A taste for Scottish island life

If you want to make a grand Hebridean impression, you could lay out a few million to take down the "For Sale" signs currently outside Amhuinnsuidhe Castle on Harris.

I was more than happy with the impression made by the wheels of the little BA twin-prop from Glasgow as it touched down on the sands of Cockle Strand, the wonderfully named beach that has been the airport on the neighbouring island of Barra since the Thirties.

Sheep ambled along the street of the island's tiny main town, Castlebay, as we arrived at our hotel. Over fresh scallops in the Castlebay Hotel's dark, wood-panelled lounge bar, we gazed at the shifting twilight on the harbour, where Kisimul Castle was a shadow out on a tiny islet in the bay. Later, we joined half of Barra crammed into the Castlebay Bar. Everyone was reeling, not just from the booze (large whiskies for £1.20, sweet Jesus) but also the stirring efforts of the Vatersay Boys belting out raucous standards in a corner beneath the fishing-netcovered ceiling.

Also known as the Western Isles, the Outer Hebrides are scattered in a 150-mile-long chain at Europe's north-west corner. Only a handful of the islands are inhabited, however, and even on these, empty, single-lane roads stretch like grey threads dropped gently on to the ochre and green moorland. As well as heather-covered moors and dark peatbogs, you'll find a string of spectacular sandy beaches - wilderness surf spots when the Atlantic rollers pile in, but at other times perfect places to walk down to, across the wildflower-covered coastal greenery known as machair.

While the whites and blues of the shoreline can be startlingly bright, the moors are muted echoes of the Harris tweed made fashionable by the likes of Vivienne Westwood and shoemaker Jimmy Choo. The lochs and land also draw the hunting set, well served by gamey bolt holes such as the Lochboisdale Hotel on the southern tip of South Uist - taxidermed decor, huge scales in the hallway to measure the day's catch, and old record books chronicling dead-animal tallies decades back in faded ink.

For rugged sophisticates, hotels and restaurants perfectly embody the estate agents' credo of "location, location, location" in a landscape that makes the Hebrides a paradise, too, for soulful wanderers. The young Prince Charles opted for Berneray, off the tip of North Uist, coming to pick summer spuds for a local crofter, but there are enough special places here for everyone. The most famous are the Callanish Standing Stones, which have stood on their Lewis hilltop since before the pyramids.

Solitary crofts and old "black houses" are scattered throughout the islands, with their peat-fired, smoky interiors, tiny piers pointing the way to the next island. They are poignant little museums of island life in the otherwise uninspiring townships.

On our last full day, we drove the Golden Road (so called because of the cost of building it) across The Bays: the eerie landscape on the east coast of Harris. Scoured by ancient glaciers, it looks like a place where God downed tools, leaving nothing but bare rock to face the sea pushing into the jagged coves. You get the feeling, though, that he's still hanging around these parts - listening to Gaelic, walking the beaches and enjoying the seafood, chilling as he admires one of his better efforts.

Way to go

British Airways (0845 7733377) flies to Barra, Benbecula and Lewis via Glasgow. Returns from £290. Save money by buying a discount ticket to Glasgow and onward flight with BA separately. For example, Norman Miller flew to Glasgow with bmi (0870 6070555), which currently offers returns from £67; an onward return to Barra would cost from £140.