Wined, dined and rested.

Way, way up in the northwest of Scotland, off the coast in the Outer Hebrides and just joined to the Isle of Lewis is the Isle of Harris. It isn’t really an island because it is connected by a road, but once you’re in the Outer Hebrides you start to accept all sorts of things as true that you wouldn’t have before you fell under the Celtic Hebridean enchantment.

So yes here we were, happily under the enchantment that this mountainous land was an island. We had been to see the Isle of Harris golf club, surely the most beautiful in the land, not because we were interested in golf (we’re not) but, well, just look at this picture; why wouldn’t you?

However even the enchanted have to eat, and after marvelling at these views, we were taken by our wonderful guide to a tiny port town called Leverburgh. In passing, I should mention that yes it owes its name to Lord Leverhulme, one of the Lever Brothers, and this is because he bought the whole island of Lewis, including Harris, with dreams of creating a huge fishing industry there. His dreams sank like an overloaded trawler in a storm, but today Leverburgh is the departure point for the very popular ferry that runs to the island of Berneray and back.

OUR destination was the Isle of Harris Brewery, which has a seafood café attached. It is not the most attractive building, so I’m going to show you the view from just outside it, looking over past the end of the pier and a couple of smaller islands to Berneray…

Once we got inside, this little place on the outskirts of the kingdom, so far from almost anywhere, was buzzing with happy diners.

And by the way, do not believe all those people who tell you it’s always raining in Scotland; we had blazing sunshine on this day. I’m sure the views would be just as striking in the rain, but this was the view we enjoyed while waiting for our food.

That table was just being vacated by a French couple when we arrived – how did THEY find out about the Isle of Harris brewery??

We all ordered one of the brewery’s beers…..

… and had a wonderful time choosing what to eat. We could have had local king scallop from the Sound of Harris served with pea purée, smoked bacon and Stornoway black pudding, or we could have had deep fried breaded macaroni balls with spicy and sweet Irn Bru chilli jam. Equally we could have had langoustines landed at that pier you can see out of the window, served hot with garlic butter, parmesan and truffle fries and lemon aïoli…… are you jealous yet?

Tragically, this was only lunchtime and we had more incredible places to visit in the afternoon, more breathtaking views to take in and we didn’t want to fall asleep so two of us had the excellent Cullen Skink, a thick creamy soup of smoked haddock with potato and onion, here with truffle oil and a side of crusty local bread…..

…. And two of us had the fish and chips, superbly fresh and delicious.

And this was just a lunch stop on our tour of faraway little Harris. I will talk more elsewhere about this beautiful island, and about the burst-in-the-mouth flavours in its eateries, but in the meantime I need to go away and dream again of all the shades of blue, all the white sand beaches and all the flavours of fresh fish.