County in Scotland
Outer Hebrides
In the Outer Hebrides, a Neolithic stone circle, a beach runway that doubles as a cockle bed, and Gaelic psalms that sound like waves all share one windswept chain of islands.
Key information
- County
- Outer Hebrides (Na h-Eileanan Siar)
- Nation
- Scotland
- Population
- about 26,000 (2022 Census)
- Area
- about 3,000 square kilometres, stretching roughly 210 kilometres from Lewis to Barra Head
- Known for
- Callanish standing stones, Harris Tweed, Gaelic culture, Barra's beach airport
- What locals are called
- Hebrideans, or islanders; Leòdhasach on Lewis and Hearach on Harris
- Famous people
- Flora MacDonald, Calum Maclean and Compton Mackenzie
About Outer Hebrides
The runway that disappears at high tide
Barra Airport has no tarmac. Planes land on Traigh Mhòr, a vast cockle beach at the northern tip of the island, and the timetable is written by the tide. It is the only place in the world where scheduled flights land on a beach, and the sand is regularly used by cockle-pickers when the aircraft are not. The flights come in from Glasgow, and passengers get a view that any airline would charge extra for: white sand, turquoise shallows and the Atlantic stretching out beyond. When the tide is in, the flights simply wait.
A stone circle older than Stonehenge
At Callanish on the west of Lewis, about 5,000 years ago, people raised a cross-shaped setting of tall stones from the local Lewisian gneiss, some of the oldest rock in Europe. A circle of 13 stones surrounds a central monolith, with rows running away from it like the arms of a cross. The site was begun in the Neolithic era, which makes it broadly contemporary with, or a little older than, Stonehenge. Local tradition has long held that the stones were giants turned to stone for refusing to convert to Christianity. Lewis also holds the Iron Age Dun Carloway broch, one of the best-preserved in Scotland, and in 1831 a farmer's find on the Uig sands revealed the Lewis Chessmen. The 12th-century walrus-ivory pieces are now among the most famous chess sets in the world and appear in the British Museum and the National Museum of Scotland.
Why a tweed jacket needs an Act of Parliament
Harris Tweed is protected by its own law, the Harris Tweed Act of 1993. To carry the Orb mark, the cloth must be handwoven by islanders at their own homes, and made from pure virgin wool that is dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides. The weavers work on foot-powered looms, often in sheds beside the house, and the cloth takes its name from Harris even though it is produced across the islands. The industry has gone through sharp booms and slumps, but it remains one of the few traditional crafts that still supports a living on the islands.
The islands where Gaelic is still the everyday language
The Outer Hebrides are the heartland of Scottish Gaelic. In many communities it is still spoken at the shop counter, in the school playground and on the church steps. Road signs show Gaelic first, and the council's Gaelic name, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, is simply the name of the islands' local government. Sunday keeps its own character, especially on Lewis and Harris, where the Free Church and Free Presbyterian traditions are strong. Traditionally, many things stay quiet on the Sabbath, and Gaelic psalm-singing is an extraordinary sound. A precentor lines out each line and the congregation follows in a wandering, unaccompanied, surging style that is quite unlike anything else in British music. The islands are also rich in song and story, from waulking songs sung while cloth was pounded by hand to the pipe tunes carried across the world by emigrants.
Beaches, bonnie princes and a famous escape
The beaches of Harris, such as Luskentyre and Seilebost, have pale gold sand and water so clear and blue that visitors regularly assume they are somewhere tropical, until the wind reminds them otherwise. In 1746, after the defeat at Culloden, Charles Edward Stuart hid among the islands as a fugitive. Flora MacDonald, from South Uist, helped him escape by boat to Skye disguised as her maid, Betty Burke. She was later arrested and held on naval vessels, then kept in the custody of a government messenger in London before being released in 1747. She is remembered as one of the great figures of Highland legend. The author Compton Mackenzie made Barra his home and set his comic novel Whisky Galore, inspired by the 1941 wreck of the SS Politician off Eriskay, in the islands. The ship carried a cargo of whisky, and the incident gave rise to the Ealing comedy film.
Island life: peat, ferries and the Hebridean table
Peat is still cut from the moor in many places for fuel, and the rows of drying peats are a familiar sight in spring and summer. Crofting remains central to island life, with small tenant farms worked by families, and machair, the flower-rich coastal grassland, bursts into colour in early summer. The islands are linked by ferries and causeways, and the roads between them have become a long-distance route known as the Hebridean Way. Food is shaped by the sea. Stornoway black pudding has Protected Geographical Indication status, and is a regular on breakfast plates far from the islands. Scallops, langoustines and salmon are landed or farmed locally, and the cockles of Barra are a local speciality. In sport, shinty and football are played, and Stornoway has a long tradition of community games and the Hebridean Celtic Festival of music each July.