Day 3 - Albert Rules

 Day 3 - Albert Rules

As mentioned in our previous post, Our near neighbour, Albert, told us we would likely see Seals, Eagles and Otter in the vicinity of the cottage.  Today, in a nod to his predications, we give him a score of two out of three for sightings, and a blog heading in his honour. 

The weather forecast for today was dry for the morning but for torrential rain after lunch. Consequently we decided to do a local walk this morning, have lunch at the cottage and then go out for a drive to try and find the Harris Tweed Visitor Centre.  

Another village inhabitant that we met on our earlier local walk had told us how to reach the pebble beach Albert had mentioned without going up and along the ridge behind us.  As there are no, or very few, signposted walks in Scotland, he had given us instructions and shown us on a map roughly where to head off-piste. 

We have to walk along the road through Marbhig, turn towards Calbost and then, after the small pool, but before the larger loch and the cattle grid, strike out to the left into the moorland/heathland/boggy bits that make up the common grazing ground, following that sort of direction until we reach the other side.  The same gentleman also gave us a bit of history of the bay, which is called, Mol nam Bràithrean – The Brothers’ Beach. Apparently two brothers drowned in the bay, were washed ashore and are buried just above the beach, this was probably back in the 1700s mind.  Here’s a link to read a bit more about the history. You may need to cut and paste into your browser to see it.

http://www.angusmacleodarchive.org.uk/view/index.php?path=%2F5.+Calbost+-+Places+and+Place-names%2F11.+Mol+nam+Bràithrean+-+The+Brothers%27+Beach.pdf

We set off (with walking poles) and, following some debate, find roughly the area to head into (we think/hope).  After a short while we see some slight indentations that look like wheel tracks. The ground is quite undulating, with some steep parts and we wonder how on earth someone drove a quad bike or 4WD over the area, if that’s what the marks were.  Intensely boggy in places - our footprints may be here for thousands of years, preserved in the peat. 

More of those marsh plants we saw the other day too, plus some Milkworts (Polygala), and some fairy fungi. Eric did wonder where the fairies they belonged to were though. 

The Two Brothers’ Beach.

As we are admiring the scenery...suddenly, overhead, we see Eagles!  The binoculars show that they are Sea Eagle, with a white tail.  Built like a barn door is how they are often described. Very exciting stuff.  So exciting that the photographer missed most of the action overhead, but managed some slightly distant shots and blurry images. What was interesting was that there was a large flock of smaller birds that had been on the top of the ridge and they appeared to be mobbing the Eagle (and the Buzzard). 

It flew directly overhead - Eric quickly hid in case it thought he was its next meal.

Also Buzzard (boring!).

One of us suggests that we should return via the ridge route (they have been dying to go up there since we arrived) . Feeling indulgent, although slightly concerned as to whether they would make it, the other party agreed. Zig-zagging steps up the slope followed, with some heavy leaning on the walking poles, as well as some heavy.breathing and stopping ‘to admire the view’.  

Glad to have made it to the top Eric feels he deserves a rest. 

Don’t sit there too long Eric, that Eagle may come back.

We head off along the top for a short while - good views from up here -

Those islands are at the entrance to our Loch 

- before spotting below us where the helpful resident we’d spoken to earlier in the week had emerged from after walking along the ridge.  Heading downwards we can see the lane we need to be on...but it’s the other side of a fence..- that goes back up the hill away from us and does not seem to have an end. It’s a Croft boundary fence and there is someone’s house there too.  We notice that the house looks unoccupied and that there is part of the fence that is lower than the rest (and looks like it’s been jumped over a few times by people who had gone that way before). So we take a chance and hop over into the garden, through a gate and down their steps and front path to the lane. No-one came out and shouted at us so, phew, I think we got away with it.  Last thing we wanted was some irate villager chasing us.  

A well earned lunch was on the cards.  Stonechat on the fence wire outside the window - very nice. 

Some map studying before we set of in a southerly direction for our afternoon jaunt.  

We struggle to find any signs for either the Harris Tweed Visitor Centre or the Harris Gin Distillery around Tarbet, although we didn’t go into the town itself.  They were marked on the map as being outside it.  Ah, here’s a sign that says Harris Tweed Knitwear. Turn down a very narrow road with some stunning landscape of pools interspersed with granite knolls or Cnoc, not able to stop and take picture as road is too narrow. A mile and a half later and, the place was closed!  Ah well, give that up as a bad job and head off towards the ‘best beach in Europe’ - Luskentyre.   

