VISIT www.ebbandflowart.com today for a range of inspired Scottish landscape paintings - like the one of Harris above.
Scotland; Dreich, drab and parochial.
You couldn't be further from the truth.
In the last few days it's been revealed that around 66% of people in a British survey wrongly identified Luskentyre beach on the Isle of Harris as somewhere in Thailand.
Having had the privilege of visiting the tropical paradise (of Harris) on two occasions, I can personally testify that this magical outpost truly is a world beater.
Towering, rocky mountain ranges, somewhere between a lunar landscape and Tolkien’s Middle Earth, sweep dramatically down to meet brilliant white beaches that look like they’ve been airdropped in from Bermuda. Or Thailand.
But it’s not just the landscape that’s vibrant.
In my day job, as an intrepid journalist, I’ve visited communities battling for their very existence as terminal population decline, lack of jobs and the outside pull of globalisation threatens to wipe them off the map. (See attached article from my trip there in 2009)
But their fight for survival is one characterised by ingenuity, focus and tenacity; squaring up to adversity and seizing their destiny before it’s all too late.
The titanic effort to keep the lifeblood of these fragile, isolated communities flowing is as humbling as it is inspiring.
But if you lived in this stunning Hebridean utopia, would you let it go?
Neither would I.
Bermuda, Bahamas . . .
Thailand. Eat your heart out.
Thailand. Eat your heart out.
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