Our plan for today is to visit the Golden Eagle observatory on the Huisinis road in North Harris. As we load up the car Albert passes on his morning constitutional. We relay our plan to Albert, who then informs us that two Golden Eagle were seen above the cottage the previous afternoon while we were out, hovering over the ridge behind the cottage and gliding over the bay to the front!
Spoiler alert - we did actually see a Golden Eagle today.
Hey! Ho! we set off for the observatory which, after about an hour drive (including 20 minutes along a single track stretch), requires a 2km gentle walk to the hide. Pass a number of other people en-route who are returning from the viewing area. They happily inform us that, although the resident Eagle were about yesterday, there haven’t been any sightings today.
We arrive at the hide just ahead of a downpour but with enough time for a picture.
As the rain starts we don our Covid masks and enter the hide, which is already occupied by a number of Eagle spotters.
After a few minutes we are able to go back outside and spend some time hopeful of a sighting, but to no avail. Walking the two kilometres back to the car we pass a steady stream of people on their way to the hide. One pair of walkers clearly know what is required if you want to see the Golden Eagle - they are toting a telescope and a shopping bag full of food and drink - think they may be going to settle in for a good few hours observation. We obviously don’t have the staying power.
Next stop is the beach at Hushinish, but that is reckoning without a particularly stroppy highland calf and it’s mother. You would think approaching very slowly the offenders would eventually decide to get out of the way, but no. We drive gently forward and I’m not convinced there wasn’t actual contact (no animals were hurt in the taking of this photo), but still no attempt to let us pass. Bearing in mind the road is barely wider than the car we have no way around them.
Stroppy but very cute.After a bit of a standoff we have to exit the car and manually urge them to leave the road and let us pass. They do so both slowly and begrudgingly, and with a bit of help from the man in the Scottish Water van who was behind us.
We make it to beach car park and have a picnic lunch while watching the gannet and razorbill in the bay. It’s the first place I’ve seen that has a very posh indoor picnic area, with big picture windows overlooking the bay. Good if it was raining (which it is) but because of Covid restrictions it is all locked up. Luckily we haven’t walked there for a picnic and so enjoy our lunch in the dry in the car. Plus, we give the odd glance at the lady in the vehicle next to us, who is painting! A watercolour of the scene magically gradually appears on her pad as we sit there. It ends up looking really good too.
We use our more modern technology to record the view.
After our lunch we head back, luckily to find the Harris highland cows are letting us pass through - do we detect a disapproving look?
At least this part of the road was on the straight and narrow.
On the way back we manage to photograph a building that took us rather by surprise on the way out. The 'private - no parking' signs clearly meant they didn’t want the likes of us gaping at their apartments. We actually drove past the front door! Not to be thwarted we are prepared on our return. Although they could do with tidying away their bins to make it a bit more picturesque for passing tourists.
The rather imposing entrance on the return journey.
'The Castle' itself
No ordinary water feature for this lot.
Not what you’d expect to see this far along a pretty remote track, we feel like we have almost driven through their living room.
From here it is on to the southern-most point of Harris, passing some more of those stunning beaches on the way.
And with views of St.Clements church on a headland. Made the mistake of using the phone rather than the camera for a picture. This was built around 1520 and is believed to be the best medieval building anywhere in the Western Isles. More information and better photographs on the link here https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/harris/stclements/index.html
The return journey along what is referred to as The Golden Road has some splendid scenery, but we didn’t see any Otter. A lady we spoke to this morning on the way to the hide had told us she’d seen some along here, a pair of them playing in front of where she was.
It’s a pity our photography skills (plus the rain) don’t do the scenery justice Also, we failed to capture a picture of a Golden Eagle that passed close above us as we drive back, but at least we did see one.
We arrived back at the cottage to glorious sunshine, but it only lasted about an hour before the rain set in again.
As we are catching the ferry tomorrow afternoon, as much packing as possible is done tonight so we can have another mooch around the local area in the morning before lunch and leaving.