Fingal's Cave a walkway just above high-water level permitting exploration on foot. From the inside, the entrance seems to frame the island of Iona across the water. Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn visited in 1829 and wrote an overture, "The Hebrides", Op. 26, (also known as "Fingal's Cave overture"), inspired by the weird echoes in the cave. Mendelssohn's overture popularized the cave as a tourist destination. Other famous 19th-century visitors included author Jules Verne, who used it in his book "Le Rayon Vert" ("The Green Ray"), and mentions it in the novels "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "The Mysterious Island";
Hebrides where he set his best known poem, ', about the devastating effect of the Highland Clearances. , raised on South Uist and described by MacLean as "one of the few really significant living poets in Scotland, writing in any language" (West Highland Free Press, October 1992) wrote the Scottish Gaelic-language novel "" which was voted in the Top Ten of the 100 Best-Ever Books from Scotland. In some respects the Hebrides lack biodiversity in comparison to mainland Britain; for example, there are only half as many mammalian species. However, these islands provide breeding grounds for many important seabird species including