Ancient Broch and Whalebones. Sunday, October 23

This is Sunday, and in the Outer Hebrides, especially on Lewis, this means nothing is open.  It used to mean not even the ferries ran, but no longer.  You're supposed to go to church and rest--no work.  So I guess I began sinning at the very beginning of my day.  Had a light breakfast then waited for laundry to finish--washers here take up to 3 hours to finish even a small load.  The cycles go through many soaks and rinses then terrifically fast spins. Must helps with drying though since his cottage doesn't have a dryer.

Finally we set out on one of our pre decided self-created excursions.  Today's was North and included Dun Carloway, Dalmore Beach, Whalebone Arch in Bragar, and Butt of Lewis Lighthouse.

First was retracing part of the route we took last night in pitch black darkness.  Can't believe we successfully navigated he's narrow single track roads in the dark when tired.  We must be better than we think!  After driving around today, I'm not surprised to learn that about 25% of the Outer Hebrides is lochs and many seem to be tidal.  Lochs are everywhere around every turn!

We are in the Pairc area with its 6500 acres and the most remote area in the UK.  It is made up of inhabited and deserted settlements.  The population is around 400 and most are Gaelic speakers.  Here you'll find the Golden Sea Eagle--indeed one usually sits out behind our cottage, we are told--otters, seals, and porpoises.

Dun Carloway is located on a rocky knoll in a good defensive position.  It is from the Iron Age and was designed to impress and defend.  It was probably the home of a tribal leader and important members of the community.  Broths are built with two concentric walls of stone with a stairway or gallery within the walls to the upper floors.  This is one of the best preserved Brock's and dates back 2000 years.  In the 16th century, Donald Cam MacAulay climbed this brochure to smoke out a party of Morrison cattle raiders who had taken refuge in the ruin.  Amazingly, no mortar was used in these structures.

We next drove to Dalmore (Dail Mor) Beach.  This beach is located just beyond a beautiful cemetery and has a cluster of interesting rocks on it.  Just offshore is a sea stack and the waves came crashing on it and the shore with the wind blowing a spray off each one.  

Then we drove to Bragar to see the huge whalebone Arch just standing in someone's front garden.  This whale jawbone was erected by the former village postmaster, Murdo Morrison. And was formed from the jawbones of a giant whale which beached itself and died in Bragar Bay after being harpooned by hunters in 1920.  It was an enormous 80 foot blue whale with a harpoon stuck in it, rope still attached.  Murdo decided to use the jawbones as an arch and had someone join the bones and hang the harpoon in the center.  While the harpoon was being cleaned, there was a deafening explosion as a shot from it drove a huge hole in the garage wall.  Evidently only one of the two shots had gone off in the whale.  It is thought that the whale had traveled hundreds of miles from the Antarctic whaling grounds. It is over 20 feet high and 40 feet across.  Amazing.     

Next was the Butt of Lewis Lighthouse at Point Ness, the northerly tip of the Isle of Lewis.  It was built by the Stevenson family who were responsible for building lighthouses in some,of the most treacherous seas in the British Isles.  It was so clear again today that we think we could see across to Cape Wrath on the mainland of Scotland.

I had a sheep greeting committee when we returned from our day's adventures.  Threw together lunch then had a restful afternoon.  For dinner, I made veggie omelets for us.

View from living room window on awakening/  Look at those colors!:

 

As we leave for the day, we finally get to se what the cottage looks like in the light:

 

Carloway Broch, dating from 2300 to 1500 years ago:

 

Dalmore Beach:

 

 

Rocks on beach:

 

graveyard right by this beach:

 

Whalebone Arch:

 

ingenious school bus stop, to keep wind off you, you move to the next section:

 

Butt of Lewis Lighthouse at tip of Isle of Lewis:

Guinness record of windiest spot in the UK

 

 

on way back to cottage:

 

Sheep waiting to greet me when we come home:

 

Amazing sunsets here:

 

Sent from my iPad

Sheep, eagle, and,bunnies...and super scary dark drive! Saturday, October 22

Ended up not going out to dinner last evening. Ray's "sinus trouble" that has had him down several notches since the day we arrived, and which I always suspected was a cold, turns out to be a cold because now I have it.  Bummer. Anyway, we cleared out the fridge of food so our dinner was quite a variety.  Scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, lemon tarts, etc.  

