Wild and Ancient: Cultural tours to Scotland’s islands | by Peter Exley

Calanais Stones, Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides

"A journey to the island archipelagos on Scotland’s western and northern flanks can feel like an adventure to another world. Wild, rugged, culturally vibrant and historically rich. Names of places and people speak of a deep heritage, past Nordic rulers, and in the Hebrides where Gaelic is the first language.

In 2024, I’ll be helping lead tours to three of these islands groups - Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides, the latter two with my good friend Andrew Wilson. Each has it’s distinctiveness. Orkney, rolling hills and steep cliffs, “where farmers fish”. Shetland, rugged and harsh, “where fishers farm”, and the Hebrides, a string of islands each unique in geology, geography, culture and history. 

There is much common to these islands though. Firstly their remoteness. Getting to them requires long journeys, some over the most treacherous waters around the UK… across The Minch to the Hebrides, the Pentland Firth to Orkney, and far beyond Fair Isle to reach Shetland. Stay in Shetland’s capital, Lerwick, and you are closer to Bergen in Norway than you are to Edinburgh. And travel from Stornoway to the island of Barra is a north-south Hebridean journey of twisting roads and two ferries that will take most of the day.

Marwick Head, Orkney	Puffin, Sumburgh Head, Shetland
Gannets, Hermaness, Shetland	Machair, Barra, Outer Hebrides

You are definitely aware of and feel the weather here. A common saying is “four seasons in a day”, and wind is your almost constant companion (the highest wind speed ever recorded in the UK was at the northernmost point in Shetland). Yet a sunny day lights up almost unimaginably beautiful landscapes, from the golden beaches along the west coast of the Hebrides, to stunning cathedral-like cliffs. 

Historically and archaeologically these islands are without parallel. Remarkable remains of Neolithic and Iron Age communities can be walked around and into, from the excavated villages at Skara Brae in Orkney and Jarlshof in Shetland, to numerous burial chambers, stunning stone circles such as Brodgar and Calanais, and the 13 metre high “broch” (or North Atlantic round house) on Mousa.

For me though it is the unique and abundant wildlife that draws me back to these islands year after year. Mighty seabird cities teem with thousands of birds. Primitive red-throated divers display on lochans. Short-eared owls and hen harriers float on long wings, whilst our mightiest birds of prey, golden and white-tailed eagles soar effortlessly on 7-8 foot wingspans. A dusk visit to Mousa in Shetland to see storm petrels come ashore is one of the world’s greatest wildlife spectacles. Flowers are abundant, from the rich swards of herbs on the Hebridean Machair, the air sweet with nectar, to carpets of orchids, and one of the UK’s rarest plants, the endemic, diminutive Scottish primrose.

Balranald, North Uist, Outer Hebrides	Common Seal, Dunvegan, Isle of Skye
Otter	Scottish Primrose, Orkney

Above all, it is the communities that draw me back. There is a stoic ruggedness, self-sufficiency, self-assuredness here. Yet we must always remind ourselves that we are brief summer visitors, when the nights are so short it never goes fully dark. Right now in mid-winter, there are just a few hours daylight, with frequent winter storms. It can be a tough life here.

Our tours of Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides aim to give you a flavour of all that these remarkable islands can offer. On Shetland we will look for puffins at Sumburgh Head in the south, and travel to the farthest north, Hermaness, to see its vast gannet colony. On Orkney, as well as days on The Mainland (the main island) we venture to Westray, Papa Westray and Rousay, visiting some of the world’s best archaeological sites, including Skara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar and the Knap of Howar on Papay. And our Outer Hebrides tour takes us from Lewis and Harris in the north all the way south to Barra, including a visit to the remarkable Calanais stones and the beautiful machair.

I do hope you will join me on one of these island adventures!"

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All images © Peter Exley