Stroma is an island off the northern coast of the mainland of Scotland, the most southerly of the islands in the Pentland Firth between the Orkney islands and Caithness. The name is from the Old Norse Straumr-øy meaning ‘island in the tidal stream’. Now uninhabited, most of the islanders were fishermen and crofters; some also worked as maritime pilots to guide vessels through the treacherous waters of the Pentland Firth. Stroma’s final abandonment came in 1997 when the lighthouse keepers and their families departed. The island is now owned by one of its former inhabitants, who uses it to graze cattle and sheep.