Planning · 12 October 2026 · 6 minute read
Why fewer islands
Every first draft of a Hebridean trip has too many islands in it. Here is why we take some out.
The first email usually lists six or seven islands. Harris, of course, and Skye, and Mull because of the eagles, and Iona, and Islay because of the whisky, and Orkney because someone at a dinner said so. Ten nights, sometimes twelve.
It can be done. It isn’t a good trip.
A crossing is a day
On a map the Minch looks like a short hop. In practice a crossing takes most of a day: the drive to the pier, check-in before the sailing, the crossing itself, the drive from the pier at the other end, and finding the house. Add the weather, which can stop a sailing, and each island you add costs a day and adds a risk.
The second day is the good one
The first day on an island is for arriving. You learn where the shop is and which way the wind blows. The second day is when you walk the beach you saw from the car, and the third is when someone in the shop recognises you. On Harris we plan four nights, and nobody has yet asked for fewer.
What we take out
Usually Skye in summer, which is busy and is better seen from a boat. Usually one of the Inner Hebrides, so that the trip has a shape: the Long Island, say, or Islay and Jura, or Orkney and Shetland. Rarely the buffer night before a long crossing home, which is the one night we never take out.
What you get back
Time on the islands you kept. A day when it rains and it doesn’t matter. The St Kilda boat, held for a calm day. A long lunch.
Two or three islands in ten nights. Four, if you insist and the ferries co-operate. Plan a trip and we’ll argue about it.
