Author: keith@finnett.net

Final day, the trip back home. And another 4 and a half hours added onto the previous day’s 6 and a half! The only reason though to add this post is to share two more pictures from the last hotel in Glasgow!

Breakfast – The Arthouse, Glasgow

For our final day, before driving back home on Saturday from Glasgow, we had a long drive planned from Clachan Gardens, just south of Ullapool, through Glencoe. Unfortunately this meant only one stop as the total driving time was planned at 5 hours 30 minutes (but turned out to take an hour longer).

Breakfast was fancy, probably a little too fancy for us – thyme on mushrooms, 4 types of marmalade and intricately arranged fruit. But it was tasty and the coffee was good.

Just south of Ullapool we stopped at Corrieshalloch Gorge, an incredibly deep and narrow gorge with waterfalls everywhere. The actual gorge itself was too difficult to take a decent picture of – no way the sheer scale would make sense in any photograph, as it was 60m (200 feet) deep. The only wildlife we saw was a little tree creeper, but the waterfalls gave time for more practice with sunglasses on the camera.

The drive to Glencoe then took us on a mixture of incredible driving roads, busy tourist routes, parts of the NC500, and too many roadworks. We kept getting stuck behind godawful Chinese import cars (BYD, Geely, etc.) driving way too slow (actually a common theme of the whole holiday) so overtaking opportunities were plentiful. A quick stop at Fort William M&S for lunch (more Christmas sandwiches) then onto Glencoe.

We had 2 reasons to visit Glencoe – the “Skyfall” road made famous in the Bond movie of the same name, and the mountains. Without time to get out and walk we drove through and paused for brief looks and photos. The Skyfall road was pointless. Lots of idiot tourists incapable of driving their cars, stopping in the wrong place, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Waste of time (next time we’ll go very early in the morning). Several Aston Martins though.

Glencoe and the surrounding mountains were spectacular – we’ll plan a return trip – out of season.

Then onto Glasgow. A total of 6 hours 30 minutes since leaving Clachan Gardens we arrived. Hotel was different to our first on the trip – the Arthouse – which had a very interesting original gated lift, unusual internal architecture (which felt a little like a prison) and…..a power cut! Just as we were finishing getting dressed for dinner the lights went out. Apparently small Scottish islands aren’t the only places experiencing power cuts. Dinner was at a top notch Indian (superb food) then we tried Daddy Marmalade and Devil of Brooklyn (excellent cocktails).

Breakfast – Clachan Gardens, Ullapool
Lunch – picnic by M&S
Dinner – Green Gates Café, Glasgow
Hotel – The Arthouse, Glasgow

Our final day in the Western Isles and we had the most incredible sunrise to watch from bed, along with a pair of white tailed eagles who were doing their early morning shopping – not sure what they caught as they were a long way distant, but whatever it was they were tearing it apart. Breakfast was eggs and bread from the local community shop, with smoked salmon supplied free of charge by Uig Sands Rooms.

As we were reluctantly leaving Uig Sands Rooms we watched 4 – yes 4 – eagles playing in the skies close by (camera in the car…) Onward to a couple of stops before hitting the ferry at Stornoway – Great Bernera first, a tiny island connected with a modern but modest bridge, where there was a beach and iron age settlement (recreated building but real site). The beach has a permanent art installation, a bell which chimes using wave power. On the way off the island we saw a chubby seal having a rest.

Next stop, the most northerly point on our road trip – Butt of Lewis. Just before arriving we passed through a place called Ness, which was a collection of quite utilitarian housing. The arse end of the Butt of Lewis. At the Butt was a brick built lighthouse, and not a lot else.

Back in Stornoway we found lunch – Tesco picnic, not anywhere near as good as M&S – then boarded the ferry. Sadly it was really busy with freight so we got crammed into the raised deck, which was made more amusing (on the way off) by the man in the car next to ours being unable to use his key to unlock his door. One of the deck crew began to climb in through the boot before someone worked out the passenger door might be easier. Otherwise I wasn’t keen as cars really were too close together.

