The island of Great Bernera is eight square miles of rock, grassland, and white sand beaches buffeted by Atlantic wind and tide. It sits on the northwestern edge of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides—closer to Norway than to London—and has been inhabited for thousands of years, as a semicircle of megalithic standing stones can attest. Vikings once settled here, and the island has since endured pirates, mass evacuation, and tyrannical landlords. The latest disturbance, however, has come all the way from California.
Many of Bernera’s roughly 250 residents observe the Sabbath: buses don’t run on Sundays, and businesses often stay closed. Since last July, it’s also been home to Claire Kellerman, the adoptive daughter of the late actress Sally Kellerman, best known for playing Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s 1970 Korean War comedy, M*A*S*H.