An Eye on the Hebrides: An Illustrated Journey

by Mairi Hedderwick

This is a personal record of Mairi Hedderwick's six-month solitary journey of the archipelago which forms the Western Isles of Scotland. It was on a chilly March morning that Mairi set off in an aged VW camper van to embark upon her journey, determined to fulfil a fantasy of travelling to every Hebridean isle. It was an exhausting but rewarding six months. The resulting account of her travels and the many sketches she made shows the reader the islands in all their diversity. There are cameos of everyday life drawn with humour, alongside landscapes of the Hebrides. Mairi Hedderwick is the author of "Highland Journey".

Genres: Travel, Scotland, Nonfiction, Art

185 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1991

About the author

Although she was born in Gourock, and attended the Edinburgh College of Art, the highlands and islands of Scotland have always been Mairi Hedderwick's true home. In 1962 she settled on Coll, where she raised her family and taught art at primary school. Her first home on Coll had no electricity or running water, and the nearest neighbor lived two miles away.

Mairi Hedderwick is the author and illustrator of the much loved Katie Morag series of children's books the first of which was published in 1984.

Hedderwick has also written and illustrated several travel books, including Highland Journey and An Eye on the Hebrides.

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mairi Hedderwick took her sketchbook and her campervan on a six month tour of the Hebrides in 1988. This small book comes from that experience. She starts near the mouth of the river Clyde, moves to the small islands in the Firth of Clyde then basically Islay northwards. In total she visits 40 islands and since the book is only 128 pages long you can imagine what small descriptions she gives.

There is only the briefest coverage of nature and very little history except recent times. You do get the feeling that the water barriers between islands and Scotland have preserved old ways. I do find it funny that most of the author’s complaints focus on the very things that enable people to live on the islands. Tourism, small industry such as fish farming and fences all are blights in her mind. Everyone would like to be the only tourist in sight and not see the uglier modern houses, but is that entirely fair? It’s hard to imagine insisting that residents in the 21st century live without adequate natural light in their homes or comfy heating.

Nice watercolors and pencil drawings.

[Eilidh Harbison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is simply BEAUTIFUL! A love letter to the Scottish islands and beautifully illustrated!

[Ape · Rating 4 out of 5]

We like reading the Katie Morag books at home, and I have a great passion for Scottish islands, so this really was a must. This book is about living the dream. Mairi Hedderwick gets to take six months out of normal life to travel around 40 of the Hebridean islands off the west coast of Scotland, sketching, painting and note taking as she goes. Oh, I am so jealous.

It's a slim book, with many wonderful illustrations as you'd expect, so this isn't a greatly detailed book, given that it has to get through 40 islands. If you're wanting the full historical and cultural lowdown on each island, this won't cut the mustard. It's more about little moments, random things she sees, people she meets and the sketches she makes. More about the atmosphere and feeling of the places. Calming, and timeless somehow. Nice read.

[Lauren Hegedus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very clearly a beautifully illustrated love letter to the Hebrides. I definitely misunderstood the format of this book. I anticipated more of a guidebook to the islands and more anecdotes. Instead, this read like a very straightforward diary. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if I had more knowledge of the islands going in instead of this being the introductory material.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beth found this book at the Calgary Reads Annual Book Sale - on the day after the sale is over, you can get books for free if you have a registered Little Free Library. Since she knew of our upcoming trip to Scotland, she picked it up for us and dropped it off. Beautiful pencil sketches (and some watercolors) accompany her travelogue as she visits all the islands from south to north. I did not know that Harris and Lewis are actually one island!

[Claire O'Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful little read accompanied by sketches - loved it

[Bill McFadyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can smell the peat smoke and taste the herring washed down with a glass of malt.

The illustrations are wonderful.

A book to treasure

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mairi Hedderwick's beautiful illustrations to her closely observed children's Katie Morag books drew me to this non-fiction library sell-off, an account of travelling Scottish Islands in a campervan.

It sounds like quite a lonely and uncomfortable six months, and an odd mixture for her of travelling as comprehensively as possible when she is so familiar with Coll where she lived for many years. Cold, wet, midgy and especially windy. Not feeling entirely welcome, not with motorised transport for which she often had to get special permission and hide out of the way. And yet I came away from the book wanting more. It felt as though there was a lot more to the journey than she had told here. She describes and illustrates the complexities of island life and economy, sympathetically but not uncritically.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved the illustrations - they added so much to this book.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful journal/sketch/painting book of a 60 day journey round all the hebridean islands. loved it.

[Derek Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated.