Scotland's Outer Hebrides: Lewis, Harris and the Uists

1. Day 1: Inverness to Ullapool

   Inverness to Rogie Falls and Corrieshalloch Gorge, then Ullapool

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Ullapool
   Day 1 details

   We meet you at Inverness Airport or the railway station in the early afternoon and drive west across the Highlands on the road to Ullapool. The first stop is Rogie Falls near Contin, a short woodland walk to a suspension bridge where, in summer, salmon try to leap the falls. Further on, Corrieshalloch Gorge is a slot about 60 m deep cut by the River Droma, with the Falls of Measach dropping beneath a Victorian suspension bridge and a viewing platform hanging over the drop. Ullapool sits on the shore of Loch Broom, a fishing village laid out in the 1780s, and the CalMac ferry to Stornoway sails from its pier. After you check in, your See Sight Tours guide walks the group along the harbour front, then we sit down to a welcome dinner of west coast seafood and go over the week: three ferries, what the weather can change, and what to keep in your day bag.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Inverness Airport (INV) or Inverness railway station
   • Rogie Falls with your guide
   • Corrieshalloch Gorge and the Falls of Measach
   • Harbour walk in Ullapool and welcome briefing
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free time in Ullapool before dinner

   Activity: Arrive in Inverness by about 1 pm to join the drive. The gorge viewpoints are reached by short, steep paths. A deliberately light first night: about 1.5 hours of driving, dinner in the village and an early night before the ferry.

   

2. Day 2: Across the Minch to Lewis, and the Calanais stones

   Ullapool by CalMac ferry to Stornoway, then Lews Castle and the Calanais Standing Stones

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Stornoway
   Day 2 details

   After breakfast we drive onto the CalMac ferry for the crossing of the Minch to Stornoway, about two hours and three quarters. On a fair day it is worth staying on deck as the boat leaves Loch Broom: dolphins, porpoises and diving gannets are often seen, and the Summer Isles lie off to the north. Lunch is on board. Stornoway is the only town in the Outer Hebrides, and the place where you will first hear Gaelic in the shops. After checking in we walk the harbour front and the wooded grounds of Lews Castle. In the late afternoon, when the day visitors have left, we drive west across the moor to Calanais, where a cross of standing stones about 5,000 years old stands on a ridge above Loch Roag, with smaller stone circles on the knolls nearby. We give the stones an unhurried visit, with time to walk among them, sit, and walk out to one of the smaller circles, and are back in Stornoway by early evening.

   Included

   • CalMac ferry Ullapool to Stornoway with our vehicle
   • Lunch on board
   • Harbour and Lews Castle grounds walk with your guide
   • The Calanais Standing Stones in the late afternoon, with time for a smaller circle nearby

   More active option: Walk the longer woodland loop in the Lews Castle grounds before the drive to Calanais.

   Free time: Evening free in Stornoway

   Activity: The crossing takes about 2 hours 45 and can be rough; take seasickness tablets if you need them. If wind cancels the sailing we take the next one, and your guide reworks the Lewis days around it.

   

3. Day 3: Blackhouses, a broch and the Butt of Lewis

   Stornoway to Dun Carloway and Gearrannan, then Arnol, Ness and the Butt of Lewis, and back to Stornoway

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Stornoway
   Day 3 details

   We leave Stornoway at about 8.30 for the west side and the far north of Lewis. First is Dun Carloway, an Iron Age broch about 2,000 years old whose double drystone walls still stand over 9 m high on a knoll above the sea. Below it, at Gearrannan, the community has restored a village of thatched blackhouses where crofting families lived until the 1970s, with a weaver's loom in the museum. At Arnol the blackhouse at number 42 is kept as it was lived in, with a peat fire burning in the middle of the floor and no chimney. Lunch is in Ness, the most northerly district, and then we drive the last few kilometres to the Butt of Lewis, where a red-brick lighthouse stands above cliffs, sea stacks and nesting fulmars. Back in Stornoway by about 4 pm, we visit Museum nan Eilean at Lews Castle before it closes: the islands' story, and pieces of the Lewis chessmen, found at Uig in 1831, when they are on display. The evening is yours along the harbour.

