Tanera Mòr is the largest of the Summer Isles and the only one with any kind of recent history of settlement. It has no roads, just a path around the Anchorage - the sheltered bay on the east side - where boats from Achiltibuie and Ullapool drop visitors. Scattered around it are dozens of smaller islands and skerries: Tanera Beag, Priest Island (Eilean a' Chlèirich) further out, Horse Island, Isle Martin, Isle Ristol. Most are uninhabited tussocks of grass and rock where seabirds nest by the thousand. Since 2014 the entire archipelago has been owned by the financier Ian Wace, who acquired it with the intention of building a resort - an intention that, as of this season, remains intention only.

Non-landing boat trips run in summer from two operators: Shearwater Cruises from Ullapool and Summer Isles Sea Tours from Badentarbet Pier in Achiltibuie. The trips loop among the islands, usually stopping for an hour or two off Tanera Mòr while passengers watch for wildlife, but they do not put passengers ashore. Landing requires the owner's permission, which is not routinely given. The waters are extraordinary - clear and cold and full of life. Dolphins and porpoises hunt mackerel near the surface. Grey seals haul out on the smaller skerries. Sea-birds work the cliffs in numbers that surprise visitors used to mainland coasts. Line fishing is permitted in the surrounding seas.

There was, for a long time, a cafe on Tanera Mòr. There was a post office. There were five rental cottages. There were seasonal residents who ran the salmon farm and printed the stamps and took tourists' money for tea and shortbread. None of it is operating now. As of 2024, the cottages were not available. The cafe was closed. The mobile network does not reach the islands - no carrier, no signal, nothing. If you visit by boat trip, you bring everything you need, including water, and you bring it back out with you. The islands have always been remote. What changed under the new ownership is that they are also empty.

Most boat trips leave from Achiltibuie, a strung-out crofting township on the Coigach peninsula across the water. The drive there from Ullapool is a slow, winding affair on single-track roads, with passing places and the occasional Highland cow blocking the route. The reward at the end is one of the great views in Scotland: the whole arc of the Summer Isles laid out in the bay, with the Atlantic beyond and Cul Mor and Stac Pollaidh rising sharply behind the village. The musician Mairearad Green grew up here, looking at this same view, and named an album for it. On a clear evening the islands turn gold and the water turns dark blue, and you understand why the Norse called them what they did.