The Outer Hebrides: the Timeless Way

This is a travel narrative book with a difference. It is a journey through a remote and beautiful archipelago fringed with white sand beaches, beyond which is soft green sward dotted with wild flowers and awe inspiring mountains. This is an undiscovered land with a live Gaelic culture, crofting economy, untouched natural environment and a Celtic heritage.

This is not the Pacific, or the Indian Ocean. The Outer Hebrides are 60 miles off the coast of north-west coast of Scotland. Despite its proximity to the mainland of the United Kingdom it is a land more distant in the perceptions of travellers today than South East Asia, Australia, even Russia and Africa. Readers search bookshop shelves in vain for a serious work of travel narrative with which to come to know, love and interpret this part of Scotland.The author, Peter Clarke, projects his love of the islands and his knowledge of its ancient tracks and ways. Having first visited the islands 30 years ago, he has been promoting exploration of the Outer Hebrides via his charitable work for the Gatliff Hebridean Hostels Trust which runs youth hostels in the islands.

Peter describes how he set out to walk the length of the islands from the Butt of Lewis, the far north of the island of Lewis, to Heillanish Point, the most southerly point of Vatersay. Crossing moors, hills and tidal fords, skirting crofting land and common land, he describes how he found his route through this breath taking scenery. The journey opens a window in time through which it is possible to see the heritage bequeathed by the Vikings, the Celts, the Stuarts, the Clans and the Christian church interwoven into contemporary Gaelic culture.

As Peter walks through the islands he wonders why more people do not visit the Outer Hebrides. He questions English ambivalence towards Scotland and echoes the sentiments of the most famous journal written about a visit to Scotland, Boswell's Tour of the Hebrides. James Boswell writes of Dr Johnson’s visit to “the Hebrides”,

Dr Johnson had for many years given me hope that we should go together and visit the Hebrides. Martin’s account of those islands had impressed us with a notion that we might there contemplate a system of life almost totally different from what we had been accustomed to see: and to find simplicity and wildness, and all the circumstances of remote time or place, so near to our native great island, was an object within the reach of reasonable curiosity.

Boswell regards himself as a “citizen of the world” so making this 'distant land' a valid object of enquiry. He decries southern attitudes towards Scotland as mere prejudice.

Peter Clarke’s book is focussed on that same mission, of raising awareness of the culture, natural environment and the way of life in the Outer Hebrides.

Eleven Chapters; 64,000 words.

For details InfoATNorthamptonSq.com

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The Outer Hebrides: the Timeless Way Home Page This is a travel narrative book with a difference. It is a journey through a remote and beautiful archipelago fringed with white sand beaches, beyond which is soft green sward dotted with wild flowers and awe inspiring mountains. This is an undiscovered land with a live Gaelic culture, crofting economy, untouched natural environment and a Celtic heritage. This is not the Pacific, or the Indian Ocean. The Outer Hebrides are 60 miles off the coast of north-west coast of Scotland. Despite its proximity to the mainland of the United Kingdom it is a land more distant in the perceptions of travellers today than South East Asia, Australia, even Russia and Africa. Readers search bookshop shelves in vain for a serious work of travel narrative with which to come to know, love and interpret this part of Scotland.The author, Peter Clarke, projects his love of the islands and his knowledge of its ancient tracks and ways. Having first visited the islands 30 years ago, he has been promoting exploration of the Outer Hebrides via his charitable work for the Gatliff Hebridean Hostels Trust which runs youth hostels in the islands. Peter describes how he set out to walk the length of the islands from the Butt of Lewis, the far north of the island of Lewis, to Heillanish Point, the most southerly point of Vatersay. Crossing moors, hills and tidal fords, skirting crofting land and common land, he describes how he found his route through this breath taking scenery. The journey opens a window in time through which it is possible to see the heritage bequeathed by the Vikings, the Celts, the Stuarts, the Clans and the Christian church interwoven into contemporary Gaelic culture. As Peter walks through the islands he wonders why more people do not visit the Outer Hebrides. He questions English ambivalence towards Scotland and echoes the sentiments of the most famous journal written about a visit to Scotland, Boswell's Tour of the Hebrides. James Boswell writes of Dr Johnson’s visit to “the Hebrides”,		Dr Johnson had for many years given me hope that we should go together and visit the Hebrides. Martin’s account of those islands had impressed us with a notion that we might there contemplate a system of life almost totally different from what we had been accustomed to see: and to find simplicity and wildness, and all the circumstances of remote time or place, so near to our native great island, was an object within the reach of reasonable curiosity. Boswell regards himself as a “citizen of the world” so making this 'distant land' a valid object of enquiry. He decries southern attitudes towards Scotland as mere prejudice. Peter Clarke’s book is focussed on that same mission, of raising awareness of the culture, natural environment and the way of life in the Outer Hebrides. Eleven Chapters; 64,000 words. For details InfoATNorthamptonSq.com The above email link has a rudimentary spamblock in place to stop my email address being hoovered up by automated address grabbers known as 'spambots.' Just replace the word AT with the symbol @ as instructed, and the email address will become fully valid and ready for use.