A holiday in the Outer Hebrides, also known as the Westward Isles. Our first stop was Strathpeffer, a small wee Victorian spa town, which I last visited about 30 years ago. In those days I was on a walking holiday, today my holiday is of a different kind.
We drove through the northern part of Scotland which was crying out for rain, reservoirs low and gushing streams just trickles. We then sailed from Ullapool to Stornaway. What a different way of life. Away from the main towns the population is very scattered. Most houses or crofts owned a strip of land which they put mostly to sheep or cattle. It seems there is no scrappage system on the island as machinery which is broken down is just left in the fields and houses left as ruins with their roofs missing.
Amongst the beauty there is an eerie feeling of abandonment.
Carol