Scotland Travel Vlog July 2024

”Small Island Hideaways”

Visiting a new place is always interesting, but visiting a new island is a special experience. For me, it’s the ferry crossing that adds to the magic. The anticipation of what you are going to discover heightens as the ship steadily draws closer to new shores and you get the first glimpse of your destination.

In this Vlog, you can join us as we discover for the first time the little islands of Colonsay, Oronsay, and Coll. We also make a return visit to Lismore, but use this trip to explore the island’s southern half with a hike along a ridge of hills that run like a spine down the island.

The collective population of these 4 islands is around 450, so that gives you some idea of how close-knit these island communities are. It’s not an exaggeration to say that pretty much everyone knows everyone else on these islands, and most of the islanders have more than one job. For example, the guy who runs the Colonsay Gin Distillery also has a part-time job at the island airport.

The number of tourists that visit these islands is a tiny fraction of the crowds that descend on Skye each year, so tourist facilities on these small islands are limited. But for us, it’s the slower pace of life that is their appeal. Unlike Skye, these islands don’t need large car parks beside their beauty spots. You’ll barely ever see another car, and you will seldom if ever be stuck in a queue behind a campervan crawling along at a snail's pace.

The trade-off is that you need to be the sort of person who enjoys the outdoors and isn’t put off by the idea of putting up with some wet weather. In saying that, as you’ll see in the video, we were very lucky with the weather and we can’t promise you’ll enjoy quite as much sunshine if you visit these Hebridean hideaways.

Hopefully, this video will inspire you to consider a holiday on Colonsay or Coll.