   Included

   • Dun Carloway Broch with your guide
   • Gearrannan Blackhouse Village, entry included
   • The Arnol Blackhouse, entry included
   • Sit-down lunch in Ness
   • The Butt of Lewis cliffs and lighthouse
   • Museum nan Eilean at Lews Castle, Stornoway, in the late afternoon

   Easier option: Stay in the van at the Butt of Lewis car park, which looks straight out to the lighthouse, instead of walking the cliff top.

   More active option: Walk the cliff path from the Butt of Lewis lighthouse to the beach at Port Stoth and back, about 2 km.

   Free time: Evening free in Stornoway

   Activity: We leave at about 8.30; this is the longest day on Lewis, about 3.25 hours of driving split into short legs between stops. About 2.5 hours on foot, on uneven ground at the broch and grass on the cliffs. Stay well back from the edges at the Butt; the wind is strong.

   

4. Day 4: Over the hills to Harris and Luskentyre

   Stornoway to North Harris and Tarbert, then Luskentyre and Seilebost

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Tarbert, Harris
   Day 4 details

   Lewis and Harris are one island, but the road south shows where they change. Past Loch Seaforth the land rises into the bare granite hills of North Harris, with the Clisham, at 799 m the highest point in the Outer Hebrides, beside the road. We drop down to Tarbert, the small port on the narrow neck between North and South Harris, and check in to our base for two nights. Lunch is on the west side, and then we spend the afternoon on the beaches the islands are known for: Luskentyre, a wide sweep of white shell sand and shallow turquoise water facing the hills of Taransay, and Seilebost across the estuary, where the tide drains out across the sands. We give it the whole afternoon, so you can walk the length of the beach or sit in the dunes. We are back in Tarbert in time for a free evening.

   Included

   • Drive through North Harris past the Clisham
   • Sit-down lunch on west Harris
   • Luskentyre beach with your guide
   • Seilebost beach

   Optional experiences

   • A tour of the Isle of Harris Distillery in Tarbert, booked at a set price when you book

   Easier option: Stay at the Seilebost end, where the beach is a few steps from the road.

   More active option: Walk the length of Luskentyre sands to the dunes at the far end and back, about 5 km on firm sand.

   Free time: Evening free in Tarbert

   Activity: We leave Stornoway at about 9. Swimming is possible for the brave; the sea stays around 12 to 13 C in summer.

5. Day 5: A Harris Tweed weaver, the Golden Road and Rodel

   Tarbert to a weaver's croft, then the Golden Road to Rodel, Northton and Scarista, and back to Tarbert

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Tarbert, Harris
   Day 5 details

   Harris Tweed is the only fabric protected by its own Act of Parliament: it must be handwoven by islanders in their own homes in the Outer Hebrides, from wool dyed and spun on the islands. This morning we visit a weaver at work on the loom in a croft house, see the pedals and the shuttle at speed, and hear how a length of cloth gets the Orb stamp. Then we follow the Golden Road down the east coast of South Harris, a single-track road twisting between bare rock and small lochs, named, the story goes, for what it cost to build. At Rodel, St Clement's Church holds the carved tomb of Alasdair Crotach MacLeod, built in the early 16th century. Lunch is in the south of the island. We come back up the west side past the beaches at Northton and Scarista, and are in Tarbert by mid-afternoon for free time.

   Included

   • A Harris Tweed weaver at work on the loom
   • The Golden Road along the east coast of South Harris
   • St Clement's Church, Rodel
   • Sit-down lunch in south Harris
   • Northton and Scarista beaches

   Easier option: Stay on Northton beach while the others climb Chaipaval.

   More active option: Climb Chaipaval above Northton, about 3 km and 365 m of ascent; on a clear day St Kilda shows on the horizon.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Tarbert

   Activity: Tweed is on sale at the weaver's and in Tarbert; buying is entirely up to you.

6. Day 6: The Sound of Harris to North Uist and a Gaelic evening

   Tarbert to Leverburgh, CalMac ferry to Berneray, then Balranald and Barpa Langass on North Uist

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in North Uist
   Day 6 details

   We drive south to Leverburgh for the ferry across the Sound of Harris, about an hour, which weaves between reefs and low islands on a course marked with buoys. We land on Berneray, linked to North Uist by a causeway, and walk out to its west beach, several kilometres of empty sand. North Uist is flat and half water, a maze of lochs, and its west coast is edged with machair, the grassland on shell sand that flowers in early summer with clover, orchids and buttercups. After lunch we walk at the RSPB reserve at Balranald, where corncrakes call from the iris beds from May to July, though they are seldom seen. On the way to our hotel we stop at Barpa Langass, a Neolithic chambered cairn on a hillside. In the evening, over dinner, local musicians and singers share Gaelic songs and tunes; Gaelic is still the everyday language of many people here.

