Episode summary:
I travelled to the captivating Huishinish – or Huisinis – beach on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland to follow my roots and find solace in nature. I spent most of a day alone on this perfect, white-sand beach, which looked more like one in the Caribbean than the wild Western Isles of Scotland.
If you’re wondering ‘where is the most beautiful beach in Scotland’, this might be the place. A good number of Scotland’s best beaches are on these magical, windswept islands. I walked across the grassy ‘machair’ dunes and along the stunning stretch of sand under sunny skies. Just when I thought this place couldn’t get any better, a seal popped its head up in the bay.
Listen to a podcast about enjoying natural bliss on a Scottish beach.
Transcript – S1 E3: Natural bliss on a Scottish beach
This week we’re all alone on a perfect white sand beach on a wild Scottish island.
The sun is riding high in the early summer sky, burning off a thin layer of opalescent cloud. I can hear the gentle bleating of newborn lambs on grassy knolls in the distance. I’m sitting on a flat sandstone rock which is vaguely warm and almost salmon pink in the hazy light.
Before me stretches a perfect expanse of white sand that leads my eyes to low green hills at either end. Beyond the shoreline is an almost impossibly clear turquoise bay. When I show people photos of this beach and bay, I’m sure they’ll swear it’s in the Caribbean. But I am, in fact, on a frequently wind raked and rain lashed Scottish island facing straight out into the unforgiving North Atlantic.
The only thing that reminds me I’m not in the Caribbean is the toe-freezing temperature of the water. But it’s worth the shock of paddling here to commune with the waves. They’re wavelets really, so calm is the sea today. They’re less than a couple of centimetres high and swish in and out eagerly making a sound so wholesome and calming that I want to bottle it and keep it forever. Then I wonder, is this swish what inspired ancient Scots Gaelic-speaking locals to give this idyllic beach its delightful name?
This is Huishinish on the west coast of the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides off the northwest coast of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides chain boasts several such Caribbean-esque beaches. Some are vast expanses reaching from one islet to another at low tide. Others are tiny handkerchiefs of white sand hidden by steep grassy cliffs. They all really stand out when you’re searching on Google Maps with the landscape layer turned on. And they have such romantic names straight from ancient Viking sagas I’m sure: Eoropie, Seilebost, Luskentyre. There are several different spellings and pronunciations for Huishinish too but I think this one’s the best.
Incredibly on such a perfect day I’m alone on this beach. This morning’s weather forecast may have put people off. Drizzle with a chance of showers. For once I’m glad the weather folk got it wrong. At the moment it’s bright and sunny with a chance of mild euphoria very soon I shouldn’t wonder.
Road to somewhere
The single track road to get here may also have kept some people away. It’s quite the rollercoaster snaking around rocky outcrops and over blind summits. I had to hit the brakes a few times to avoid bumping sheep off the road. By the way don’t expect them to move even when several tons of metal are heading straight for them. Instead they stay stock still and stare forcing you to slow down and take it easy. Now in early summer the inquisitive snow white lambs are everywhere and bounce up comically to my car to say hi.
These islands are often where Atlantic storms make their first landfall so it can get seriously cyclonic here. But Huishinish faces south and is protected by a great curved arm of grassy dunes known locally as a machair. This relative protection means it’s a good spot for marine wildlife to linger and on cue just as I’m sipping hot tea from my flask the silky surface of the bay’s turquoise water is broken by a small black head. It’s a seal. It goes under and 30 seconds later bobs up again a little closer to me.
I can’t feel my feet now in the icy water but I honestly couldn’t care less as I’m connecting with this utterly peaceful landscape. I’m actually here I say to myself. It’s a moment of real mindfulness. There are no thoughts in my head except what I can see and hear all around me. The Huishinish swish of the wavelets.
The gentlest of zephyrs idling over the machair. The warm salmon pink rocks. Tiny white lambs against the green slopes. And if that wasn’t enough the bay’s resident seal swimming in to say hi.
Pure, natural mindfulness
Only nature can do this for me. Force my brain to focus on real things. Not the imagined expected or feared just the actual. The seal is so close now I can see its dark shape gliding effortlessly through the shallows checking me out wondering what kind of creature these two pale skinny ankles belong to.
There are some small stone houses at the western end of the beach and I wonder if one of them might be for sale. I think I’ve found my own private paradise and I really don’t want to go anywhere else. Ever. I’ve recently discovered that I’m descended from Isle of Harris stock. It’s a distant connection admittedly but I wonder, as I stand here on Huishinish beach, whether I’ve come home.
© copyright Matthew Brace
