Hushinish

The far west of north Harris is reached by a winding hilly single track road through tough country, a castle garden and views of a $250m super yacht at anchor with its own helicopter.

This is the view towards the uninhabited island of Scarp and the last of the hills of Harris and Lewis. Beautiful machair and a straggle of houses tucked in around a crescent bay. Gannets diving, oystercatchers piping, a lone Common Tern. A breeze from the west, chilly to the touch, the sun hot but fleeting behind high pressure cloud and a change of weather coming.

Beneath it all the subcurrents of clearance, the enduring politics of land ownership, the historical integration of subsistence and highly stratified societies into national markets (think black cattle then sheep and the brief kelp burning industry), and a much more recent construction boom in boxy and bunker-like second homes and very upmarket tourist accommodation.

Gloriously, heart-breakingly beautiful, perplexing, elegiac and a privilege to be amongst.