Outer or Inner Hebrides?

[MegBusset]

Planning a road trip for summer 23 and have our minds on a visit to the Hebrides. Considering two options: Outer (Uist and Lewis & Harris, Skye) or Inner (Mull, Islay and Jura) - we won't have time to do both.

Key considerations:

• Avoiding peak August crowds


• Beautiful views


• Good walks and places to visit


• If possible, minimising our chances of midges!

Anyone recommend one or the other?

Outer! There’s a much more logical circuit - Oban to Barra, then right up the length of islands to the Butt of Lewis, then either back down to Tarbert and across to Skye or just go from Stornaway to Ullapool and so some of the mainland. Skye is spectacular, but will be absolutely heaving.

Outer - the beaches are out of this world especially Luskentyre beach in Harris. There’s so much to see in Skye! I went last year in August and whilst it was busy it wasn’t horrendously busy. For example, when we went to the Fairy Pools we arrived at 9am and there were only a handful of people there. By the time we got back to the car park it was full though!

Actually, I’d dump Skye and have a couple of nights on Tiree - on Wednesday the Barra ferry makes Coll and Tiree stops en-route to Castlebay, so go to Tiree on the Monday ferry then head over to Barra on the Wednesday sailing.

Outer. Skye has a land bridge to it and can serve as a jumping off point as you can ferry to other isles. Absolutely incredible views all over it.

This sounds fairly unequivocal so far 😊 For our potential Outer itinerary we are looking at the ferry from Mallaig to Uist, having five or six days on Uist (doing Barra as a day trip) then five or six days on Harris before driving back via Skye. (We will be traveling with teenagers who dislike too many changes of accommodation so figure having two bases is better than a few days here and there in more places.)

Another vote for Outer!

(You might not be too into nature, but driving up and down the Committee Road in North Uist a couple of times is probably your best bet anywhere in the UK for seeing short-eared owls hunting, and possibly birds of prey.)

Inner! Mull is gorgeous and even has trees! The Ross of mull is one of my favourite places. Tbh I would do archnamurchan peninsula, mull and then arisaig.

you won’t avoid midges sadly but you can accept them and plan accordingly.

have a lovely trip

I'd look at the ferry options myself as part of any decision, if you have not already done so.

August is always worse than July both for weather and for midges.

Can't make a call on inner v outer. I'm an inner person - started inner and never got further out.

If you do the inner route as you have planned you're going to have a shitty drive down the road from Oban to Kennacraig if you want to take your car to Islay/Jura, unless you do a via colonsay boat on Wednesday or Saturday (it takes about four hours from Oban).

Unless you're desperate to go to mull, you could Island hop from ardrossan to Arran, then lochranza to claonaig then Kennacraig to Islay then across to Jura. None of the boats take long and you don't have to do the hell that is the A82 (Oban) or A83 (Kennacraig) drive on a ferry deadline. Having said that, the rest and be thankful and the drive up loch fyne are like a message from God on a good day. On a rainy one it's more like a feat of endurance.

If it was me, I'd junk Mull and do colonsay, Islay, Jura. Colonsay has sensational beaches, nice walks (including across to oronsay) and maybe less rain because it's low lying - gets a wee bit busier with day trippers on wed/sat but it's generally quiet. Islay has distilleries, golf, beautiful beaches, walking and hunting/shooting/fishing if that's your bag. apart from the whisky festival in may it never feels too busy, but you'll have to book accommodation ahead for the summer - it gets full. Jura has deer and midges (as well as incredible walking, beautiful beaches and only one road). You can get a boat out to corryvreckan (sp?) and swim across the whirlpool if you're that way inclined. Never actually stayed on Jura - it's day tripp-able from Islay but the hills are fierce if you're on a bike and the return up the hill from port askaig is a unique hell. Was very very busy last summer - not sure if that was just a staycation effect.

Outer. We are doing Harris and Lewis and Uist this year but we are making a detour back to Mull as well because we loved it last year!

We go late September to avoid the midges and hoards of visitors.

We did Outer in June 2019. We did Oban to Barra then worked our way up to Stornoway - Ullapool. I'm not sure a day trip to Barra from Uist is enough. We stayed 2 nights in Barra and a drive to Vatersay is a must - the beach is stunning. If you like fish then a visit to the Barratlantic factory shop is a must. The hand dived scallops were to die for!
We didn't encounter any midges as it was pretty windy and midges don't like wind!
The number of people on the Outer Hebrides is limited to an extent by the number of ferry places. Skye of course has a bridge so no limit on numbers.

Depends what you are into. A Mull into Ardnamurchan itinerary covers some really big wildlife spots, some fantastic geographical features and beaches on Ardnamurchan.

The Outers I think are more niche wildlife spots (particularly Uist) which is a real twitchers paradise and the beaches of Harris. That said, whilst we had fantastic weather on Harris and the kids loved it, it's not ideal with teens or kids in rubbish weather. Lots of places to stop and look at small galleries and have a coffee but otherwise it's hard to entertain the kids IMO.

We're limited in when we can go by school holidays and GCSE results. So late July / early August is our only option.

I'm counting on a good breeze to keep the midges at bay!

Weather is a slight concern but then that's true of anywhere in the UK. Luckily the teens will be reasonably happy chilling at base if need be as long as there's WiFi

Also, you will find a lot of the self catering accommodation on the Uists and particularly Harris will be booked up for next year already.

I'm worrying a bit about the weather now. Is there a high chance of having two weeks of being stuck looking out of windows? (Presumably if that was the case, nobody would go there?)

We're looking at booking with Airbnb, they're not on sale for next July/August yet. Ferry timetable won't be released until later this year so we'll have to book accommodation first. Looks like Uig harbour is having major work doing until spring so may need to be flexible about our sailing from Harris.

We were on the Outer Hebrides earlier this year and travelled from Oban over to Barra and then drove all the way up through the Uists, Harris & Lewis. It was amazing, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.

It's Scotland in the summer - there are no weather guarantees! And the weather forecasts always seem to be wrong for the islands. I've had an August fortnight in the inner Hebrides where it's rained heavily every day and I've had sunstroke in the same weeks another year.

I think, on balance we "lose" one day a week to really bad weather (unrelenting rain) but we normally just leave the house and accept we'll get wet. It blows over (the joys of places with wind - the weather keeps moving on). And there's something beautiful about the light and the atmosphere that means some of the best views are about three minutes before it pisses it down.

If you do Mull I would add Iona to the itinerary. (You have to cross Mull to get to Iona).

I love Islay (go most years), Jura, Colonsay, and Barra but Mull just doesn't hit the spot for me. Unfriendly, almost threatening at times.

outer is amazing. midges are a big problem though.
only sat out for one evening last July, bit to death otherwise.
we also had to abandon a day at Luskentyre(sp) as there was no wind to blow them away. They're not like mozzie bites either, almost rash like.
very little food options too, lived off soup and toasted sandwiches from cafes.

Ah, thank you. After much mulling (arf) we have decided not to go with the Hebrides - too much risk of crap weather and / or midges for a holiday with teens. We're going to Yorkshire instead and will save the Western Isles for future time when we can go outside of midge season.

Buy Smidge it’s excellent after Avon Skin So Soft stopped working for us. I wear it when the midges are bad and they never come near us.

Harris and Lewis are lovely, Skye gets very busy and the Fairy Pools aren’t what you see on filtered online images especially if you go on a dreich day! Also remember a lot of the roads are single track.