WILD & FREE

Tamsin Calidas on her horseback adventures in the Hebrides

The ground is rushing headlong over the hills to meet us. I lean forward, fingers clasping my Highland mare’s windswept crest as her hooves ascend the high cliffs that scale the north of this tiny, remote Hebrides island. We reach the summit. The fractured skies are wet, fresh, rasped by a fragile crystalline blue. Gulls swerve in flight, effortlessly attaining a slipstream. We come to a standstill and the ground plummets to the shoreline below, to a secret scattering of tiny coves. I watch as bright-eyed oyster catchers wade the rocky shallows, narrow beaks stabbing; sleek cormorants arrow inches above the darker tides, wings glistening, drenched by an exuberant spray. High above, eagles soar effortlessly over rocky outcrops and half-submerged skerries, sea quartz glittering while a fierce incoming

LIFE FEELS CLOSER. ADRENALIN BEATS LOUD WITH A DIFFERENT PULSE