40 miles west of the Scottish Mainland and in an arc of 130 miles from the Butt of Lewis in the north to Barra Head in the south, lie a string of islands known as The Hebrides or Western Isles. The Islands have a wealth of history combined with an unrivalled natural beauty. They all share the same culture, "Gaeldom", and the same language, Gaelic, and to many of the 28,000 population, English is a second language - their tenacity at keeping Gaeldom alive is admirable in the 21st century. This strength of culture is one of the major draws of the Western Isles. Many visitors to Scotland make the mistake of assuming all island cultures are the same - Shetland and Orkney have a completely different culture and gaelic is not spoken there. Lewis and Harris form the northernmost island but there the similarity ends. Lewis is, for the most part, fairly flat and treeless with enormous peat bogs and literally thousands of lochs (superb trout, sea tout and salmon fishing availa ... < more >