Isle of Harris & Isle of Lewis

The largest island in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland is Harris and Lewis which share the same landmass. It’s actually the third largest island in the British Isles after Great Britain and Ireland and covers an area of over 810 sq miles (2,100 sq km). We spent three days here relaxing on the beach, seeing some of the numerous broch's, an ancient henge, as well as the largest town which was tiny Stornoway. This was the furthest north we've been swimming in the ocean.

Isle of Harris and Lewis were much more rocky then Isle of Skye and also had many more sheep. We has to drive very carefully as they were often beside and in the road. These sheep had to be marked with multiple colors instead of just one ... there were thousands. The only way to get to these islands is by ferry which runs from two towns, also grocery stores are not open on Sundays which caught us by surprise. It's that quiet. That being said the island was charming and scenery beautiful. Scotland also is home to some of the world's best beaches on these 2 islands, but you have to tolerate the cold water as well!

Speaking of the Broch, this one caught us surprise. Our BnB was titled the Broch View Apartment. We did not know what that meant when we booked it. After we checked in, we noticed there was a Broch visitor center and Broch parking across the street. It wasn't until we were checking out that we finally went across the street to see the local landmark. It was amazing! All we could see from our BnB was a stone wall, but (as you can see from the pictures) it was a an ancient fortified dwelling and local heritage sight. The Broch was basically a big stone egg with an elaborate interior. To enter the Broch, it seems you had to walk a spiral staircase between the inner and outer shell. That would have made it highly defensible! Very impressive.

For those of you not familiar with the island we circled it on a map picture.Read more