Patricia Cleveland-Peck sails to the Outer Hebrides with the Hebridean Princess
It was a life enhancing experience; a few days removed from this busy, sometimes stressful, world in comfortable surroundings with superb food and an ever-changing view of spectacular sea and landscapes as we sailed amongst the isles of the Outer Hebrides.
I had never been drawn to cruising with its image of huge polluting vessels, silly entertainment and tipping all round but the Hebridean cruises are quite different. From the moment you are piped abord at Oban and a glass of champagne is pressed into your hand, you enter a magical world.
The ship, Hebridean Princess is in fact more like a floating country house hotel than a cruise ship and it is far from huge. It only accommodates a maximum of 48 passengers who are looked after served by 39 crew. The cabins are well-equipped with showers and/or bath tubs and classy toiletries. Apart from a few selected malts, all drinks, alcoholic and otherwise are included in the price and are available on request – and there is a no tipping policy. The public rooms are comfortable with sofas and armchairs in which to relax. That the ship has in fact been chartered by members of the royal family for private cruises indicates the standard maintained.
The Princess sails for the most part around the Scottish isles. It isn’t important which isles – they could as well be the Tir na n’Óg of Celtic legend as the Isles of Lewis, Harris, the Uists, Tiree and Mull which we visited on the cruise I enjoyed. Most days there is a shore visit and another bonus is that a continuous tender service is in operation; small boat are available so that you can leave and return to the ship whenever you wish – although on this voyage at many places we could just walk down the gangplank onto the quay.
The weather of course dictates where the ship can safely dock and the first day we made an unscheduled stop at Ulva, a tiny island only 3.5. miles long. I clambered up through ancient woodland to find a walled garden which was being restored and sat there in the sun listening to birdsong in such perfect peace that it was hard to imagine that this little island with no roads, no vehicles and only 18 residents, had once been a busy centre of the kelp industry.
Then it was back on board where a welcome drink preceded another superlative meal. Food in fact plays a star role, much is locally sourced and the vegetables and seafood are the freshest and tastiest you’ll sample. My favourite lunch was the buffet which consisted of Dressed Argyll Salmon, Smoked and Fresh Langoustine, Lobster, Colonsay Oysters, Ham and other cold meats, plus salads and dressings but every meal was a treat. I persuaded the head chef Marc Calderbank to give me one of his recipes – Mussels with Cider Sauce – so that readers wherever they are, can enjoy a taste of Scotland. (See below) There were two lavish Gala dinners, one on the second evening and the other, the Captain’s Farewell, on the last. At this we were served a tasting of Haggis neaps and tatties, a choice of roast venison, turbot or a curry. These are occasion on which everyone dons their finery, officers in dress uniforms or kilts, male guests in dinner jackets or kilts and ladies in evening dresses.
My favourite shore visit was to the Standing Stones of Callanish on Lewis. The megalithic ‘Stonehenge of the North’ is an eerie, enigmatic place but unlike its English equivalent, it is free from crowds. The fact that no one is quite sure why these stones were laid out as they were, or what they meant, just adds to their mystery.
To get there we had boarded a coach on the quay at Stornoway and
driven over miles of boggy peat moorland and machair grazed by sheep and interspersed with lochs and lochans. (An area known dismissively by locals as MAMBA, ‘miles and miles of bugger all’ ) which I found bleak but beautiful. Throughout this trip the empty landscape especially that around Sollas on North Uist evoked a sense melancholy as if it somehow retained a memory of the harshness of the Clearances which put sheep above the lives of humans.
At the Lews Castle Museum, in Stornoway my imagination was further caught by the Lewis Chessmen, tiny figures with wildly expressive faces which were discovered in a sandbank at Uig. They were carved from walrus tusk in the twelfth century and their origins too, are mysterious.
Throughout the trip the seas and skies were full of wildlife: seals. sharks, porpoises, dolphins whales, white-tailed eagles were all spotted. I was amazed though to see so many glorious, almost deserted beaches. Horgabost beach, on Harris, was unforgettable – miles of blonde sand lapped by a sapphire sea with misty mountains rising across the water.
These were but some of the visits and activities. Every day offered something new: strolls around Plockton and Tobermory allowing time to buy local goods and delicacies., a demonstration of Harris tweed weaving, a tour of a distillery, a visit to a traditional blackhouse a trip to Skerryvore Lighthouse Museum – and much more.
Truly a trip to remember.
Fact Box
4 nights from £3320* per person
7 nights from £3450* per person
* Based on two people sharing an inside cabin on selected departures.
Website https://www.hebridean.co.uk
Email reservations@hebridean.co.uk
Tel 01756 704704
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