Scottish Islands | Katinkas Closet

I love my country, and all the beauty it has to offer. The west coast of Scotland has some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen. On a sunny day, it could be mistaken for some tropical island paradise. I’m so fortunate to have such areas of natural beauty so close by, and try to go on one trip up the north-west coast at least annually. We decided to take a trip to Harris a few years back, and I’ve been desperate to go back ever since.

We had been on the Isle of Skye for a couple of days before moving onto Harris, which made the journey a bit more bearable. We got the Caledonian MacBrayne Ferry service from Uig and it didn’t take too long to cross to Harris,http://www.calmac.co.uk/destinations/harris.htm.

The island really is amazingly beautiful, and full of contrast. To the east of the island, the landscape is really lunar. Whereas on the west side of the island lies gorgeous sandy beaches, sand dunes, machair, and irresistible water (if it wasn’t so freezing).

We decided to go for a real island adventure experience, and camped in the wild. Not sure I would free camp again, as the lack of facilities is somewhat disconcerting. However, there’s an array of beautiful accommodation on offer from a hotel to private houses. If you do fancy free camping, we pitched up at a free spot on the west side, practically on Luskentyre beach. It was beautiful, completely remote and undisturbed. We were surrounded by a family of Sheep but that was it! It was so peaceful. There were toilet facilities there back in May 2009 set back from the beach. There were no showers, but there may have been some improvements made since then.

Check out these websites for local tourist information on Harris:-

http://www.scottishcampingguide.com/link.php?n=745&c=21

http://www.visithebrides.com/islands/harris/

http://www.virtualheb.co.uk/luskentyre-isle-of-harris-western-isles.html

For all you fashionista’s out there, Harris is of-course home to the wonderful Harris Tweed.

http://www.harristweed.org/

We went to both Luskentyre and Scarista beaches, which are two of the nicest and cleanest beaches I’ve had the pleasure of visiting, and I’m proud these are in Scotland. We cooked our own food on a camp fire, but there are places to eat if you go into the main village. We stopped for a bite to eat at The Harris Hotel before catching our Ferry back to Skye, and it was good.

Here’s some photographs from our trip in May 2009.

Our wild camping spot!