But while history -- including Vikings and rival clan chiefs -- is everywhere, that's not all that keeps attracting visitors and new dwellers.
Walking is a super way to explore trails and dales, and snow -- except for high peaks -- rarely lingers on the Gulf Stream-warmed lowlands or shores of the three archipelagos I recently visited.
Archaeological digs have unearthed evidence of humans, battles and burials dating back 10,000 years. Some relics are near roads, as are crumbling homes vacated when families began leaving in the 1800s for mainland jobs or North America.
Reached mostly by ferry, you easily detect earthy aromas of burning peat keeping some homes warm.
Boating, sea kayaking, fishing and cycling are also popular. Top commercial ventures are tourism, tenant farming (mainly sheep) -- though you'll see long-haired Scottish cattle -- fishing, plus Scotch whisky.
Relax and I'll lead you down a few garden paths, through the mists of time and into the sometimes modern world of island living. Then I'll wish you good health.
GIGHA
If you ken Gaelic, Willie McSporran would tell you Gigha, population 132 is "Giogha."
Only 9.5-by-2.6 km, "God's Island" is rugged, gently-sloping and wind-swept.
McSporran, 75, said Gaelic is strongest among elders, with "newcomers more interested" in the language than children.
Boasting 700 souls in the 1700s, an exodus eased with a major change in 2002.
Heading the Gigha Heritage Trust, McSporran helped raise $6 million to buy out the island's owners.
Two of the 47 homes were "tolerable," said McSporran, who was awarded an MBE -- Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
With hard work, money from Scottish Housing plus local endeavours, almost half of the homes were restored.
"Buying the island was the easy part," he said. "Keeping it going is the difficult part."
But three wind turbines reap rewards for returning electricity to a power grid, and there are several new homes and businesses, including the rustic Boathouse Cafe Bar beside Ardminish's harbour.
There are three livestock farms, the community-owned Gigha Inn & Pub, a shop-post office near the 1923 Church of Scotland, and ships call regularly.
Popular 20-hectare Achamore Gardens is near the island's road, as are self-catering cabins, golf, beaches including the aptly named "Queen's Beach," and ruins of a 13th century church. Of several ancient standing stones, the 'Giant's Tooth' is where criminals are said to have been hanged.
Once a ferry worker, firefighter, special constable and Coast Guard volunteer, McSporran said the ferry takes him and wife Anne close to shops and other mainland facilities. But returning home is a must for these "Gioghach" or "gamhainn," Gaelic for Gigha devotees.
ISLAY
Pronounced "eyelay," this island bustles with almost 4,000 residents over 620 sq.-km. It has three main villages: Bowmore -- where the round shape of Kilarrow Parish Church above the high street leaves no corner for the devil to hide -- Port Ellen and Port Charlotte.
There are eight distilleries, buses, nice shops, inns, a wide range of dining, a golf course and a woollen mill specializing in tartans.
Islay "is a bird-watcher's paradise," said Visit Scotland's Joanna Campbell on the Loch Gruinart Nature Preserve.
In a bird-watching cabin, recent visitors recorded swallows, Moor Hens and sedge warblers, but white-tailed and golden eagles, cormorants and wading birds are also frequent. And when 25,000 pairs of geese fly from Greenland in early summer, "the sky is black," Campbell said.
As we drove along the winding road beside sea-fed Loch Indaal to picturesque Portnahaven, we saw long-haired, reddish Highland Cattle and, surprisingly, llamas.
Well-known for whisky, Islay also has a "local ales" brewery, which has been featured in films and TV shows. There is a Festival of Malt and Music in May at Bridgend, plus a local "funky bagpipes" band, The Red Hot Chile Pipers.
Now hearing them would be a hoot!
JURA
"Dyrøy" in Old Norse -- Jura aptly translates as "deer island."
It has one shop, an inn, 5,000 deer outnumbering humans 25-to-1, plus estates including one Prime Minister David Cameron visits.
At another, George Orwell wrote Nineteen-Eighty-Four, his dark 1949 Big Brother novel.
Jura also has "the world's only walkie-talkie cafe."
At Inverlussa Beach, tea lady Georgina Kitching answered the portable radio on a table near her home.
Teaching by computer and telephone, she started "Tea on the Beach" in 2010 because "people kept asking. And I love baking.
"We wanted to live somewhere wild and beautiful," so she and teacher-husband Phil, who commutes to Islay, relocated to Oak Tree Cottage from England in 2009 with sons James, now 6, and Peter, 4.
Our driver, tour-and school bus company owner Alex Dunnachie is another newcomer who helped give Jura new life.
A Glasgow upholsterer then oil rig diver, he "absolutely fell in love with the place" while holidaying, and wed a local woman.
Dunnachie first took us to see Jura Parish Church's walls of black-and-white photos, showing people and places mostly in the early 1900s.
Near his home, the gravestones at Kilearnadil Cemetery include several with Celtic Cross carvings. And while Gillour MacCrain has no marker, legends of his "180 Christmases" until 1645 tantalized us.
Dunnachie said some absentee owners, who holiday here, rent out their homes through local caretakers.
The next day, seals watched from rocks as Islay-based boatman Nicol MacKinnon motored north to Corryvreckan Whirlpool, where we thrilled to his careful -- sometimes fast -- maneuvering, forgiving the occasional wave-drenching.
On the 60-minute return, he fetched workers from the 22-metre-tall Skervuile Lighthouse built by relatives of Robert Louis Stevenson, whose Treasure Island is believed based on local sailor's pirate tales.
Islanders make their own fun, with artists, the Pete Smoke and the Roaches Band, and the annual Jura Distillery 25-km footrace north from"ˆCraighouse, past the Paps of Jura -- three picturesque peaks up to 785 metres high.
Revived by new owners in 1963, the distillery -- with 28,000 barrels maturing -- has tours and a shop stocked with several globally successful single malts, some based on 200-year-old recipes.
For about $1,000 a night, its Jura Lodge guests can sample them in the former head distiller's house.
Reminiscent of old hunting lodges, the four-bedroom rustic getaway's fixtures and furniture include antlered skulls, Victorian cabinets, leather sofas, antique pictures and mirrors, a suit of armour, freestanding bathtubs, modern showers, plus hidden refrigerators in the well-stocked self-serve kitchen.
Finally, there is a fabulous view of Small Isles Bay and palm trees from the bay window.
"Slainte!"
IF YOU GO TO SCOTLAND
ROAD TO THE ISLES
Air Transat flies direct to Glasgow from Pearson Airport. For just over three hours through glorious highland country, drive northwest along the A82 past Loch Lomond, take A83 south along Loch Fyne to Tayinloan, where the ferry sails to Gigha. Large cafe-and bar-equipped ferries sail from Kennacraig on West Loch Tarbert to Islay -- two hours, 20 minutes to Port Ellen, two hours to Port Askaig. The small ferry to Jura, from Port Askaig, takes 10 minutes. Islay has a small airport, about an hour from Glasgow.
BITS AND PIECES
The Gigha Hotel & Pub, the Harbour Inn in Bowmore on Islay, and the renovated Jura Hotel have comfortable, affordable rooms. I recommend their dining rooms. Fish, of course, is a specialty. For travel information, go to the Visit Scotland website at cometoscotland.com.
