Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

HEBRIDES
is flat, and still further S there are wide tracts of peat-
moss. The cliffs are generally too low to show any
striking rock scenery ; but the shores of Lewis in many
places form an exception, as do also the cliffs of the
islands of Bernera and Mingalay at the extreme S, which
rise to a height of over 1000 feet, and are the dwelling-
places of enormous numbers of sea-birds. Tame as the
scenery in general may seem, however, to be, there are
times and seasons when it presents aspects of beauty
and grandeur. 'What,' says Macgillivray, 'can be
more delightful than a midnight walk by moonlight
along the lone sea-beach of some secluded isle, the
glassy sea sending from its surface a long stream of
dancing and dazzling light ; no sound to be heard save
the small ripple of the idle wavelet, or the scream of a
sea-bird watching the fry that swarms along the shores !
In the short nights of summer the melancholy song of
the throstle has scarcely ceased on the hill-side, when
the merry carol of the lark commences, and the plover
and snipe sound their shrill pipe. Again, how glorious
is the scene which presents itself from the summit of
one of the loftier hills, when the great ocean is seen
glowing with the last splendour of the setting sun, and
the lofty isles of St Hilda rear their giant heads amid
the purple blaze on the extreme verge of the horizon.'
In another passage he thus draws the picture of the
winter storms: 'After a continued gale of westerly
winds, the Atlantic rolls in its enormous billows upon
the western coasts, dashing them with inconceivable
fury upon the headlands, and scouring the sounds and
creeks, which, from the number of shoals and sunk
rocks in them, often exhibit the magnificent spectacle
of terrific ranges of breakers extending for miles. Let
any one who wishes to have some conception of the
sublime, station himself upon a headland of the W coast
of Harris during the violence of a winter tempest, and
he will obtain it. The blast howls among the grim and
desolate rocks around him. Black clouds are seen
advancing from the W in fearful masses, pouring forth
torrents of rain and hail. A sudden flash illuminates
the gloom, and is followed by the deafening roar of the
thunder, which gradually becomes fainter, until the
roar of the waves upon the shore prevails over it.
Meantime, far as the eye can reach, the ocean boils and
heaves, presenting one wide-extended field of foam, the
spray from the summits of the billows sweeping along
its surface like drifted snow. No sign of life is to be
seen, save when a gull, labouring hard to bear itself up
against the blast, hovers overhead, or shoots athwart
the gloom like a meteor. Long ranges of giant waves
rush in succession towards the shores. The thunder of
the shock echoes among the crevices and caves ; the
spray mounts along the face of the cliffs to an astonish-
ing height ; the rocks shake to their summit ; and the
baffled wave rolls back to meet its advancing successor. '
The Hebrides are, however, seen to most advantage
in distant sea views, and these, whether from the main-
land or from amid the islands themselves, are always
strikingly picturesque, and in many cases cause a
pleasant surprise by their wild and lonely beauty.
Coleridge says that the distant view of the Hebrides
from some point he had forgotten was one of the five
finest things in Scotland. The point was probably that
which afforded him his first view from the SE about
Kintyre, and though his idea is a somewhat exaggerated
one, yet, under good conditions of light, the appearance
thus presented is very fine. Hugh Miller has thus
described an evening view from the W coast of Ross-shire
at the Gairloch : — ' flow exquisitely the sun sets in a clear
calm summer evening over the blue Hebrides ! Within
less than a mile of our barrack there rose a tall hill, whose
bold summit commanded all the Western Isles from Sleat
in Skye to the Butt of Lewis. To the south lay the
trap islands ; to the north and west the gneiss ones.
They formed, however, seen from this hill, one great
group which, just as the sun had sunk, and sea and sky
were so equally bathed in gold, as to exhibit on the
horizon no dividing line, seemed in their transparent
purple — darker or lighter according to the distance — a
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HEBRIDES
group of lovely clouds, that, though moveless in the
calm, the first light breeze might sweep away. Even
the flat promontories of sandstone, which, like out-
stretched arms, enclosed the outer reaches of the fore-
ground — promontories edged with low red cliffs, and
covered with brown heath — used to borrow at these
times from the soft yellow beam a beauty not their own.
Amid the inequalities of the gneiss regions within— a
region more broken and precipitous, but of humbler
altitude than the great gneiss tract of the midland
Highlands — the chequered light and shade lay, as the
sun declined in strongly contrasted patches, that be-
trayed the abrupt inequalities of the ground, and bore
when all around was warm-tinted and bright, a hue of
cold neutral grey.' Cuthbert Bede, in referring to a
sunset view from the Kintyre end, speaks in similar
terms of ' the long stretch of Islay and Jura with their
purple peaks standing out so sharply against the broad
bars of molten gold, and the nearer islets floating in a
sea whose hue changed from bright emerald to deepest
violet, with countless sparkles at every throb.' Viewed
from the Sound of Jura the conical and far-seeing Paps
of Jura close up the view immediately on the N, and
rise to a height of 2569 feet ; the north-eastern point
of Islay is screened by the dark and broken precipices
of M'Carter's Head ; the eastern entrance of the sound
seems dotted over with islets, or walled across with the
spray of the vexed waters ; Colonsay lies away to the W,
and on the E the rugged summits of Arran tower aloft
in the distance, and over the intervening seas and the
peninsula of Kintyre. From Dunolly Castle, near Oban,
there is an excellent view of the S group of the inner
Hebrides, while from Ardnamurchan there is one still
more extensive and impressive. ' To the south lies Mull in
mist, piling her dull vast hills out above the line of break-
ing foam ; while away to the south-west, cairn after cairn
looming through the water show where barren Coll is
weltering in the gloomy waste. To the far west, only
cloud resting on cloud, above the dim unbroken water-
line of the Atlantic. But northward all brightens, for
the storm has passed thence with the wind, and the
sunlight has crept out cold and clear on craggy Rum,
whose heights stretch grey and ghostly against a cloud-
less sky. Hard by, in shadow, looms the gigantic
Scaur of Eig, looking down on the low and grassy line
of Muck,
' " Set as an emerald in the casing sea."
Beyond all these, peeping between Rum and Eig, pen-
cilled in faint and ghostly peaks hued like the heron's
breast, are the wondrous Cuchullin Hills of Skye — born
of the volcano on some strange morning in the age of
mighty births. The eye seeks to go no farther. It
rests on those still heights, and in a moment the perfect
sense of solitude glides into the soul ; thought seems
stationary, brooding over life subdued.' Lord Teign-
mouth, indeed, speaking of Skye, is bold enough to
claim that ' the grandest scenery perhaps of Scotland
occurs in the south-eastern division of the island.
Crossing Loch Slapin, I proceeded along the rugged
coast of Strath to its point called the Aird, a promon-
tory which — penetrated by caverns, or severed into
buttresses, in some places projecting far in tabulated
ledges over the sea, tinted richly with yellow, green,
and other colours — presents a strikingly beautiful and
majestic front to the stormy ocean, to the ravages of
which its shattered and perforated precipices bear ample
testimony. Reflecting the rays of an unclouded sun, it
offered a brilliant contrast to the dark forms of Rum
and the neighbouring islands which rose to the south-
ward. We rowed slowly under the Aird, as every cove
or buttress deserves attention, till the opposite headland
beyond Loch Scavaig discovered itself, and as we entered
the bay the precipitous and serrated ridges of the Coolin
Mountains towered in all their grandeur above the
shores, terminating a perspective formed by the steep
side of the two prominent buttresses of the range, and
enclosing the gloomy valley and deep dark waters of Loch
Coruisk, from which the principal peaks rise abruptly.'