Inner Hebrides

I'm like, whatever.

But in the '90s when I went to Scotland and I s- I have Scottish ancestry, and I went to Durrat Castle in the Inner Hebrides and the old ruins of the Macduff Castle.

It was like, it was the MacLean Ca- Castle and the Duff Castle.

I went to both castles, and I don't know what it is.

Staffa.

Is right, in the Inner Hebrides.

Tom Mead, we come to you.

A term familiar to fans of Formula One, what's the name of the process by which measurements from an object are transmitted to a remote location for display and analysis?

It could be the desert in California.

And if I give a more specific example, there's a wind farm of 144 turbines planned in the Inner Hebrides, an area of extraordinary, outstanding beauty.

And the planned wind turbines are larger than any that have been used before.

They're higher by five meters.

It gets a lot of public attention and it, and it is seen as being something that is, that puts Britain, in this particular case, in the wrong, having colonies abroad, having appendages that are not linked to the mainland.

But you know, your point about territorial expansion, I mean, then the Gray Sea, Bordeaux, the Inner Hebrides, you know, Isle of Wight, you know, what, what constitutes your, uh, na- national territories is, is, is complicated.

In the, in the case of Argentina and, and the Falkland Islands, you could be thinking about Easter Island.

You could be thinking about Western Samoa and American Samoa.

It's now used to offer amazing sailing holidays to everybody who's interested in sailing across the west coast of Scotland.

And they visit many of the beautiful Inner Hebridean Islands and the Small Isles.

Beautiful food, amazing views, lots of wildlife and a real sense of adventure.

Welcome, Steve.

Minnie, our spaniel, is lying beside me, looking forward to her afternoon walk.

Now, I promised a podcast episode on the Outer Hebrides for some time, and it was put on the back burner while I was finishing off my series on weaving, including a lovely interview with the dynamic Clare Campbell of Brickley Thistle.

Well, in this podcast, we're just about to venture to the nether regions of Scotland, some 200 miles west of the mainland, to visit the islands of the Outer Hebrides.

Before we arrive there are some obstacles to overcome and you'll hear of our diversion via sky in the Inner Hebrides which in effect was an unexpected extra on my Outer Hebrides adventure thanks to Caledonia McBrain Ferries cancellations.

The last time I visited the Outer Hebrides was in 2022 with a lovely couple of guests called Margaret and Philip Ma from the USA.

They'd actually toured with me in 2014 for a special birthday treat and returned in 22.

It was an amazing trip with a visit to the borders initially to seek out ancestors before we headed north to the Outer Hebrides and we'll be following the path they took with one small exception.

Mark and Philip actually visited the most westerly of the Outer Hebrides Islands called St Kilda, a small archipelago 40 miles west of Lewes.

Every sensation seems softened here by distance, as though the island were keeping the louder world somewhere beyond the horizon.

Staffa lies among the inner Hebrides, west of Scotland, where sea and weather have opened the ancient lava into cliffs, ledges, caves, and low dark shelves.

From above, the island is small enough to seem almost weightless upon the Atlantic.

Yet its stone carries a history measured in tens of millions of years.

Now, let me just say one thing about pilgrimage, 'cause I just did one about six weeks ago in Scotland and England, where we walked the path of a guy named Saint Cuthbert.

So, uh, all through the, the Inner Hebrides and up in the hills of Scotland, and it was really great.

What happens when you go on a pilgrimage is- You put yourself in a very vulnerable place, um, because you're in a different country.

Sometimes, like in Spain, if you're on the Camino, you're- don't know the language, you don't know the food, uh, you don't know wh- you know, how to drive on the proper side of the road.