Scotland Guide
Skye and the Western Isles
The Western Isles
Beyond Skye, across the unpredictable waters of the Minch, lie the wild and windy Outer Hebrides or Outer Isles, also known as the Western Isles ( 
www.visithebrides.com ), a 130-mile-long archipelago stretching from Lewis and Harris in the north to the Uists and Barra in the south. An elemental beauty pervades the more than two hundred islands that make up the Long Isle, as it's sometimes known; only a handful are inhabited, by a total population of just under 27,000 people. The Outer Hebrides remain the heartland of Gaelic culture, with the language spoken by the vast majority of islanders.
In direct contrast to the wonderful landscapes, villages in the Western Isles are rarely very picturesque in themselves, and are usually made up of scattered, relatively modern croft houses dotted about the elementary road system. Stornoway, the only real town in the Outer Hebrides, is eminently unappealing. Many visitors, walkers and nature watchers forsake the settlements altogether and retreat to secluded cottages and B&Bs.