Tag: Western Isles

The ten best things in the Outer Hebrides

We have just returned from six weeks in the Outer Hebrides. Also called the Western Isles, this archipelago of islands is one of the remotest areas of the UK and at this time of year the tourists have gone home and it is even bleaker. The winds are wild. Daylight hours are short. Why on earth would anyone want to stay there? I can give you ten very good reasons

1 It is incredibly beautiful.

You can drive through Lewis and Harris, get a ferry to Berneray, drive across causeways to North Uist, Grimsay, Benbecula, Soouth Uist, Eriskay and a short ferry to Barra. Around every corner there is something beautiful to take your breath away, from inland lochs, to dramatic cliff edges, to awesome views.

2.. The history is fascinating

We saw Iron Age brochs, prehistoric standing stones, a ditch of blood where the MacDonalds fought the MacLeods in the seventeenth century. We saw a ruined temple which is claimed to be the oldest university in the UK. And more modern history such as the Iolaire monument in Stornaway, overlooking the bay where hundreds of soldiers returning from the First World War, lost their Iives in a shipwreck.

3 The locals are friendly.

Because the tourists have largely gone, we were treated as part of the community, attending the local firework display, chatting in the pub, and even going to a travelling show abut Hercules the Bear, who escaped and roamed the islands for weeks in the 1980s. The Hebridean accent is soft and the people are friendly.

4 The shellfish is wonderful.

Some of the best shellfish in the world is landed in the Hebrides. We had a wonderful lobster lunch off formica tables in a cafe next to the fishing boats. I also had the best langoustine eggs benedict breakfast that anyone could dream of.

5 Rainbows

I am not sure why. Perhaps it is the ever changing weather combining rain and sunshine, Perhaps it is the time of year with the sun so low in the sky. But I have never seen so many rainbows. Stunningly beautiful.

6. Sunsets

It was not every night. We also had cloudy skies. But when the weather was right we had amazing sunsets and sunrises. We also got to see the Northern Lights

7 Sculptures

I think the remoteness must attract artists to the islands. I wrote in a previous blog about the pile of peat in an art gallery. I much preferred seeing the sculptures, scattered around the islands, set into the landscape

8.. You can hunker down in front of the fire

And when the rains turned horizontal, the properties we stayed in had wood burning stoves to keep the cockles warm. I settled down to read the latest Peter May book about murders in Lewis. Nice.

9. The wildlife

I am not a patient man. There are hides you can visit where people sit for hours waiting to see the rarest wildlife. Not for me. But we still saw two golden eagles, a sea eagle, black kite, deer, otters, coos on an uninhabited island, sheep swimming across a loch. It was pretty impressive.

10 The Outer Hebrides have the best beaches in the world.

Famously, West Beach n Berneray was used for a Thai tourist brochure. It is a lot colder, but the Hebridean beaches are empty. There are so many of them, and they are so dramatic, that after a while you think they are normal. White sands formed from crushed sea shells. Miles and miles of empty beaches.. Wonderful

So now we are back home. Six weeks is less of a holiday and more of an adventure. I would encourage anyone who enjoys peace and beauty to visit the Western Isles. Simply gorgeous.

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Eight reasons to love the Outer Hebrides

We are coming to the end of our month long visit to North Uist in the Outer Hebrides and it seems to have gone so fast. I would very happily stay for another month or even longer. In some ways I do not want to encourage more tourists because the island might become spoilt in the same way that Skye and the North Coast 500 routes have, where locals are squeezed out and the tiny roads become blocked with queues of camper vans. Nevertheless, it is such a great place that I really want to share eight short reasons that I love these islands.

1. It is so peaceful. Particularly in North Uist, the population density is tiny, with a few little villages, and most people living in crofts, situated in small landholdings.

2. It is so beautiful. I have previously shared beach photographs. The beaches are simply amazing. But the moorland, lochlets (baby lochs) and mountains are equally stunning. Awesome views await around every corner.

3. The history is incredible. Not quite as jaw dropping as Orkney, but there are still multiple standing stones, chambered cairns, and ruined cottages. I have been particularly moved by so much evidence of the clearances between 1750 and 1860, when thousands of crafters were thrown off their land by largely English landlords, who wanted the islands for hunting and shooting.

4. There is no-one here. In the summer no doubt the islands are busier, but at this time of year there are very few tourists, and most days we find a space with no-one around. Maybe a deserted beach. Maybe a walk in the woods. Maybe at the end of one of the windy single track roads.

