Last week I was able to tick one item off my bucket list. After attending a very English wedding in the rolling countryside of Hertfordshire in the south of England, we took an eight-hour train ride from London to Inverness in the beautiful but desolate Scottish Highlands. After a night with my cousin and her family, we headed to the port of Ullapool on the west coast of Scotland and took a three-hour ferry ride to the port town of Stornaway on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides – one of the most remote northern parts of the British Isles. In fact, these islands are closer to Iceland than they are to London!
Despite the popularity of time travel books and the television series Outlander, many people don’t know that Scotland has 790 islands and more than 10% of the entire coastline of Europe. The Scottish islands are divided into five categories: The Outer Hebrides, the Inner Hebrides, the Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands, the Firth of Forth with the tidal islands. Only 130 of these islands are permanently inhabited and there is some sort of scheduled service to take you there. The Outer Hebrides, also known as the Western Isles, consists of 15 inhabited and more than 50 uninhabited islands. The largest of these are the islands of Lewis and Harris, which are connected to each other and are the northernmost of the Outer Hebrides. This is where we were for our Scottish island adventure.
As a child and young woman I spent many holidays in the Scottish Highlands as we have relatives in the Inverness area. Some of them moved to the Isle of Lewis a few years ago and we used that as an excuse for our trip. It’s beautiful in a raw way, very remote and sparsely populated, cold and extremely windy and offers a very different way of life in a place that feels like the end of the world. Despite the obvious natural beauty of the place, I personally couldn’t live in such a cold and remote place where it rains most days and winters have short, dark days with only a few hours of daylight. Of course, as we were there in the summer we enjoyed long days with darkness falling well after 10pm and dawn starting to appear on the horizon around 3am. Thankfully I had packed my eye mask!
The landscape of the two connected islands is very different, as Lewis is covered in peat bogs and has many small inland lakes, while Harris is rocky and very hilly. There is little arable land, but sheep and cattle are raised. Most of the land is “croft rented”, meaning that part-time farmers rent or sometimes own small farms averaging less than 7 acres.
There are stunning white sand beaches that are comparable to the Caribbean, except for the wind and the low temperatures! When we visited Luskentyre beach on the south side of the island, I was surprised to see some enthusiastic German visitors swimming in the freezing Atlantic in shorts and bikinis. I watched them while wrapping myself up in my jacket and several layers of clothing. Although it was early August, we enjoyed a maximum of 14°C, but we also experienced lows of 4°C with horizontal rain and strong winds.
These Scottish islands have been inhabited for over 5,000 years. A significant date in the Lewisian historical calendar was 1150 BC, when the volcano Hekla in Iceland erupted, bringing a “nuclear winter” to Scotland. The Hebrides were inhabited by the Celts and Gaelic (pronounced “Gallick”) is still spoken in schools, homes and on the announcements on our ferry! In the late 9th century, Vikings from Scandinavia attacked, conquered and settled there. Then, in 1263, Scotland defeated the invading Norwegians and Scottish clans established their control over the mainland and the islands.
The Vikings influenced all aspects of life and culture, including building techniques. The island’s traditional ‘blackhouses’ were long, low thatched buildings made of large, rough-hewn stones stacked on top of each other in a layer of two walls, with the gaps between them filled with a mixture of earth and peat. They were a ‘cozy’ combination of family home and stable for animals, which meant there was more warmth. A peat fire was constantly burning in the middle. We toured some of these restored houses, which, incredibly, people lived in until the mid-1970s, despite having no electricity or running water.
Today, most private sector jobs are in agriculture, fishing and tourism. There are also a lucky few who weave the famous Harris Tweed fabric and work in the local whisky and gin distilleries.
Much more information is available at www. britannica.com As I leave you, I would like to leave you with two quotes from Billy Connolly, the Scottish comedian, actor, artist, musician and television presenter: “In Scotland there are two seasons: June and winter.” and “In Scotland there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing!” God bless America!
Lesley grew up in London, England and moved to Georgia in 2009. You can reach her at [email protected] or through her full-service marketing agency at www.lesleyfrancispr.com
