Overview

The real beauty of these wild outer-lands is in their natural form. Man's interaction has done little to disturb this and it is, no doubt, the remoteness from modern civilisation that has helped to preserve some of the most essential elements of the place. If you are walking or even driving, the grey skies and barren landscapes still enter your sight and soul. Some may find this disconcerting but others relish it and most feel curiously uplifted, having visited such a wild and forbidding place.

Getting to the Western Isles may seem an arduous task. You can take ferries from Ullapool on the north-west mainland or from Uig on Skye, not easy places to reach in themselves, or from Oban to South Uist and Barra. Regular airline services also leave from Glasgow flying into Stornoway, Benbecula and Barra. In essence, the Isles are pure place with little evidence, apart from Stornoway, of modern pressures to spoil it. Urban congestion, if you could call it that, only takes place in Stornoway on a Saturday night and noise pollution consists of the howl of the wind. The scenery throughout this island string is simple, essentially sea, sky and low-lying, bare-boned rocks with ample scattering of fine, sandy beaches.