5. The food is very good. Although many of the restaurants are closed for the season, we have had some really delicious food. I recommend Langass Lodge, where we had a wonderful Halloween themed evening; the Hebridean Smokehouse, which makes unbelievably tasty smoked salmon and smoked scallops; and Kallin Seafood café, hidden at the back of a chandlery for trawlermen, next to where the fishing boats come in. We had the most perfect lobster one lunchtime, fresh from the sea, served with chips and a Marie Rose sauce.

6. The skies are so clear. I don’t mean they are cloudless. As well as sunshine, we have had days of sideways rain. But we are so far north that the skies have a lightness about them, the same light through the day that in most places you just see at dawn or dusk. When it is sunny, the skies are a deep blue directly above, and fade to almost white at the horizons.

7. Nights in the cottage are cosy. There is no light pollution here so it gets very dark. We have an excellent multi fuel stove. So most nights we have hunkered down with the warmth of the stove, and watched a film on Netflix or Disney Plus. Despite the remoteness, mobile broadband means that we have surprisingly good internet here.

8. Being here has been so good for my mental health. I don’t know whether it is the peace, the light, the quietness, but it has calmed everything down in my head, and tomorrow I will be returning to the mainland feeling properly refreshed.

It’s such a great place to be.

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Why is my dog on a lead?

We are staying in North Uist for a month. North Uist is possibly the most beautiful of all the Outer Hebrides islands. It is nearly 50% water, with lochs and rivers. It has moorland and hills, and many many really stunning beaches, with white sand and blue sea. There are few other tourists at this time of year and very often we are the only people on a walk. It is an ideal place to have dogs. So why is one of our dogs on a lead?

On Monday, I took the dogs for a run on Crachan Sands, a really lovely quiet beach. They are usually off lead on a beach because Lulu and Ziggy love to play in the sand, pouncing and rolling each other over. So I had no hesitation in letting them go. In woodland I am more careful because Lulu likes to chase rabbits and squirrels. What I had not realised was that the dunes we had just crossed were one massive rabbit warren, and as soon as I let Lulu off, she rushed across the beach and into the long grass and bushes.

The dogs are Cairn terriers and while Ziggy will always come to call, hoping for a treat, Lulu is a typical terrier and has a huge prey drive. Over the next three hours I occasionally heard an excited yelp but I could not find or recall Lulu. Ziggy was also very upset as she helped me search, and cried for her sister. I began to panic that Lulu was stuck down a rabbit hole.

Eventually, three rabbits dashed across a field and I saw and heard Lulu following. Ziggy was on her in a flash, telling her off, and I managed to catch her. She was subdued because she knew she had been naughty, but I was just so relieved and delighted to have her back.

But since then, while we have walked many many beautiful beaches, Lulu has stayed on her lead. Understandable.

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Should I take a Scottish Ferry in a storm?

As I write this, storm Babet is arriving in Scotland where I live. It is forecast to bring unprecedented levels of rain, falling onto already saturated ground. When the last storm came, two weeks ago, it broke through part of our roof and through the kitchen ceiling. That has not been fixed yet and so we have buckets at the ready. This time, we are on the edge of an amber warning for rain and wind, and just a few miles away is a red warning, meaning likely loss of life. It would be tempting to hunker down and wait, but on Saturday morning we are planning to drive up to the Isle of Skye to get a ferry across to the Outer Hebrides where we will be living for the next month.

The big question is whether we should postpone for a few days till the weather calms down. The Outer Hebrides are off the Northwest coast of Scotland, and while they have some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, they are also famously wild and windy, exposed to the Atlantic Ocean. The crossing is likely to be pretty bumpy.

There are three reasons I think we should go ahead. We are fairly seasoned travellers. A few years ago we took a ferry across the Bay of Biscay in a storm. Pretty much everyone took to their cabins as the ship rocked from side to side, bow to stern. Even many of the staff were feeling unwell. But my son and I stayed up, had a couple of drinks and watched a Fast and Furious film.

Secondly the ferry company Caledonian MacBrayne has not yet issued a warning on this crossing. Many of the ferries on the east coast of Scotland have already been cancelled but so far, the west is looking rough but passable.

And thirdly it will be an adventure. We spent a month in Orkney a couple of years ago, and one of the things I enjoyed most was watching the weather change from sunshine to storm in the blink of an eye. When we finally get to our cottage this Saturday night, we can light a fire, cook something warming and hunker down.

One thing I am nervous about is whether there will be a storm during our return trip towards the end of November. The port of Uig in Skye will be closed at that point, so instead of a two hour ferry, it will be five hours across the open sea to Ullapool. I am hoping for sunshine.

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