   Included

   • CalMac ferry Leverburgh to Berneray with our vehicle
   • Berneray west beach
   • Sit-down lunch on North Uist
   • RSPB Balranald and the machair with your guide
   • Barpa Langass chambered cairn
   • Gaelic evening of songs and music with dinner

   Easier option: Take the short path from the Balranald visitor hut to the shore instead of the full loop.

   More active option: Walk the full Balranald machair and coast loop, about 5 km.

   Free time: Free time at the hotel before the Gaelic evening

   Activity: The Sound of Harris crossing is the most weather-sensitive of the three. If it cannot sail, we drive back to Tarbert for the ferry to Uig on Skye and skip North Uist. The single night on North Uist is kept light: we check in by late afternoon, and the evening is the music and dinner.

7. Day 7: Lochmaddy to Uig and the north of Skye

   Lochmaddy by CalMac ferry to Uig, then Kilmuir and Duntulm, Staffin and Portree

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Portree
   Day 7 details

   From Lochmaddy the CalMac ferry crosses the Little Minch to Uig on Skye in about an hour and three quarters, with the cliffs of Waternish and Trotternish rising ahead; sailing times vary by day and are confirmed with your itinerary. After lunch on your own in Uig we drive north to the Skye Museum of Island Life at Kilmuir, a group of thatched cottages showing how crofters lived about a century ago. On the hill above is the grave of Flora MacDonald, who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape after Culloden by taking him from the Uists to Skye, the same water you crossed this morning. We go round the tip of Trotternish past the ruin of Duntulm Castle, then down the east coast by Staffin to Portree, Skye's main town, arriving in the late afternoon. The farewell dinner is in Portree. Our Highlands and Skye trip covers the Storr, the Quiraing and Dunvegan in full.

   Included

   • CalMac ferry Lochmaddy to Uig with our vehicle
   • Skye Museum of Island Life, Kilmuir, entry included
   • Flora MacDonald's grave
   • Duntulm Castle viewpoint
   • Farewell dinner in Portree

   Free time: Free time in Portree before dinner

   Activity: A light day before the drive home: about 1.25 hours of driving after the ferry, and free time in Portree before dinner. If wind stops the Lochmaddy sailing, we stay a second night on the Uists and take the next crossing; day 8 then moves back a day and Eilean Donan may come later in the morning.

8. Day 8: Eilean Donan and back to Inverness

   Portree to the Skye Bridge and Eilean Donan Castle, then Glen Shiel, Loch Ness and Inverness

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   We leave Portree after breakfast and cross the Skye Bridge to the mainland. Eilean Donan Castle stands on a small tidal island where three sea lochs meet, reached by a stone footbridge; the castle was ruined in 1719 and rebuilt in the early 20th century, and we go in close to opening, before the coaches arrive from Skye. Then we drive up Glen Shiel between the steep ridges known as the Five Sisters of Kintail, through Glen Moriston and along the shore of Loch Ness, with a stop to stretch your legs and buy lunch on the way. We reach Inverness in the early afternoon, dropping you at the railway station or the airport. Book a flight from Inverness leaving after about 4.30 pm, or a train after about 3 pm. Because a ferry cancellation earlier in the week can push the timings back, a flexible ticket or a night in Inverness is the safer plan.

   Included

   • Eilean Donan Castle, entry included
   • Glen Shiel and Loch Ness on the drive
   • Drop-off at Inverness railway station or Inverness Airport (INV)

   Activity: We leave Portree at about 8.30 to reach Eilean Donan near opening. Book a flight from Inverness leaving after about 4.30 pm, or a train after about 3 pm.

Wildlife and weather: May to September brings long days, up to about 18 hours of daylight in June, and 10 to 17 C with wind and showers that pass quickly. The machair flowers are at their best from about June to July, and corncrakes call at Balranald mostly from May to July. Dolphins, porpoises and gannets are often seen from the Minch ferry. Midges come out on still days from June to August. High wind can stop the ferries, so each crossing has a plan B.

• Ullapool1 night
• Stornoway2 nights
• Tarbert, Harris2 nights
• North Uist1 night
• Portree1 night