The ultimate job for remote workers - counting birds on one of the most isolated islands in the whole of the UK

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IT is the perfect way to escape the rat-race for a few months over the summer.

Volunteer rangers – with ‘a sense of humour’ – are wanted on one of Scotland’s remotest seabird colonies on a tiny island.

Handa lies a few miles off the coast of Sutherland and is managed as a wildlife reserve by the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT).

There have been no full-time inhabitants since 1848 but, during the summer, it attracts tens of thousands of birds including guillemots, kittiwakes and fulmars.

Staff will work on Handa Island, which has one of Scotland's remotest seabird colonies

The island is also home to smaller populations of important seabirds such as Arctic skuas and puffins.

Mammals including dolphins, whales and seals are often seen from its coast.

Now the SWT is advertising for seasonal rangers to work there between March and September. Home is in a two-roomed, stone bothy and applicants are warned they will ‘live in very basic, shared, mixed-sex accommodation with occasionally hostile weather’.

Volunteers also need ‘the ability to handle the rigours of living in close proximity with others over a long period’ with the Trust seeking ‘candidates who “wear well” with others and have a sense of humour’.

The role will cover ‘practical work, visitor engagement, monitoring and lots of other tasks that are necessary to support our work on the island’.

The Trust adds: ‘What you get in return: a lasting magical experience and an opportunity to immerse yourself in nature.’