Looks like a good spot for waders too, although the tide is out and most of them are too far away. We did see Curlew and Oystercatcher.  It’s a very popular beach, there were two people going snorkelling.. 

                    

Continuing our journey to the car park close to Luskentyre village from where we saunter over the dunes to the other end of the same beach (or really part of it is a large estuary). 

The footprints in the sand suggest people have been here earlier but pretty deserted now - probably because it’s just started raining! 

Time to go home for dinner. 

Coming back to the car park we spot a flock of birds, look like Bunting, but the (blurry) photograph taken seemed to suggest they were Twite. I’m sure the birders among you can put us right.

There was also a very cute little Highland cow.

We thought we’d try and make another loaf of bread tonight (we brought the flour and yeast with us but lack suitable containers for cooking it in). The last one was reasonably successful, and definitely edible so we’ll give it another go. A bit of a disaster loaf emerges! 

If you squint, it looks a bit like a dog’s head, with one eye and a patch on the other. 

And yet another sunset.

Day 2 - All the way to the top

An extremely lazy start to the day, or possibly we are preparing to hibernate! Still finishing off breakfast at 10.30am.

Given the weather was so dismal we decide it’s a day for driving, and the plan is to visit the lighthouse at the northernmost point of the island (Butt of Lewis), via the standing stones at Callanish.

The road heading back to civilisation from Marbhig is very slow, though surprisingly well surfaced,  and it’s very narrow but with regular passing places. Once you hit the two lane super-highway north you make much better time. 

Arriving at an almost empty car park we get out of the car to find half the population has followed us in and it is suddenly busy (well in reality this is about five other couples, who all physically distance themselves from us and the others). Avoiding the Visitor Centre, a short walk takes us to the stones. 

Eric looks aghast at the level of erosion at the centre piece (we may be contributing here I guess). 

After admiring the ancient stones here we start off on a walk that will take us to a further two historic standing stone sites out on the marshland.

A short while later and the driving drizzle means we abandon the further sites for a return to the car. Back to the road and head north thinking we’ll call into the Black House village at Gearrannan which looks interesting.

It doesn’t disappoint, even though the actual houses were closed up due to Covid19 restrictions.  The structures themselves were fascinating. You might expect Bilbo Baggins to appear out of one of them at any moment. 

These were the first inhabited buildings in Scotland, and believe it or not, the last resident moved out only in the 1970’s.  There was cut peat in large stacks in the garden for the fires. Harris and Lewis is still one of the remaining places left in Scotland where the practice of cutting peat for fuel still takes place apparently. 

This is the beach below the village. It has temporarily stopped raining, although the skies are still leaden grey. 

Our next stop takes us the surfing beach at Dial Beag, where it is raining, so the photograph does not do it justice. There was a sign for a cafe and crafts shop in one of the houses, but we managed to resist a visit.

The heavy drizzle continues intermittently as we travel further North.  We call at another Historic Scotland Blackhouse but this is also shut. The information board outside provides some historical detail - this one was last occupied in the 1960’s. 

Since we are stopped and the car park has a good view across the fields to the sea beyond, it provides a spot for us to indulge in our pre-prepared picnic snack late lunch, with tea from the Thermos. 

Fully fuelled up in a Covid safe manner the next stop is the Butt of Lewis and the lighthouse. Turning off the well populated road to Ness, we travel along narrower lanes, dodging quite a few cyclists on the way.  Along the coast we also pass what are called Agricultural Lazy Beds, and arable farming method used in the past that creates large ridge and furrow lines. 

On reaching the lighthouse we are surprised to see that it looks as though it has been built fairly recently, rather than being an ancient model, as it is made up of red bricks and not painted white (or any other colour for that matter). Even more surprisingly the information board informs us it was in fact built in the 1860’s - so pretty ancient then! All the materials to build it came ashore at Port Sloth, a beach about 500yards away.  A trench was cut and the earth piled up to create a more nutrient rich raised seed bed, but far from being ‘lazy’ this was very hard work.  One of the locals we spoke to in the village told us that often these sort of beds were created by sailors who came ashore and needed to provide food for themselves and didn’t want to travel far, hence the ‘lazy’. Most of the other information we have seen about them suggest the former explanation,  i.e., they were a subsistence farming method used extensively from the late 1600’s.  

Whoa, I need to hang on tight here before I am blown away.  The rain has stopped but it is very very windy.  

The cyclists all wanted to have their photo taken with their bikes and the lighthouse in the background - I guess a bit like at John O’Groats and Land’s End - if you are going to cycle to the end of somewhere then you a picture to record it.  It looked especially hard to be cycling against this wind. 

