Isle of Lewis

Lewis is the largest and most northerly of the Outer Hebrides. It's known for its vast open moorland, the Callanish Standing Stones, the Gearrannan Blackhouse Village, a living Gaelic tradition, and the Harris Tweed woven in its crofts. Stornoway, the main town, is the only real urban centre in the Outer Hebrides.

The main routes are the CalMac ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway, about 2 hours 45 minutes, or a flight to Stornoway Airport from Inverness, Edinburgh or Aberdeen. Stornoway is the hub, with roads running out across the moor to the main sites on the west and north coasts.

A blackhouse is the traditional home of the Western Isles, a long low building of drystone walls with a thatched roof roped down and weighted with stones to hold against the Atlantic gales. The best-preserved are at Gearrannan Blackhouse Village on the west coast of Lewis, carefully restored and giving a vivid sense of island life as recently as the 1970s.

Lewis is very good for wildlife. Golden and white-tailed eagles are resident, corncrakes call from the machair in summer, and the waters off the Butt of Lewis hold grey seals, dolphins and migrating whales. The open moor is one of the last UK strongholds of the red-throated diver.