Light

The ever-changing light brings great tone, depth and amazing contrast to the landscape; this theatre of restless elemental energy provides endless opportunities for Creatives. The air is clear and sunlight sparkles and dazzles, the colours intensify and are muted again in moments.  You can stand under the shadow of a dark cloud and just literally yards away can be in bright sunlight. Early morning mist rises off the landscape and like magic reveal and hide whole islands and mountains in moments.

Colour

The Hebrides have the advantage of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream bringing with it a tropical colour scheme. The ocean currents are in many shades, blending from deep turquoise through light mint greens and blues to ultramarine. As these colours come ashore they meet the beach, rocks and cliffs as a crisp white foam. It’s a beautiful combination.

The grassland, composed of windblown shell fragments and fringed by long, white, sandy beaches along the western seaboard of the Outer Hebrides is known as machair providing a bright green carpet of turf for the Spring flowering season, an explosion of colour, contrasting with the grey rocks and craggy mountains that change colour with the weather from darks to greys, purples and blues.

Texture

The islands’ barren and rock-strewn eastern coasts contrast sharply with the white and gold sand beaches backed by grassy plains found along the western coasts. Heathers and bracken in their moss greens and browns cover the hills between silver and dark rock.

The rocks on the coast can be weathered smooth and have multiple shades of rich dark and light greys, pinks, sandy and deep browns. The lichen that often covers exposed rock contrast in bright silvers and golds through to deep orange.  Often clusters of delicate “Seapinks” can be found clinging to the rock surface. The white sand dunes covered in jade-coloured beach grasses add a softening texture to the rocks and cliffs.