The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland,
by Samuel Johnson

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Title: A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland

Author: Samuel Johnson

Release Date: April 20, 2005 [eBook #2064]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLES OF
SCOTLAND***

Transcribed from the 1775 edition with the corrections noted in the 1785
errata by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND

INCH KEITH

I had desired to visit the Hebrides, or Western Islands of Scotland, so
long, that I scarcely remember how the wish was originally excited; and
was in the Autumn of the year 1773 induced to undertake the journey, by
finding in Mr. Boswell a companion, whose acuteness would help my
inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation and civility of manners are
sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries less
hospitable than we have passed.

On the eighteenth of August we left Edinburgh, a city too well known to
admit description, and directed our course northward, along the eastern
coast of Scotland, accompanied the first day by another gentleman, who
could stay with us only long enough to shew us how much we lost at
separation.

As we crossed the Frith of Forth, our curiosity was attracted by Inch
Keith, a small island, which neither of my companions had ever visited,
though, lying within their view, it had all their lives solicited their
notice. Here, by climbing with some difficulty over shattered crags, we
made the first experiment of unfrequented coasts. Inch Keith is nothing
more than a rock covered with a thin layer of earth, not wholly bare of
grass, and very fertile of thistles. A small herd of cows grazes
annually upon it in the summer. It seems never to have afforded to man
or beast a permanent habitation.

We found only the ruins of a small fort, not so injured by time but that
it might be easily restored to its former state. It seems never to have
been intended as a place of strength, nor was built to endure a siege,
but merely to afford cover to a few s