handful of people here. I loved being able to simply enjoy this beach during the cold sunnny early autumn weather. St Ninian's certinaly did not disappoint, and I really feel like it has climbed the ranks to be my amongst my favourite beaches in Scotland.

One thing I was really expecting when we visited St Ninian's Isle was the abundance of wildlife we saw during our visit. We were expecting to see a seal bobbing along in the waves (which we did see) but we were surprised when we actually headed over to the island to see hundreds of rabbits darting about all over the island. Where we live in Lochalsh, it's fairly unusual to see rabbits (we probably have too many birds of prey flying around) so it was kind fascinating to see all the rabbits running about on the island. There were also plenty of birds flying around. It truly felt like a wildlife escape.

Making the effort to walk over to St Ninian's Isle itself was well worth it for me. There was an incredible ruined chapel on the island (named for St Ninian who probably never visited the island) and, as a former theology student, finding a ruined church like this is something I just love doing on holiday.

Although we didn't get a chance to visit on this trip, Haar Saunas operate a outdoor sauna experience right here on St Ninian's. We met a number of people at a local bakery who were heading to the sauna on a Saturday morning, which I think would be an excellent way to spend a Saturday on the island. There were probably about 15 free car parking spaces at the beach as well, which I'm sure would fill up during the summer months.