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