Tourism and the Outer Hebrides economy.

You get to observe and think about a lot when cycling along. Apart from the bicyclists like us we have observed electric bikers, motorcyclists, car tourists, bus tourists (particularly groups of Americans), hikers, many motor homes (small by our North American standards). Mostly we have met English and Scots but some Swedes and also one Canadian. There are special interest groups like fly fishermen and birders. As can be seen from this Blog there are many historical places to visit. There were also some excellent museums. Several of the B&B’s we have stayed at were run by Brits - one by an ex British Army man who had retired at aged 55 and was also a keen fly fisherman. We have learned that there is need for more accommodation - Neil booked ours about six months ahead. The night before last we stayed with a young family who had a two year old child. He was trained as a surveyor and worked for a local building company.  His father was a Crofter but also a finishing carpenter. It was a brand new house built on Crofter land (with an extra special permit to build on a separate lot). The construction was very modern and beautifully done. Of course they would have had free land and family labour to complete it. Both of the young parents came from the local community so it was nice to see that they were staying there. It  seems to be the case of Crofters, who may have many sheep grazing on public land they also need or benefit from additional jobs. The first Crofter we stayed with and who had 450 sheep also worked in construction. He also spent a lot of time helping out his neighbours with their sheep. His wife of course ran the B&B - she was an interesting person to talk to having been a Legal Secretary in the south of England and when she first came to the Outer Hebrides 27 years ago was one of the first people to use the internet as she worked remotely typing legal transcripts. 

It is clear that Tourism is a huge part of the Outer Hebrides economy. There would be lessons for Vancouver Island as well. However many of the tourist attractions, including accommodation take time to develop. If our First Nations people had built their dwellings with stone there would be more to see than the Middens that are the remnants of habitation going back thousands of years.

Other aspects of the economy are Lobster fishing - Lobsters caught off the Outer Hebrides are exported to Spain. We came across one pharmaceutical factory that was using some type of fish oil. There is a herring fishery. We saw quite a number of cattle of different types - some Highland Cattle. There were many sheep of different breeds seen along the way. There are secondary industries like jewellery making, Harris Tweed and of course the various Museums supported by Lottery grants and other sources. We were aware of many of the road improvement projects are supported by the European Union so if Brexit happens that sort of funding would dry up.  

I wrote this while we were on a two and a half hour ferry ride to Ullapool. It is a very modern (four year old) ferry. I would happily visit the Outer Hebrides again but we have come to the end of Phase One of our 26 day Scottish bicycling adventure.