Historic Lewis

OVERVIEW

Discover landmarks that showcase the history and culture of Lewis, largest and most populated of Scotland’s Western Isles. Shaped by its surrounding ocean and extreme climate, this island has been inhabited by stalwart folk for well over 6,000 years. On the west, you’ll visit Gearrannan – a coastal village of outstanding beauty where once-derelict homesteads are being painstakingly restored using traditional dry-stone masonry and communal thatching methods. During your visit, you’ll see how generations lived together in this small-plot farming community, in “blackhouses” – long, round-cornered structures uniquely designed to keep their residents warm and dry in even the most ferocious weather. Not far from this place, where Loch Carloway carves a deep path into this craggy coastline, you’ll stop to take in a 2,000-year-old circular fortified tower still clinging stubbornly to a hillside overlooking the sea. Well-known and exceptionally well-preserved, Carloway Broch still has partial walls 30 feet high, with interior galleries and stairways dramatically exposed. Before turning back inland across the moors, your circular Lewis itinerary will carry you yet further along Lewis’ western coast, a region at times pounded by the full unbroken force of the North Atlantic.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Experience a guided survey of the diverse, ruggedly unspoiled Lewis island landscape.
• Cross the isle by panoramic coach, viewing rolling moorlands, innumerable tiny lochs and a picturesque fishing village.
• Stop for photos at the Black Houses of Gearannan, built to shelter farming families from raging coastal winds.
• See peat bogs where this ancient and abundant earth-fuel is still cut and dried to fuel local home fires.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Wear layered, weather-appropriate clothing; conditions are changeable in the Hebrides.
• Flat, comfortable walking shoes are recommended.
• Bring a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen as needed