Visiting the Outer Hebrides certainly feels like travelling to another country. The ferry terminal at Ullapool is over two hours drive North from Glenalmond Tweed 'HQ'. The boat takes a a further two hours and forty five minutes to reach Stowaway, the largest town on the island. A short drive out of Stornoway and the barren wilderness spans for miles and miles with tiny, winding roads cutting through the rocky windswept moonscape.
The purpose of the trip was to collect the tweed for our new collection of Harris Tweed Handbags and Luggage which will be available later this year. Harris Tweed Hebrides, located at Shawbost is the largest mill. It is loud with a great sense of urgency about it. The Harris Tweed industry really is booming like never before. Huge machines work full pelt processing the wool. In the pattern room rolls of tweeds, all the colours of the rainbow, lie piled on top of one another so high it is necessary to take a step back to take it all in. There are an amazing array of plaids and herringbones all woven by hand in the islands.
Later in the day a visit to The Carloway Mill, offered another opportunity to see how this versatile and sustainable cloth is produced. Tweeds are stacked in every nook and cranny. Upstairs the steam collects, generating heat and humidity equal to a sauna. Up here we discover hundreds of patterns, yarns and rolls of tweed, an amazing archive of generations of weavers.
Even in the milder Spring weather, the wind in the Hebrides is unimaginable. At certain times it was difficult to walk in a straight line. All over the islands the hardy sheep graze peacefully seemingly unaware of the weather. Thankfully the stormy conditions cleared and crisp blue skies, like those above came into view . It seems only natural that such incredible cloth should come from one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Emma Bowman Google+
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