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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Out Skerries is a small grass-free airstrip on Bruray, one of the three main islands of the Out Skerries archipelago, the easternmost point of Scotland, lying some nine miles east of the Shetland Mainland. Its single runway serves this remote fishing community, offering visiting pilots a rare chance to land at the very edge of the British Isles amid dramatic coastal scenery. The field's isolation and lack of instrument approach make it very much a fair-weather VFR destination.
Out Skerries airstrip lies on Bruray, one of the three inhabited islands of the Out Skerries group, an archipelago that forms the easternmost extremity of Shetland and of Scotland as a whole. The islands are around nine miles east of the Shetland Mainland and about four miles northeast of Whalsay. For the visiting pilot, the airstrip offers access to one of the most remote and scenic corners of the British Isles, a tiny community of crofts, a sheltered natural harbour, and cliffs, stacks and skerries that make the approach and departure visually spectacular.
The airfield sits on Bruray within the Out Skerries group, itself lying some nine miles east of the Shetland Mainland and about four miles northeast of Whalsay. The surrounding waters and islets, including Housay, Grunay and the outlying Bound Skerry with its lighthouse, give the field a strikingly maritime setting at the very eastern edge of Scottish airspace.
Out Skerries has a single physical runway aligned 09/27, 1202 feet in length with a hard surface. The field lies at an elevation of 39 feet and has no instrument landing system, so any approach must be flown visually.
Long Ayre Beach on Bruray, close to the airstrip, is a useful landmark, its upper shingle historically laid out for drying fish. From the shore near the beach, the Head of Bloshin gives commanding views toward the lighthouse on Bound Skerry and the uninhabited island of Grunay, both prominent features when orientating visually around the islands. The sheltered harbour of Bod Voe, with its marina and pier, is another readily identifiable feature close to the settled parts of Housay and Bruray.
The Out Skerries have been inhabited since the Norse period, with earlier Neolithic and Bronze Age remains also found on the islands, including house sites at Queyness and the Battle Pund enclosure. Their remote position close to Norway gave them strategic importance in the Second World War, when they were a regular landfall for Norwegian boats carrying refugees from Nazi-occupied Norway. German aircraft strafed the Grunay lighthouse shore station in 1941 and bombed it in 1942, killing Mary Anderson, the only local casualty of the war, after which Grunay was evacuated. A month later a bomber crewed by two Canadians and an Englishman crashed on Grunay; a plaque was raised on the island in 1990 to commemorate the event, attended by the family of one of the Canadian airmen killed.
Out Skerries remains a working airstrip serving the small resident community on Bruray and Housay, which today numbers around thirty to forty people. The islands retain shops, a post office, a church, a community hall and a marina at Bod Voe, reflecting an active if very small settlement, though no specific operating hours, fuel availability or flying club details are recorded. Prior permission is required before flying in.
