The Outer Hebrides - The Far, Far Northwest

Isle of Lewis

Sunbreaks lit up the gorse-covered hills sheltering Loch Seaforth as we boarded the 4 hour evening ferry in Ullapool, headed for the Outer Hebrides. This is the farthest north and west we’ve traveled: a desolate but beautiful string of 50 islands in the North Atlantic, of which only 15 are populated (and sparsely at that, with about 26,000 people). Not only do the Western Isles share the same latitude as Alaska: they also have an unforgiving landscape and climate and hardy, resourceful residents who speak a native language and practice a subsistence lifestyle like their Norse and Gaelic ancestors who started arriving here in the 3­rd through 12th centuries. 

Isle of Harris (of Harris Tweed fame, and this is a color image)

Isle of Benbecula