A Little Bit of Scarp by Chris Murray

Chris Murray is a seafarer living in Stornoway, and who has had a bit of an exciting past.

Employed as a Royal Navy diver and a former Coastguard helicopter winchman and paramedic saw both roles taking him into some rather precarious positions during his career, which is perhaps why his hobby of photography couldn’t be further from those former days of rushing from one emergency to another.

Chris is now working with Stornoway Seafari as a skipper and tourist guide along with owner and skipper Gordon Maclean.

Chris enjoys wandering the islands with his camera while filling up his days off. We love this image of Scarp. At the height of its 19th century population in 1881 there were 315 people living in the island, a population level that proved impossible to sustain and families eventually had to be moved off the Island to villages along the coast towards Tarbert.

Crofters now use the island to graze their sheep on before bringing them back to sell either on the mainland or at a local mart sale.