Outer Hebrides - Western Isles - Scottish Island Holidays and vacations
Outer Hebrides
The Vikings gave these far-flung, windswept isles the title ‘Havbredey’ which translates as ‘the islands at the edge of the earth’. While Gaelic settlers called them Na h-Eileanan an Lar, the Western Isles indicating the distinct cultural mix of the islands that is quite apart from mainland Scotland .
While the Gaelic language has seen a renaissance throughout the highlands and islands, in the Hebrides it has always been prominent, 75% of islanders speak it and almost half of all Gaelic speaking Scots live on these outer reaches. Islanders hold the Sunday, the Sabbath day, sacred and public life virtually shuts down, particularly in the predominantly protestant north, though this is more relaxed in the largely catholic southern isles.
The history of Hebridian life is pieced together on Lewis, through a collection of fascinating historic sites. The mystical Callanish Standing Stones date back as far as 5000 years ago, predating the pyramids by 1000 years. Stone sentinels mark a path to an inner circle of huge stones once housing a burial cairn. These 15-foot monoliths stand far higher than the rest and have been strangely patterned by the slow wearing of time. This Iron Age structure is connected to similar structures such as Maes Howe and Stenness in Orkney , Newgrange in Ireland and Carnac in Brittany.
A short drive north from Callanish is the Arnol Blackhouse Museum, in effect a time capsule illustrating how people lived and crofted on the islands for centuries. This is a marvellously preserved thatched Croft built in 1885 and lived in virtually unchanged up to 1964. It provides a brilliant monument to a subsistence way of life that dates back to the Middle Ages, but much maligned by supposedly enlightened society. The croft was not only home to the family but it was also home to their livestock combining house, barn and byre. In the centre of the house a peat fire burns, and these fires would burn continually, smoking the chimneyless houses, not only heating the house but cleansing the air from diseases like consumption, and preserving the thatch roof, accumulated soot, with its high phosphates would also be used as fertiliser.
Harris is punctuated with rugged craggy rocks in the south, where even the moss, mountainous ranges dominate the north and surprisingly beautiful white sandy beaches are dotted along the coast. The ‘Golden Road’ is a fantastically scenic, though very time consuming, drive through the south of Harris. Ambling over its wonderful lunar landscape and weaving in and out of its rugged coastline with tiny fishing communities.
In the south the islands of North and South Uist joined by Benbecula, are largely flat with some rocky ranges, pocked with numerous fresh water lochs and seawater inlets, joined by man made causeways. The beaches here are stunning but further south, a short ferry to Barra and Vatersay they are breathtaking; turquoise bays lapping pristine white sandy beaches surrounded by machair, dunes and are serenely deserted. In Castlebay, the largest village on Barra, the romantic structure of Kisimul Castle stands out in the sea, a solitary sentinel guarding the sea approaches to the bay. The castle was the 12th century stronghold of the MacNeil clan but bankruptcy forced them to sell to the Government in 1839. In 1851 the islanders were evicted by the government and around 500 left Barra for Canada.
A more cherry point in the islands history occurred in 1941 when the SS Politician ran aground off the coast of Eriskay, washing up on Barra’s beaches its cargo of 28,000 cases of whisky, inspiring the film Whisky Galore which was filmed on Barra.
Barra also has the only beach airport in the world with its runway along the sand.
