Caithness, Sutherland and the Northern Isles have the densest concentrations, but there are also a great many examples in the west of Scotland and the Hebrides.

Most of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland have a bedrock formed from Lewisian gneiss.

Oral tradition and Gaelic scholars who have preserved these traditions from the Hebrides also reference the most disastrous war fought between the MacLeods and MacDonalds of Skye, culminating in the Battle of Coire Na Creiche, " when Donald Gorm Mor who handfasted a year and a day with Margaret MacLeod, a sister of Rory Mor of Dunvegan, expelled his mistress so ignominiously from Duntulm.

The Hebrides lack biodiversity in comparison to mainland Britain, but these islands have much to offer the naturalist.

The Hebrides have a diverse geology ranging in age from Precambrian strata that are amongst the oldest rocks in Europe to Paleogene igneous intrusions.

The Hebrides have a cool temperate climate that is remarkably mild and steady for such a northerly latitude, due to the influence of the Gulf Stream.

The residents of the Hebrides have spoken a variety of different languages during the long period of human occupation.

It is assumed that Pictish must once have predominated in the northern Inner Hebrides and Outer Hebrides.

For a time, the military might of the Gall-Ghàidhils meant that Old Norse was prevalent in the Hebrides and, north of Ardnamurchan, the place names that existed prior to the 9th century have been all but obliterated.

The earliest written references that have survived relating to the islands were made by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, where he states that there are 30 " Hebudes ", and makes a separate reference to " Dumna ", which Watson ( 1926 ) concludes is unequivocally the Outer Hebrides.

The majority are Norse or Gaelic but the roots of several of the Hebrides may have a pre-Celtic origin and indeed the Haiboudai recorded by Ptolemy may itself be pre-Celtic.

If Berrice was in the outer Hebrides, the crossing would have brought Pytheas to the vicinity of Trondheim, Norway, explaining how he managed to miss the Skagerrak.

Some scholars believe that the famous Lewis chessmen, 12th century chess pieces carved from walrus ivory found in the Hebrides and now at the British Museum, may have been made in Trondheim.

This may be relevant, since both these brothers and a certain Eric have been described as rulers of ' the Isles ' ( Hebrides ) ( see below ).

Because of the settings and style of Gorey's work, many people have assumed he was British ; in fact, he only left the U. S. once, for a visit to the Scottish Hebrides.

In modern times the Inner Hebrides have formed part of two separate local government jurisdictions, one to the north and the other to the south.

Maclean ( 1972 ) further suggests that the Dutch may have simply made a cartographical error, and confused Hirta with Skildar, the old name for Haskeir island much nearer the main Outer Hebrides archipelago.

Former feannagan on Great Bernera, Outer Hebrides, which would have been improved with seaweed fertiliser

In 597 Augustine of Canterbury is said, by the Venerable Bede, to have landed with 40 men at Ebbsfleet, in the parish of Minster-in-Thanet, before founding Britain's second Christian monastery in Canterbury ( the first was founded fifty years earlier by Saint Columba on Eilean na Naoimh, in the Hebrides ): a cross marks the spot.

In Great Britain their numbers have declined as a breeding bird, retreating north to breed wild only in the Outer Hebrides and the northern mainland of Scotland.

Folio 32v of the Book of Kells which may have been produced by the monks of Iona and taken to Ireland for safekeeping after repeated Viking raids of the Hebrides.

This monarch of Norway was Magnus Haraldsson, who may have used the death of Thorfinn as an excuse to exert direct rule of Orkney and the Hebrides.

:" Though Friday has always been held an unlucky day in many Christian countries, still in the Hebrides it is supposed that it is a lucky day for sowing the seed.

The SEARCH project ( Sheffield Environmental and Archaeological Research Campaign in the Hebrides ) on South Uist has been developing a long-term perspective on changes in settlement and house form from the Bronze Age to the 19th century.

The man o ' war has been found as far north as the Bay of Fundy and the Hebrides.

Singing sand has been reported on thirty-three beaches in the British Isles including in the North of Wales, on the little island of Eigg in the Scottish Hebrides.

The Hebrides had been difficult to control from a distance since the days of Ketill Flatnose, and even in the time of Magnus Barelegs it is likely that de facto control was that of local rulers rather than nominal governance from over the seas.

It is known that the Hebrides were taxed using the Ounceland system and evidence from Bornais suggests that settlers there may have been more prosperous than families of a similar status in the Northern Isles, possibly owing to a more relaxed political regime.

In the Firth of Clyde, Norse burials have been found on Arran, although not on Bute, and place-name evidence suggests a settlement pattern that was much less well-developed than in the Hebrides.

From around 1725, clansmen had been emigrating to North America ; both clan gentry looking to re-establish their lifestyle, or as victims of raids on the Hebrides looking for cheap labour.

In addition to the extirpation of the Icelandic race, mink have been responsible for marked declines in the populations of Water Rails and other ground-nesting birds in the Hebrides, where the mainly fish-eating otter was the only native carnivore.

The most reliable place for them is the Shetland Isles, particularly the Loch of Funzie on Fetlar, with a few birds breeding elsewhere in Scotland in the Outer Hebrides ( e. g. at Loch na Muilne, where a " phalarope watchpoint " has been set up ) and sometimes the Scottish Mainland in Ross-shire or Sutherland.

The song ( the Manx sword dance ), is very similar to a lullaby from the Hebrides and is also said to have been a ritual dance during the Scandinavian era.

He has been closely identified with regeneration of the Harris Tweed industry in the Isle of Lewis, where he lives, and is chairman of Harris Tweed Hebrides who were named Textile Brand of the Year at the Vogue. com Scottish Fashion Awards in both 2009 and 2011.

In historic times the Hebrides have been heavily influenced by Celtic, Norse and Scots culture and this is evident in the variety of names the isle possesses.

They were known as ' sea beans ' in Scandinavia, where one has been found fossilised in a Swedish bog, and ' Molucca beans ' in the Hebrides, where a visitor to Islay in 1772 wrote of them as seeds of " Dolichos wrens, Guilamdina Bonduc, G. Bonducetta, and mimosa scandens.

The Lewis examples have clearly been modified to survive in the tough environment of the Outer Hebrides.

It is known to have been in use on the River Spey, in the north east, and also in the Hebrides.

Ecgberht eventually become a monk on the island of Iona, in the distant Inner Hebrides, where he resided from 716 and gently persuaded the monks there to adhere to the Roman form of computing Easter, which had been adopted at the Synod of Whitby ( 664 ).

The song ( the Manx sword dance ), is very similar to a lullaby from the Hebrides and is also said to have been a ritual dance during the Scandinavian era.

The Virtual Hebrides was founded by photographer and film maker Sam Maynard, who had set up Eòlas Media — a TV production company largely working through the medium of the Gaelic language — and Scott Hatton, who in the early days of the World Wide Web had been running one of the first internet-based communities.