Out Stack
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
| OS Name: | Out Stack |
|---|---|
| Shetland Name: | Oosta |
 | |
| UK Grid Reference: | HP613202 |
| Area (ha): | negligible |
| Population: | none |
| Community Council: | Unst |
| Ferry Services: | none; somtimes en route of summer trips from Lerwick to Muckle Flugga |
| Notes: | National Nature Reserve area |
Out Stack or The full stop at the end of Britain as it is called by VisitShetland is just what its name states: a stack, a rock.
Refering to it as an island within this context is simply due to the fact that it is the northernmost spot of land in the British Isles. Out Stack is not and never was inhabited.
It is lying some 600m to the north east of Muckle Flugga and about 1.6km true north of The Gord the most northern point of the island of Unst.
Out Stack lies within the boundaries of the Hermaness National Nature Reserve.
It is said that Lady Jane Franklin, the wife of the Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin landed on the Out Stack, after Dr John Rae's reports of the fate of the Franklin expedition had reached Stromness, Orkney, in 1853/54 where she lived in those days. Although she noted that she wanted to get as close as possible to her missing husband it must be doubted whether or not she landed on Out Stack. The fact that there was no safe landing was one reason - amongst other - why Thomas and David Stevenson decided later in the 1850s to build the lighthouse on Muckle Flugga and not on Out Stack.
