Planning Your Holiday

Hebridean Terrain

The terrain in the Outer Hebrides varies enormously over a short distance and even a low level walk can have you walking over sand, moorland, rocks and paths. The moorland is generally wet in dark pockets and interspersed with drier hummocks. During the summer months the moor can become quite dry but there are always marshy areas and streams to negotiate. The machair is more often dry with long grass and the coastline of the east sea lochs can have steep slopes with no fences, so please be careful when you are near the edge. Sheep tracks are great ‘natural’ paths, which are useful to walkers on the hills and moorland. They are well-worn, thin tracks that generations of sheep have trodden and they minimise damage to the flowers or disturbance of ground nesting birds.