A walk beyond the lighthouse brings us to the cliffs where there are Fulmar and Gannet aplenty. 

The rocks here are apparently some of the oldest in Europe.

Head back to the cottage along a slightly different route, passing across the interior of Lewis, which is a sparsely populated moorland. We keep our eyes peeled for birds of prey as we go - ideal habitat for some of them. No luck on bird front, but we did come across this ‘Highland Coo’ outside the Co-op in Stornaway.

                                                                 Excellent sculpture.

Back in Marbhig and it turns into a pleasant evening with a colourful sunset giving us a display across the Loch from the cottage.

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. 

Through the Mountains and over the Sea to Skye and Harris

Breakfast was delicious, with views out over the water to boot.  The non-vegetarian made the most of the opportunity to have a full Scottish breakfast, including Haggis and Black Pudding. Homemade bread, jam, Bircher muesli plus other delightful goodies were on offer, and gratefully consumed.

Stop at the Commando memorial as we leave the city.

Still a mornings drive and across the sea to Skye before we reach the ferry terminal and the boat to Harris and Lewis. A pleasant enough day today, with no rain at the moment and time to stop at various viewpoints along the way.  Funny how the road can seem fairly quiet and you think ‘oh this is good’ and then you arrive at a viewpoint and suddenly there are millions (a slight exaggeration perhaps) of cars and motorbikes there.  A stop at Eileen Donnan Castle.

Eric wonders where all the biscuits are kept since you see this castle on loads of shortbread biscuit tins. 

There are queues for the car park and queues for the toilet.  Was unsure at first if really had joined the 2m socially distanced masked-up toilet queue as, against what I would say are the usual odds, the men in the queue vastly outnumbered the ladies.  Lady on the door letting one in one out and taking your temperature before allowing you in through the door, and directing you to particular numbered toilet.  Having successfully negotiated that, it was time to hit the road again.  The Bridge to Skye is next up. Eric met some new friends at the viewpoint here too.

 A leisurely drive across Skye, taking in the sights and the local Co-op to pick up lunch options.  Coming into Portree there is a sneaky police camera van, hope I don’t get a ticket. Turning down a single-track road with passing places we pootle along looking at the scenery and hoping for a good picnic lunch view.

We pass The Old Man of Stoor towering above us on our LHS.

It says there’s a P with viewpoint in 450yds.  Around the bend and...there are no parking spaces left, with people parked on the verges and double yellow lines and generally in all sorts of places they shouldn’t be.  Decide the ‘The Old Man’ can do without anymore visitors today, particularly us, and we move on. 

Two more viewpoints that have proved too popular and we find a small stop with only one other car - but they had bagged the picnic table before we could get there - quite windy as well, so we picnicked in the car.  

The ferry terminal awaits - and inevitably another queue. Have to don the masks - good job Eric remembered his.  There’s room for about 80 cars on the ferry car deck. 

Eric met up with this sculpture - he was allowed to take his mask off as there was no Cowvid.

Time is ticking on and no sign of the ferry - remember we have an app on the phone to check the status of the boat. 

Oops - no wonder we can’t see the ferry. 

More waiting and eventually we see it coming in.  They call our queue in - park the car and they give us a little card - we are on the mezzanine level - basically tells us don’t bother coming back to your car until nearly everyone else has departed the boat.  Oh well, at least being one of the last off means the traffic should have eased a bit.  Everyone has a mask on and they direct us along a one way system to, in our case, the observation lounge, where we socially distanced from others.  Eric has abandoned us and stayed in the car to have a nap. He decided it would be a good joke to keep the phone, camera and iPad with him, so no pics from the boat then. 

We are able to see Gannet out at sea, diving for fish. One of us also decides to have a short nap, whilst the other spots some Shearwater and a wader of some sort flying very close to the water.  End up being the only one left standing at the windows of the observation deck. Good job some of us have staying power  as spotted a dolphin pod cavorting around in front of the boat. Woke the sleepy head up so they could see another four groups go by - and alerted half the rest of the passengers who then crowded around the windows.  The sun starts to set and produces an almost picture perfect scene of the mountains of Harris and Lewis in front of skies of pink and grey.  

Ferry unloads us last and we are now on our final one hour drive to the holiday accommodation. The road to Stornoway is good as long as you avoid the sheep sitting on the side. The South Lochs turn off looms. We gradually drive along narrower and narrower roads until we arrive at Marbhig about ten past ten at night, managing to avoid multiple attempted bunny suicides along the last two miles . 

The Welcome Pack