ISLE OF LEWIS (Scotland)

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The Isle of Lewis is the largest of the islands known as the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides. The island has many tourist attractions ranging from the famous Callanish Stones on the west side of the Island to the wooded grounds surrounding Lewis Castle.

The Gaelic name for Lewis is Leodhas which means marshy. Most of the island is indeed covered by a blanket of peat. Deposits of this started some 5000 years ago and today you can see it being cut and dried for later use as fuel. The underlying rock, Lewisian gneiss, is thought to be 2900 million years old - half as old as the Earth itself.

The Isle of Lewis is not actually an island, rather it is the northern two-thirds of the largest of the Western Isles, sharing a mountainous land border with Harris to its south. The capital of Lewis and the only town in the Western Isles is Stornoway. The design of the road network means that you can most easily explore Lewis via a series of out-and-back excursions from Stornoway.

Here in the Western Isles (formerly known as the Outer Hebrides) the landscape and history of Lewis, together with the hospitality of its people provide a wonderful escape from the pressures of modern life. With luck you may even see otters, seals, eagles or dolphins.

Deer tend to keep to the high ground during the summer, but sometimes you can see them on the Harris Estate near Ardhasaig and Ardvoulie along the main road from Tarbert to Stornoway. In the summer months there are many colourful wild flowers to be seen on the machair. The heather is a picture of purple in late summer when in full bloom.