Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Western Isles
Beyond Skye, across the unpredictable waters of the Minch, lie the wild and
windy Outer Hebrides, o
cially known as the Western Isles. A 130-mile-long
archipelago stretching from Lewis and Harris in the north to the Uists and
Barra in the south, the islands appear as an unbroken chain when viewed
from across the Minch, hence their nickname, the Long Isle. In reality there
are more than two hundred islands, although only a handful are inhabited,
with the total population around 28,000. This is truly a land on the edge,
where the turbulent seas of the Atlantic smash up against a geologically
complex terrain whose coastline is interrupted by a thousand sheltered bays
and sweeping sandy beaches. The islands' interiors are equally dramatic,
veering between flat, boggy, treeless peat moor and bare mountaintops
soaring high above a host of tiny lakes, or lochans.
he major difference between the Western Isles and much of the Hebrides is that the
islands' fragile economy is still mainly concentrated around crofting, fishing and
weaving, and the percentage of incomers is low. In fact, the Outer Hebrides remain the
heartland of
Gaelic
culture, with the language spoken by the majority of islanders. Its
survival is partly thanks to the efforts of the Western Islands Council, the Scottish
parliament and the influence of the Church in the region: the Free Church and its
various offshoots in Lewis, Harris and North Uist, and the Catholic Church in South
Uist and Barra.
Lewis and Harris form two parts of the same island. he interior of the
northernmost,
Lewis
,
is mostly peat moor, a barren and marshy tract that gives way to
the bare peaks of
North Harris
. Across a narrow isthmus lies
South Harris
, with wide
beaches of golden sand trimming the Atlantic in full view of the rough boulder-strewn
mountains to the east. Across the Sound of Harris, to the south, a string of tiny, flatter
isles linked by causeways -
North Uist
,
Benbecula
,
South Uist
- offer breezy beaches,
whose fine sands front a narrow band of boggy farmland, which, in turn, is bordered
by a lower range of hills to the east. Finally, tiny
Barra
contains all the above landscapes
in one small Hebridean package.
In contrast to their wonderful surroundings, villages in the Western Isles are seldom
picturesque in themselves, and are usually made up of scattered, relatively modern
crofthouses dotted about the elementary road system. And
Stornoway
, the only real
town in the Outer Hebrides, rarely impresses.
14
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
THE WESTERN ISLES
By plane
There are scheduled flights from Glasgow,
Edinburgh, Inverness and Aberdeen to Stornoway on Lewis,
and to Barra and Benbecula. Be warned: weather
conditions are notoriously changeable, making flights
prone to delay and even cancellation.
By ferry
CalMac car ferries run daily from Ullapool to
Stornoway; from Uig, on Skye, to Tarbert and Lochmaddy; and
from Oban to South Uist and Barra, via Coll and Tiree (Thurs
only). Timetables quoted in the text are summer frequencies -
check
W
calmac.co.uk for the latest, and always book ahead.
Gaelic in the Western Isles
p.505
St Kilda (Hiort)
p.511
Harris Tweed
p.513
SS Politician
p.521
