Outer Hebrides // Na h-Eileanan Siar

So Mum and Sis are coming to Scotland in summer 2011. They have been here the year before and have seen the usual places: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Loch Ness and Skye. I scanned the map of Scotland and can't help but notice a chain of islands elegantly strung across the Atlantic just off the west coast. I flicked through the CalMac brochure looking for inspirations and these little pieces of land struck my fancy. These isles know what I like: islands, coastlines, causeways and awkward looking terrains. Having suggested these as a destination in their itinerary, I was quickly brushed off with questions I couldn't convincingly answer like "What is there to see?" and "Are you telling us we're spending four nights in a miserably wet and sparsely featured place?". We headed for Mull in the end, which was a more suitably relaxing alternative for a family. However, the urge to see what these isles have to offer has lingered for so long an idea was finally triggered by this entry in CalMac's 2011 Brochure.

CalMac brochure 2012

CYCLE: Hop on your bike and discover the islands at your own pace. An 8-day Island Rover ticket for yourself and your bike is available from just £51.

These isles are called the Outer Hebrides. They are also known as the Western Isles. So which is it? I prefer to call it the Outer Hebrides for the novelty of having to say the ambiguously spelled collective name of the west coast islands, which is a more informative and interesting way to describe them than the generic Western Isles.

If you think the Hebrides sound suspiciously like the transgendered partners of clueless grooms, you are probably right because the otherwise geographical sense of the term is pronounced hair-brid-DEES.

What makes the naming of the islands more interesting is that the official council name that comprises the islands is called Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, word for word, seemingly in a foreign tongue, which incidentally is a local one. If you are living outside the UK or doesn't have an idea what this part of Scotland is all about, you wouldn't know that the local lingo is expressed in Gaelic, a broad language so associated with the Celtic nations its further divided into several branches which the Scotland version is one. Confused yet?

OK, as I explored the brochure further, I discovered that a Hopscotch ticket number 8 buys me four consecutive singles that string me through from Oban on the mainland through to Barra at the southern end of the Outer Hebrides, through the Uists, Harris, Lewis and back to Ullapool, for a much cheaper price of £30. And with their pedal-bikes-go-free policy, it was all the more difficult to ignore this opportunity to see the lochs, isles and causeways in a close range.

I got a bike from Scott, who nicked it from his flatmate Graeme. It first became a pair of trusty wheels which I use daily to commute to work at Forrest Road and sometimes Ocean Terminal, both in Edinburgh. (Leithers, I'm sorry). It was soon used to explore the surrounding Lothian terrain from Linlithgow to Roslin to North Berwick. Being at the age of probably 5, it was decided that the Claud Butler hybrid bike has matured enough to be tested on the wet Hebrides contour (if you still have not figured out the pronunciation, you will sound awkward).

First it looked formidable to cycle the length of the islands, all 300 miles in total. That is 480km to non-Britishers and -Americans. Flavour it with unpredictable storms and large swathes of nothingness. All I had to be thankful for is the kind flatness of the southern isles early in the journey, which then mercilessly soars to a 17% gradient as soon as you head northwards from the second last island, Harris. Anyway, armed with an unwavering determination, I bought a single ticket on the train to Oban.