Islanders get greater say in the running of Canna

The owners of Canna have reached a new agreement with residents on how the island is run.

National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has owned the Hebridean isle for 40 years.

Canna is home to 15 people and islanders want to create new homes and opportunities to help increase the population to 30.

NTS said the new formal partnership would mean residents being "more deeply involved" in the operational and strategic management of the island.

Islanders will work with the trust to employ staff, develop properties, deliver better services for visitors and look after Canna’s "unique cultural and natural heritage".

Last month, islanders launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £200,000 towards the overall £750,000 cost of having three new community-owned homes constructed.

Geraldine MacKinnon, chairwoman of Isle of Canna Community Development Trust, said: “The National Trust for Scotland have owned Canna since 1981 and, as a community, we have benefited from their ownership.

"However, the time has come to work even more closely together to build a thriving and sustainable community here. "

Canna was handed into the care of NTS by the previous owners - Gaelic scholar John Lorne Campbell and his wife, photographer and folklorist Margaret Fay Shaw.

The couple also donated a nationally important archive of Gaelic song, stories and poetry to the trust.

Phil Long, chief executive of NTS, said: "The people who live on Canna are central to that legacy and we could not fulfil our obligations to John Lorne Campbell without them.

"The partnership will ensure we can harness the trust’s long experience of caring for such special places to the community’s drive and passion to build a successful future for the island."