What are the Islands ?

Scotland has hundreds of islands. The Western Isles are remote and rugged, with small fishing and farming communities . Some of the people still speak Gaelic. The Orkney Islands are not far from Norway, and were once the centre of a Stone Age Norse civilization.

On the small island of Iona, you can see where Saint Columba, the man who brought Christianity to the West of Scotland, arrived from Ireland in the year 563.

Skye is perhaps the most famous and the most beautiful of the Western Isles. It offers some of Scotland’s most dramatic landforms, the best known of which are the Cuillin Hills. Beyond the main town of Portree, the dramatic geology continues with the rock formation known as the Old Man of Storr. 

The seat of the Clan Macleod at Dunvegan Castle is a favourite excursion, and in Armadale, in the south of the island, you find the Clan Donald Centre where you can learn about the powerful clan whose chiefs were the lords of the Isles.