For our last day on Skye, we decided to take another ferry cruise. The weather is gorgeously sunny, hardly a cloud in the sky. Our ferry took us across the Little Minch from Uig (we even saw Neist Point Lighthouse in the distance) to Lochmaddy on North Uist. We boarded a bus for a tour of North Uist. Lots of peat cutting on this island, much of it done with machinery. We saw a very pretty longhouse—made extra long so that the animals could stay in one end. The island has a mobile shop, mobile bank, and mobile library. There is one secondary school on the island, requiring that students commute to school
1 ½ hours each way.
There is a group of 5 islands offshore where monks used to live in 800 AD. All that lives there now are seals. (I think the driver said they were the Monarch Islands or the “Hash-kuh” Islands.) We saw two kinds of sheep—Hebridean and St. Kilda and the Kilmuir Cemetery, one of 2 on the island. Then we came upon a loch with a story---supposedly the Godfrey Clan cut away the embankment of a loch, releasing the water to drown the Murdoch Clan. It is said that when the water is low, you can still see the houses of the Murdoch Clan.
The Granville Lodge is where Lord & Lady Granville live. One of them is related to the Queen and the Queen has visited here. The lodge has 365 windows and they are the largest shareholders on the island. There is a Valley Island nearby with church ruins on it.
We stopped for a picture of the number one photographed place on the island—a lovely thatched cottage. Our driver/guide told us the story of another house that was built by a crofter. The first fire in the cottage fireplace caused the hearth to drop through the floor revealing a burial chamber under the ground!!!
Then we passed through Solas. This was an area where many people were moved from the land in the Clearances to a rocky area on the island. They couldn’t make the land support them there, so they ended up emigrating. On Solas Beach, the MacDonalds of Valley and the MacLeods of Harris fought the only sword duel on the island. A church dedicated to St. Columba was nearby that took 11 years to build. We stopped at a loch that had an island in the center of it. On the Uists, this was the usual way of setting up an early warning system in case riaders approached. They liked the island in the center of a loch system better than a fort on top of a hill. We saw Scolpaig Tower in the middle of a loch—no one knows anything much about its history or purpose.
On leaving North Uist, we crossed the causeway to the historic island of Berneray, made famous as a favorite holdiday destination of Prince Charles. Then we boardedf the MV Loch Portain for the spectacular sailing across the Sound of Harris to Leverburgh. This was a very serpentine path thru very rocky waters. And it was very disconcerting to me to have the system of red and green buoy markers reverse. At home, it’s “red right returning.” Over here you’re supposed to keep the green buoy to your right when entering the port.
After arriving at Leverburgh, we board another coach to drive up the west coast of Harris to Tarbert. Along the way we saw the hill where 21 years ago, an RAF Nimrod ran into the hill in for and killed all 16 men onboard. Very sad. Our driver told us that it was about time to sell the lambs on the siland. A good lamb goes for 100 pounds each (that’s about $160). But I just find the whole situation very sad that the mother lambs have to lose their babies so soon. We passed by the Scarista House where Charles and Camilla had dinner recently. Our guide said that all the land on Harris was croft land.
On our trip, we saw Taransay Island where the BBC TV show, Castaways, was filmed. There are 150 red deer and 700 sheep on the island, but nothing else. Nevertheless, it was sold to a doctor and his son’s pharmaceutical company recently for 2.5 million pounds. We saw some underground cottages with turf roofs that rent as holiday homes for 1400 pounds per week. We heard about a local weaver named Donald John MacKay who has a contract with Nike and Adidas to make Harris Tweed trainers (tennis shoes). We also head about the Seilebost Primary School which sits almost on the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. There are 14 students here and our driver called them free-range students as their playground is basically the beach. We also heard about how Logan Air used to have a service near here that landed planes on the sand of the beach!
Speaking of beaches, I have never seen beaches as beautiful as here. The sand is a beautiful white and the water, which is only 1-2 inches deep in places, is a gorgeous blend of so many shades of blue. It took my breath away to see them. The colors made them look almost snowy and crystally sparkling. Scarista, Hargabost (with caravans), and then the most beautiful one—Luskentyre. On one of them, I found such pretty BLUE seashells. The combination of sand and blue water and rocky shores was amazing. I could’ve kept walking that beach for ever.
The heather is at its peak now and covers the hillsides with a beautiful purple. Peat is cut on Harris with a peat iron by hand. We also saw Scalpay Island with its bridge and the Shiant Islands beyond. Coming into Tarbert, we had a tight squeeze with a camper and lamp-post and a few bumps over some sleeping policemen (speed bumps). But we arrived on time to find the ferry was late.
Then in Tarbert, we boarded the MV Hebrides for the return sail to Uig in the rain. Dinner at Columba Center with the wind blowing the rain sideways in great gusts then home to pack for our trip south. We’ve had a great time on Skye and in Scotland in general. We are excited to be going home and starting our new life in a new place with lots of good memories of our time here.
So…in the words of Robert Burns:
Farewell to the Highlands,
farewell to the north;
The birth-place of valour,
the country of worth;
Wherever I wander,
wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands
for ever I love.
Pictures from top: 3 views of the Quiraings this morning; flowers in Uig that looked like they were painted upon.
