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Inchcolm Island

Inchcolm in July 2008: a boat across the Firth of Forth to a mediaeval abbey, a climb up the tower, and wartime defences out on the headland.

In July 2008 we took a boat out across the Firth of Forth to Inchcolm, a small island with a mediaeval abbey, a resident colony of seabirds and more history per acre than seems fair.

Dileep leaning on a railing by the Inchcolm jetty with a takeaway coffee, the stone tower of Inchcolm Abbey and the beach behind him
Coffee ashore. Inchcolm Abbey has stood over this lawn since the twelfth century; the takeaway cup is a more recent development.
View from the top of Inchcolm Abbey tower over the ruined cloister walls, a green lawn dotted with picnicking visitors, and the island jetty on the rocky shore
The view from the abbey tower: ruins below, picnics on the lawn, and the Forth in every direction.
Selfie of Dileep and Inga at the top of the abbey tower, the island headland with its old wartime fortifications behind them
Windblown at the top. The concrete on the headland behind us is left over from the island's war service guarding the Forth.
Inga sitting barefoot on the grass beside Inchcolm's rocky shore, with gulls over the water and the wooden jetty behind her
Shoes off once the sun arrived. The gulls kept the rocks; we took the lawn.

The abbey is the best preserved monastic ruin in Scotland and you can climb, crawl and duck through most of it. Add the crossing itself, with the bridges of the Forth on the horizon, and it makes a very easy case for a day out of Edinburgh.