An Introduction to Lewis

 The view that greeted us on our first morning, as we saw nothing last night on arrival in the pitch black.

A glorious day beckons and after getting up at a somewhat leisurely 9:15am planning activities for the day starts in earnest. First up is a walk around the immediate vicinity, just to get our bearings. We are immediately greeted by Albert, a near neighbour, whose first comment was “do we have midge cream on as they are particularly bad this morning.”. We had pre-empted this requirement by lavishing ourselves with Skin So Soft before venturing out, but weren’t too excited by the possibility of a midge invasion this early on our hols. On a brighter note, he invited us to use his own personal stile to gain access to a twmp (or up here it’s called a Cnoc) that had views out across the Loch. He also told us we could go via his croft to the common grazing ground leading to a particularly scenic beach. We did the former, and saved the latter for later in the week. He also informs us that the locality is good for spotting Seal (right there across the bay) and Otter (down below his Croft), Golden Eagle and Sea Eagle (Often circling overhead in the thermals above the ridge behind us) - these are now much anticipated. 

The cottage owner popped by to check if everything was OK and to give us some tips on walking from the cottage. Similarly to Albert, she mentioned the Eagle overhead and Otter below the old schoolhouse - lets hope we are not too disappointed if they don’t show. 

After an early snack lunch we are climbing, firstly to an outcrop (Cnoc Chotain - roughly translates to Cotton Hill). Locally this is apparently known as a sheiling (place where a hut, or collection of huts, once common in wild or lonely places in the hills and mountains of Scotland were found, following the traditional practice of moving up to the high ground or moorland with livestock, to live there for the summer). 

Near the start of the climbing

                                             Eric enjoys the view from the Cnoc or sheiling.

Secondly, a further climb leads to to a cairn visible from the cottage - it gives us this good view back to our holiday accommodation. 

Eric enjoys the view from the cairn (and the rest after that climb)

The adventure also has some interesting finds. Even though we are climbing up slopes, the ground is often boggy, interspersed with rocks. There are some typical bog or marsh plants in amongst the Ling and Bell Heather.

From the top these are Pedicularis palustris or Marsh Lousewort,  Eriophorum angustifolium Cotton Grass (which may be where the name of the hill comes from),, and Narthecium ossifragum Bog Asphodel.

Our sightings also included the Great Yellow bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus), a rare UK priority species that is locally common in the Western Isles; and Common Carder bee (Bombus pascuorum), which proved too tricky to photograph (we have some blurred examples if your really interested) but on the plus side we did get a snap of this distinct species, again locally common here but not so much elsewhere.

As you would expect, the return down the slope was markedly easier than the way up.