Walking on Harris and Lewis. Richard BarrettЧитать онлайн книгу.

Together Harris and Lewis make up the largest island of the 130 mile-long archipelago known as the Outer Hebrides or the Western Isles. They lie at the very edge of Europe and, other than St Kilda and a few other isolated mountain peaks rising from the ocean bed, there is nothing but ocean to the west at a latitude of 58°N until you hit the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. During the dark winter months there are gales every third day; and the other two are simply windy! And with nothing in their way for thousands of miles, the Atlantic winds rattle ill-fitting doors and snatch carelessly pegged clothes from washing lines making the islands seem a desperate place to be.

Much of Lewis is black peat bog pitted with thousands of lochs and lochans and the interior of South Harris looks so ‘lunar’ that it stood in as the planet Jupiter for the filming of the sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey back in 1968. It all makes for a seemingly unappealing and hostile place to go walking, especially when getting there will certainly take longer and could cost you more than a budget flight to the guaranteed warmth of southern Europe.

Taransay – perhaps the best known island in the Outer Hebrides after the televised ‘Castaway’ series

But if you're a dedicated walker, tired of the crowded hills and mountains of more accessible areas, coming to Harris and Lewis is a must. You will get solitude in abundance and won't have to go far off the few beaten tracks to have a summit or glen to yourself. Although ferries and flights to the mainland are frequent these islands maintain an air of remoteness. Disembark at Uig after a week on the Outer Hebrides and even Skye can seem busy and boisterous, totally geared up for tourism.

Past industry in Harris – the old whaling station at Bun Abhainn Eadarra below Mulla bho Dheas (Walk 11)

In spite of being part of the same landmass, often referred to as the Long Island, Lewis and Harris are very different. With fish farming, ship building and even software development the economy of Lewis is much less dependent on tourism. Outside of Stornoway, the only town, the traditional occupations of crofting, fishing and weaving are still prevalent with many islanders still having more than one occupation. Having seen parents and grandparents suffering from the boom-and-bust cycles of industries such as herring fishing, weaving and rendering seaweed for chemicals, Lewis folk are proudly self-reliant and know how to get along. They also know how to enjoy themselves and although the Sabbath is still strictly observed with no shop opening or newspapers (a Sunday ferry service only started in 2009), Saturday night on the town in Stornoway is just as noisy and boisterous as in any other small town.

Harris is a total contrast; even Lewis people talk about going there as if it were another country. In many ways it is – or at least it was. In the past the mountains of Harris formed a substantial natural barrier between Lewis and Harris, and the sea rather than road was the main means of communication and transportation. It's easy to see why, despite being part of the same landmass, they have retained the names Isle of Lewis and Isle of Harris. Everything happened at the periphery where the land meets the sea and even today there are few landlocked villages anywhere on the island. The division was more than geographic. Until 1974 it extended to local government with Lewis being part of the county of Ross and Cromarty and Harris part of the county of Inverness. Together with the other islands of the Outer Hebrides they are both now part of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar – the Western Isles Council – headquartered in Stornoway.

Compared with Lewis, Harris has far less of most things

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