The Sound of Mull runs between the island of Mull and the Scottish mainland for twenty-five miles — a passage that changes character with every hour of the tide and every shift of the wind. Tobermory, Mull’s principal village, is the most photographed harbour in Scotland: the coloured houses along the waterfront have appeared on so many biscuit tins and calendars that the real thing, approached from the water on a summer evening with the tide running and the town reflected in the still harbour, has a quality of familiarity that adds to rather than diminishes the pleasure.
The Corryvreckan is the third-largest whirlpool in the world, in the channel between the islands of Jura and Scarba. At spring tides the overfalls and standing waves reach four metres; the sound of it carries across the Sound of Jura on a quiet day. Passage through the Corryvreckan requires careful timing and a captain who has done it before; the reward is access to the anchorages of Jura’s west coast, which are among the finest in the Hebrides.
The Outer Hebrides — Lewis and Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Barra — face the Atlantic with nothing between them and North America for three thousand miles. The landscape is the most ancient in Britain: the Lewisian gneiss beneath your feet is 3,000 million years old. Luskentyre beach on the island of Harris is routinely cited as one of the finest beaches in Europe — a kilometre of white shell-sand with the kind of turquoise water that seems geographically improbable at this latitude.
The Gaelic culture of the Hebrides is not a performance for visitors. The island communities have maintained their language and traditions through the same conditions that produced the landscape: difficulty, weather and isolation as a way of life rather than a marketing concept.
- Luskentyre Beach, Harris — one of Europe's finest beaches, turquoise water in 57°N
- Corryvreckan whirlpool — timed passage through one of the world's great tidal phenomena
- Tobermory harbour — the most photographed anchorage in Scotland
- St Kilda — the most remote and most extraordinary archipelago in the British Isles
The Scottish west coast season runs May to September, with June and July the most settled months. June offers the longest days — the sky never fully darkens in the far north — and the fewest midges (the biting insects that make Highland life uncomfortable in August). The Atlantic weather is variable year-round; a Scotland charter requires flexibility and a vessel equipped for the conditions. Water temperatures peak at 14–16°C in August.