The journey was long (3 hours) but we saw a very nice sunset and a few birds.

On arrival we headed to our B&B for the evening, Clachan Gardens, which (we now know) was on a Channel 4 TV programme where hotel owners stay in each others’ places and rate each other. Sounds like a dangerous game to me. But it was a very interesting property, rammed full of books, and paraphernalia of all kinds, and a gentleman in a kilt. Nice scones.

Dinner was back in Ullapool, super quick as we picked things which took minimal time to make or were obviously already prepared.

Breakfast – local eggs, bread and salmon
Lunch – Tesco picnic
Dinner – Upstairs at the Arch, Ullapool
Hotel – Clachan Gardens B&B

Our last day in the Outer Hebrides, and last in the Western Isles, as tomorrow we (ferry permitting) cross back to the Scottish mainland. We spent time on Harris and Lewis today, contrasting geography, both beautiful and by far the prettiest of all the islands we’ve visited.

After another Nook & Scranny picnic breakfast (this time chosen with lights on and paid for by card!) we drove out of Tarbert and onto Scalpay, via a modern road bridge. Our target was a walk to the Scalpay lighthouse.

A fairly straightforward route along a track for 2.5km, we came across some current peat cutting (where they take out slabs of peat, then leave it to dry and use it for fuel, quite common to these islands).

The lighthouse is now unmanned and automated (since 1974 when the last keeper left) but the remains of the old fog horn and lighthouse remain, as does a bothy and various buildings with interesting features – one of the buildings has original bronze door hinges from 1870-something in the Egyptian style (whatever that is). Lots to see and climb onto and over, but no wildlife today.

Once we’d explored for a while (and we do like a lighthouse) we headed back along the coastal path. Big mistake. Boggy all the way, navigating only by marker posts as there were confusing animal paths everywhere, then it started to rain. Oh well. Once back at the car we returned across the bridge, met another road block, and headed towards Lewis after picking up some lunch from Nook & Scranny – a sausage roll and a ploughman’s toastie (not sure about warm pickle).

First stop after lunch was watching “helicopter operations”. There’s ongoing work to build additional power lines on Harris and to do this they need materials, which are helicoptered on to site from nearby storage. We sat and watched for a while, and even got a wave from the pilot! When the helicopter crossed the road, two men with traffic stop lollipops halted any vehicles to allow it to pass – we sat a short distance further down the road and it kept passing directly above.

Next stop was Gearrannan Blackhouse Village, a preserved settlement last inhabited in 1978. Rebuilding started in 1991, as it was the last thatched croft settlement in the world. Today the buildings are holiday cottages, as there’s a nearby beach, but the craft of the roofs and building generally was interesting to see – we couldn’t go inside.

Our next tourist destination was the Calanais standing stones. Basically a little Stonehenge, with equal lack of clarity on why they are there, who used them, or where they came from. Probably druids. Or hippies. But they did have some nice cakes in a very fancy café. No wonder it cost £15 each to look at some bits of stood up rock.

Our final island accommodation was last stop of the day, and having seen no wildlife on the island we’d lost any hope…until a pair of golden eagles appeared overhead! OK, still quite a distance away but closer than any we’d seen before. The pair circled together, then moved, we chased them in the car, and repeated this for a mile or two. Excellent.

After a quick stop at Uig Community Shop and Post Office we found our accommodation – Uig Sands Rooms. WOW. Best so far, by a long way. Incredible view, amazing room. We’d pre-ordered dinner as their restaurant was closed, and found two lamb passanda frozen meals in our freezer (prepared by their chef!) Very, very nice. We coupled it with free gin and tonic from a previous hotel (not sure which, we’ve picked up so many drinks, biscuits, crisps, fruit and other miscellaneous snacks from each it’s hard to know who gave us what), and the log fire (which became WAY too hot and we had to open the door to our little deck area!)

Breakfast – Nook & Scranny picnic, Harris
Lunch – Nook & Scranny takeaway, Harris
Dinner – Uig Sands Rooms frozen curry, Lewis
Accommodation – Uig Sands Rooms, Lewis