I knew the name of the Hebrides, but never really attached any importance to it...not until the latest issue of National Geographic came out with some truly jaw-dropping photographs of the place, that is.
The Hebrides are a cluster of roughly 500 islands off the coast of Scotland. They're a rough place to live. It's land's end, literally. Beyond them there's nothing but the wild, savage North Atlantic. Battered by storms and powerful winds, the Hebrides have an unsurprisingly low population. Indeed, villagers on the most remote archipelago, St. Kilda, were all evacuated in 1930...by their own request. Sheep and seagulls are the only living tenants on some islands. Even despite the hardships, the Hebrides have been inhabited since the Stone Age. Celts, Vikings, Scots and Englishmen have fought over the place for time out of mind.
On the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, there lies a small village named Callanish. Not far from this village stands a mysterious cross-shaped monument of stone, the Callanish Stones, made up of a bunch of jagged pillars 11-15 feet tall. The Callanish Stones date back almost four thousand years. That's about the same time Stonehenge was put up, just a little ways south on the Salisbury Plain in England. The Stones could predate Egypt's Great Pyramid. The Bronze Age began in China around 2000 B.C., and the Minoans built a grand palace on the island of Crete at about the same time. They called it Knossos, and its basement would go on to fame and glory as the mythical lair of the terrible Minotaur.
In other words, this was a long, long time ago.
These are very old islands. Some of the rocks on the western shores of the Hebrides remember the days when North America and Greenland broke off from Europe and went floating away across a the newborn Atlantic Ocean, 60 million years ago. And the rocks that make up the Callanish Stones are estimated to be three billion years old.
Those rocks have seen it all, make no mistake.
If you're interested in a place that's wild, mist-cloaked, storm-drenched, rocky, hilly, cavernous, open, unforgiving, older than life itself, and so harsh that humans have been failing to inhabit it for 5,000 years...Scotland's Hebrides might be what you seek.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
random travel destinations - Scotland
If you've ever been tempted to go to the ends of the earth, here's your chance.
I knew the name of the Hebrides, but never really attached any importance to it...not until the latest issue of National Geographic came out with some truly jaw-dropping photographs of the place, that is.
The Hebrides are a cluster of roughly 500 islands off the coast of Scotland. They're a rough place to live. It's land's end, literally. Beyond them there's nothing but the wild, savage North Atlantic. Battered by storms and powerful winds, the Hebrides have an unsurprisingly low population. Indeed, villagers on the most remote archipelago, St. Kilda, were all evacuated in 1930...by their own request. Sheep and seagulls are the only living tenants on some islands. Even despite the hardships, the Hebrides have been inhabited since the Stone Age. Celts, Vikings, Scots and Englishmen have fought over the place for time out of mind.
On the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, there lies a small village named Callanish. Not far from this village stands a mysterious cross-shaped monument of stone, the Callanish Stones, made up of a bunch of jagged pillars 11-15 feet tall. The Callanish Stones date back almost four thousand years. That's about the same time Stonehenge was put up, just a little ways south on the Salisbury Plain in England. The Stones could predate Egypt's Great Pyramid. The Bronze Age began in China around 2000 B.C., and the Minoans built a grand palace on the island of Crete at about the same time. They called it Knossos, and its basement would go on to fame and glory as the mythical lair of the terrible Minotaur.
In other words, this was a long, long time ago.
These are very old islands. Some of the rocks on the western shores of the Hebrides remember the days when North America and Greenland broke off from Europe and went floating away across a the newborn Atlantic Ocean, 60 million years ago. And the rocks that make up the Callanish Stones are estimated to be three billion years old.
Those rocks have seen it all, make no mistake.
If you're interested in a place that's wild, mist-cloaked, storm-drenched, rocky, hilly, cavernous, open, unforgiving, older than life itself, and so harsh that humans have been failing to inhabit it for 5,000 years...Scotland's Hebrides might be what you seek.
I knew the name of the Hebrides, but never really attached any importance to it...not until the latest issue of National Geographic came out with some truly jaw-dropping photographs of the place, that is.
The Hebrides are a cluster of roughly 500 islands off the coast of Scotland. They're a rough place to live. It's land's end, literally. Beyond them there's nothing but the wild, savage North Atlantic. Battered by storms and powerful winds, the Hebrides have an unsurprisingly low population. Indeed, villagers on the most remote archipelago, St. Kilda, were all evacuated in 1930...by their own request. Sheep and seagulls are the only living tenants on some islands. Even despite the hardships, the Hebrides have been inhabited since the Stone Age. Celts, Vikings, Scots and Englishmen have fought over the place for time out of mind.
On the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, there lies a small village named Callanish. Not far from this village stands a mysterious cross-shaped monument of stone, the Callanish Stones, made up of a bunch of jagged pillars 11-15 feet tall. The Callanish Stones date back almost four thousand years. That's about the same time Stonehenge was put up, just a little ways south on the Salisbury Plain in England. The Stones could predate Egypt's Great Pyramid. The Bronze Age began in China around 2000 B.C., and the Minoans built a grand palace on the island of Crete at about the same time. They called it Knossos, and its basement would go on to fame and glory as the mythical lair of the terrible Minotaur.
In other words, this was a long, long time ago.
These are very old islands. Some of the rocks on the western shores of the Hebrides remember the days when North America and Greenland broke off from Europe and went floating away across a the newborn Atlantic Ocean, 60 million years ago. And the rocks that make up the Callanish Stones are estimated to be three billion years old.
Those rocks have seen it all, make no mistake.
If you're interested in a place that's wild, mist-cloaked, storm-drenched, rocky, hilly, cavernous, open, unforgiving, older than life itself, and so harsh that humans have been failing to inhabit it for 5,000 years...Scotland's Hebrides might be what you seek.
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7 comments:
Scotland is the number one place in the world I want to visit, especially the island of Iona.
Hadn't heard of that one. Sounds like it's popular, though, which is probably why NatGeo left it out. I'll have to look up some pictures of it; I'll bet its ethereally beautiful if it's got you interested...
It's popular with pilgrims, for lack of a better word. It was settled by Irish monks in like the 6th century and nowadays the monastery is an ecumenical community focused on environmental stewardship, just plain old nature-love, and youth.
It's a "thin" place. I've been there in my dreams before I knew it was an actual place.
Wow! Sounds like either a hippie commune or a jolly good place to visit. Or both. Congratulations on your use of the word "ecumenical" in a blog comment.
But I do know (thanks to reading Hellboy comic books) what a "thin" place is. And I'm all for those.
Not hippies.
Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iona
Ah, an abbey. My mistake. Please forgive me, that was an excessively negative comment for me to make. I've been dealing with some evil black sludge of my own today.
The funny thing is...I was looking at that very web page in response to your original comment about Iona.
Wow - we're in sync.
No forgiveness necessary - my description sounded pretty hippie-ish.
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