The Outer Hebrides are the last land before America — a chain of islands strung along the Atlantic edge of Scotland, where the beaches are white, the water is improbably turquoise and the silence is absolute.

Harris and Lewis together form the largest island in the British Isles after Great Britain itself, and they could not be more different from each other. Lewis is flat and peaty, dominated by the extraordinary standing stones of Callanish — a Neolithic monument that predates Stonehenge and is far less visited. Harris is mountainous and dramatic, with the finest beaches in Scotland at Luskentyre and Scarista.

The southern islands — North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Barra — are connected by causeways and have a character all their own: machair grassland in summer, vast skies, and a Catholic culture that distinguishes them from the Presbyterian north.

Harris Tweed is still woven on hand looms in the homes of the islanders — a living craft tradition that has survived the industrial age. Bella Via can arrange visits to weavers and to the small distilleries that have opened in recent years.

The Outer Hebrides are the Scotland that most visitors never reach. We will make sure you do — and that you stay long enough to understand them.