OUTER HEBRIDES
Wild swimming adventures in the Scottish islands
By Susanne Masters
OUTER HEBRIDES
Luskentyre beach, Harris
Cresting a wave at Tolsta Head, Lewis
“Hold that plane”. Not the text message you want from trip buddies when boarding a flight. Despite ground crew keeping the gate open as long as they could, I landed in Inverness without my swimmers. But Lucy and Keith rescued the swimming holiday. However, we wouldn’t be swimming the Isle of Harris and Lewis as planned, as Lucy and Keith couldn’t get to Ullapool in time for the ferry to Stornoway. Instead, for just an extra £10 to swap that ferry ticket to Stornoway for one to Barra, supplemented with ferries between islands, we would be doing the whole of the Outer Hebrides in three days. Cattle are reared on Vatersay, the most southerly inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides.
In the past, to get cattle from their pasture to market they had to swim 250m across the Sound of Vatersay to Barra. In 1986, Bernie the prize bull drowned while attempting the crossing, catalysing construction of a causeway to link Vatersay and Barra.