Lewis and Harris are a single large island in the Outer Hebrides or Western Isles of Scotland. It's the third largest island in the British Archipelago, only Great Britain and Ireland being larger. Harris (Gaelic Na Hearadh) is the mountainous southern third of it, while boggy low-lying Lewis makes up the northern two-thirds. Only in modern times were they connected by road: historically you could only travel from one to the other by boat, as if they were individual islands. Moreover their transport links were to different mainland ports, so they became separate counties.
Harris is divided by the deep notches of West and East Loch Tarbert.
Calmac car ferries sail:
Harris has no airport. The most convenient air route is from Glasgow to Stornoway then drive south. Another way is to fly to Benbecula then take the ferry from Berneray to Leverburgh.
There are five buses M-Sa between Harris and Lewis, taking 75 min. A linked bus / ferry service (dead link: January 2023) runs up the Western Isles through Barra, the Uists and Harris and across Lewis to Stornoway, so M-Sa it's may be possible to go the whole way in one day.
Car is best in this remote area.
By bus: Bus W10 is the Western Isles "spine route" from Barra and the Uists. It runs along the west coast of Harris on A859, from Leverburgh via Northton, Borve, Seilibost, Luskentyre turnoff, and Golden Road turnoff into Tarbert, 45 mins. It continues across north Harris to Stornoway. There are six per day Mon-Sat.
Bus W13 runs up the east coast lane from Leverburgh via Rodel, Ardslave and Geocrab then either direct to Tarbert or meandering through Grosebay and Drinishader. Two run Mon-Sat, another four are school buses.
2nd-order administrative division
Primary administrative division