Pytheas of Marseilles was a contemporary of Alexander the Great (4th century BC). He was a Greek navigator and geographer. About 300 BC he was commissioned to reconnoitre a new trade-route to the tin and amber markets of northern Europe. He sailed past Spain, Gaul and the east coast of Britain and reached "Thule", six days' sail to the north.

Thule is was formerly identified as Iceland but could be any island in the general area as his report on his voyage only survives in fragmentary references in later writings which were usually critical (Strabo regarded his descriptions as a mass of fables!)

Bishop Leslie (sixteenth century) states that it was generally accepted (in his time) that Thule was The Isle of Lewis and antiquary Robert Gordon of Straloch also agrees that The Isle of Lewis is the "Thule" that is written about by Pytheas.

As Pytheas only refers to Thule being six days to the north surely the weather would have had much bearing on the distance he would travel in that time. If he was travelling up the east coast of Britain it seems highly likely that he would have passed Orkney of the Outer Hebrides / Western Isles before he reached Iceland. Some historians believe that Thule refers to the coast of Norway, all sites really have equal claim to the name "Thule" but the claim that The Isle of Lewis is Thule is further strengthened by the mention by Ptolemy that the island of Thule was not less than 55 geographical miles from north to south which is very close to the size of The Isle of Lewis and Harris.

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