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Harris. Always mentioned in one breath with Lewis. Lewis & Harris. As two explorers from a past century. But Harris is not going anywhere. It has been in the Scottish Outer Hebrides since time immemorial.
Isle of Harris – Lewis is his big brother. And actually that is not true either: it is one island that has been cut in two by humans. Not literally, but culturally. Lewis is the largest, upper part. Where the bays and coves threaten to tear off a triangle, North Harris begins. South Harris is the peninsula attached to it. Like a square in a piece of fabric. Harris is old, but Lewis is older. The oldest stone under Scottish soil comes from Lewis. Harris has other achievements.
Na Hearadh, as the residents call it in their Celtic tongues, it is rougher. With hills of peat and snow-white beaches on an azure blue sea. A tropical island wrapped in a winter outfit. Origin of the MacLeodclan, not to be confused with Lewis’s MacLeodclan. Famous for the Harris tweed, dominated by the Wee Frees, and the even more fundamentalist Wee Wee Frees. Scotland’s last reformed strongholds with the soundbite of a chocolate waffle.
Images: Nicole Franken – Text: Anneke de Bundel
