Trip log: Hebrides, chasing surf, finding rock, and a different kind of flow

The idea started years back, when googling “really long right-hand point break, easy paddle out” - Barvas came up. A long, wrapping wave on the Isle of Lewis, the kind of mellow point I like for bigger boards, not unlike Bantham when the sandbanks are right. For a long time, it stayed on the list. This year, I finally went.

The drive north was its own highlight. The sheer scale and breadth of the Highlands is hard to take in, mountains and valleys that just keep going. Glen Coe in particular stops you in your tracks: shapes and colours shifting with the light, mists bending through the ridges. You expect it to flatten out eventually, but the drama carries on through Skye and even out to Lewis, where I had imagined the land would level. Instead, the peaks keep coming, each island with its own character. It builds the sense you’ll be back, with so much rock waiting, and makes the miles pass easily, daydreaming about what’s next while being right there in it.

We broke the journey in the Lake District with single-pitch climbs at Shepherd’s Crag and Castle Rock of Triermain, plus a stop at Glen Nevis for a swim in the Black Pools and to climb pine tree-lined three-star classics in the warm afternoon light. By the time we rolled onto Lewis, the forecast for Barvas was not lining up; the swell angle was wrong and the winds were all over the place.

Instead, the trip opened in a different way. Hunters Slab near Magic Geo was our first climb: clean Lewisian gneiss above the sea, a quiet start that set the tone. Just down the coast, the Linda Norgrove Foundation property revealed creative and thoughtful details: an “Away with the Faeries” sign, a burn running through a cast arm into a wine bottle, the Eagle’s Nest bothy tucked into the headland. It felt like seeing beneath the surface, a connection to the place through the creativity and care of the people who shaped it.

Climbing took over from there. Dalbeg’s Number Three delivered a perfect sea cliff line, abseil in and all. A few days later, at Geòdha Mòr Shleibhte (Creag Liam), we ran into Ben Moon, Chris Plant, Crispin Waddy and others. Friendly chat about the surf (or lack of it), tips on approaches, then watching them move through the rock with quiet ease.

By then we were already thinking about Skye. The black sheds, red roofs, and simple timber architecture we had seen on the way over had stuck with us, along with the idea of climbing the Lat Up a Drainpipe route at Staffin Slips. While still on Lewis, the anticipation built until we could not help but book an earlier ferry and head out a day sooner.

A 4am start through island mist, a stop at Rubha Hunish for the view north, roadside coffee at Burr Coffee, then into the wind at the crag. Lat Up a Drainpipe, sustained twin cracks, solid jams, the kind of climbing I am really into right now.

The trip wrapped with more classics: Glen Nevis again, and Hen Cloud on the way south for Bachelor’s Climb. Somewhere in between, we found our coffee circuit: Lean To for pastries and toasties, Birch for bags of island-roasted coffee to take with us.

We did not surf Barvas this time. But the Hebrides gave us something else entirely: granite and gneiss, sea cliffs and mountain edges, the kind of people you hope to meet twice, good coffee, and a sense of space that will pull us back.

---