Knowledgeable local skipper Sandy Campbell navigates us to picnics on lonely islets, drams at Islay’s lovely whitewashed Ardbeg distillery, and a trip to a 6th-century chapel on the haunting island of Eilean Mor MacCormick. Pods of porpoises frolic, and a playful minke whale shimmers in the afternoon sun. We’re too late for the usual activity of fishing mackerel for our supper, but a three-course dinner with a sublime local rack of lamb is remarkable given that electricity comes from a generator. Afterwards, we get philosophical with drinks round the fire, our little group including Paul Szkiler, Glenapp’s energetic Yorkshire-born owner, a born-again Christian who is also a social impact-driven equity investor in West Africa, especially Sierra Leone.
The chat stays with me for a night of deep baby-sleep in my cosy tent, lit by a candelabra of tea lights; and over a full Scottish breakfast (English plus haggis and black pudding) after my swim the next day. The seals are impassive as we leave for the mainland via the Corryvreckan whirlpool and a sighting of nesting sea eagles—but I feel as if a soulful reset has been pressed. —Toby Skinner
Four-night adventures, including two nights on Jura, start at $20,900 for two guests.
Eco-diving in Northumberland
The water and sky are a gunmetal grey—with only the white tips of the waves distinguishing the two. Yet here I am, dressed in a dry suit, pulling on my snorkel mask, readying to make a giant leap into the North Sea. I’m near the Farne Islands, a little archipelago off the coast of Bamburgh, in Northumberland, which might have seen more hermits than divers over the centuries. “Ready?” says James Learwood, the co-founder of Fifth Point Diving, the only PADI-certified eco-dive center in Britain, and one of only 11 in the entire world. I nod and step off the boat, emerging into a world of streaming kelp forests that glisten gold; rocks coated with red-tipped dahlia anemones and grey seals that follow my fins inquisitively, trying to make me play with them like Labrador puppies. My experience with this forward-thinking Northumberland team began the day before at their HQ in Blyth where, courtesy of their onsite tank, I learn how to improve my buoyancy and “trim” so that I don’t unwittingly damage coral when we explore the outdoor waters the next day. Everything about their set-up produces responsible divers: open water courses come with a PADI Aware add-on that teaches environmental protection; advanced courses pair with a Dive Against Debris course that qualifies how to remove and log rubbish found beneath the waves; dive gear is made from recycled ocean plastic; and prices include a donation to the Tynemouth Seal Hospital. Afterwards, in Bamburgh, I feast on panhaggerty pie (potatoes, cheese, and onion) at The Copper Kettle pub and enjoy locally and sustainably sourced seafood at The Potted Lobster. My adventures end each night at Trees at Tughall, in one of three Scandi-style wooden cabins whose huge picture windows make the outside feel part of the room, warming me every bit as much as the log burner that glows as red as the setting sun. —Phoebe Smith
Fifth Point Diving offers seal dives from £175 and snorkels from £65; Cabins at Trees at Tughall from $390 for two nights
Off-grid sailing in Norfolk
A few miles from Wells-next-the-Sea, I step off the world. On board the 30-foot Salford sailing whelk yacht, there’s silence except for the creak of ropes and gurgle of our wake. I turn off my phone—nothing on land now seems important—and let time unspool. On overnight trips with Norfolk’s Coastal Exploration Company, your clock becomes tidal. “Tides are driven by the sun and moon, so far bigger than us,” skipper-owner Henry Chamberlain says. “They put your own problems into perspective.” For an ex-Royal Marine officer, Henry is good at this soulful stuff. Before we anchor behind the uninhabited Stolt Island, he talks about how a boat reframes a coastline of subtle beauty. When we dive overboard it’s into water like silver silk.