Got up early this morning to drive to Fort William for my favorite breakfast--scrambled eggs on buttered white toast--then to Glenfinnan Monument on Loch Shiel. The "golden road" into Mallaig had great views of Rhum and Eigg and the pointy Cuillins on Slye. Drove on to Mallaig for ferry to Armadale on Skye. We will drive from their at the south end of Skye up to Aros Centre for lunch then buy groceries at the Co-op to take with us then drive to north tip of Skye at Uig for ferry to Tarbert on Isle of Harris. Then it will be dark as we make our way to our cottage for the week at Glen Gravir on the Isle of Lewis. 

Later:  oh my goodness. The Isle of Skye has never been more beautiful than today!  We stopped at Aros Centre and I had a pot of tea and a chicken fillet sandwich. STILL can't get used to pronouncing it as "fill-it" over here. Why?  Scotland is closer to France and i assume fillet or filet is a French derived word. Or maybe t I'm wrong and Chick-fil-a has had it wrong all these years!

Saw Kilt Rock and the Old Man of Storr in glorious color and saw the mainland from here for the very first time. Went through Staffin to get to Uig so saw the Quiraing up close and took the super narrow and sheep-cluttered short cut to Uig. 

Later:  Off the ferry in Tarbert on the Isle of Lewis then one of the most terrifying drives in total darkness that I have ever been on, mainly because we had NO idea where we were going and no idea what was on either side of the road.  I had "driven" the road on Google, but Google doesn't actually show you driving in pitch black on single track super narrow roads that go WAY up high, so high and so dark that at one point I saw the tailights of a car way ahead of us going up a steep hill/mountain road and it looked like it was flying through the air!  The main problem was that my side of the road had the steep cliffs!

At one point, we were up high enough that there were snow poles on one side of the road.  Twenty miles of this and I was so ready to be there already.  We turned down a super super narrow road that our cottage was supposedly on, but there are no lights on this road at all, so finding the house was difficult, but we guessed correctly and got in to find a spacious and comfortable lovely 3 BR cottage with master downstairs and washer and all the comforts of home.  I told Ray we could move in here!  

The reviews had talked about how great the wifi is here, and it is, but I never thought about whether it had cell coverage.  SO, we have great email and Internet service, but at the cottage, no texting.  

Slept very well except that I don't think we have the heat sorted out just yet--getting up in the middle of the night, I was shivering visibly!  Never been so cold.  Hopefully this stay will allow us to catch up on laundry, etc.  Lots of white sand beaches to see, and the Callanish Stones, and Carloway Broch.....  And the thousands of stars visible here in early morning were amazing!  Keeping my fingers crossed, with zero chance I'm sure, for seeing the Aurora Borealis.  Will keep my eyes out for the golden eagle said to sit out back of cottage and wild black bunny out front.  Already have seen our sheep!

Glenfinnan Viaduct--also used in Harry Potter films:

 

Glenfinnan Monument, commemorating where Bonnie Prince Charlie's standard was raised in 1745:

 

Guy I saw while waiting for ferry to Armadale on Skye who looked, sounded, and laughed JUST like the wonderful actor in Mary Poppins, shown in the "I Love to Laugh" scene, when he floats up to the ceiling:

 

On Skye on a beautiful day.  Coming up on the Old Man of Storr:

Portree:

 

Wedding taking place in Portree:

 

Bosville Hotel, where I stayed when I came here alone in 2007:

 

The Granary & MacKenzie's bakery:

 

Royal Hotel where Bonnie Prince Charles met with friends before leaving Skye:

 

Old Man of Storr:

Beautiful Skye:

Kilt Rock--the "pleats" of the rock were formed by molten volcanic rock that forced its way between the layers of Jurassic sandstone rocks and cooled slowly:

 

 

Looking south from Kilt Rock:

 

At Kilt Rock:

 

 

 

 

shortcut to Uig for ferry:

 

The hairpin turn at the top of the road into the Quiraing, and there's a car there having trouble making the turn to come down:

 

 

The Quiraing:

Staffin from the Quiraing:

The shortcut road is seen here coming up into the Quiraing area--quite a turn here, very very steep:

Then it's a very narrow and gravelly less than single track road to UIg, and along the way you have the sheep who jump into the road to try to trip you up--quite a game indeed:

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, we see Uig down below:

 

Now I will show you just part of the scary part of the drive to get to our cottage THAT WE DID IN COMPLETE DARKNESS with no idea what was on either side of the road.  these were taken later in the week in the daytime, of course:

 

 

 

some of it high in the mountains with no barriers and who knows what the drop would have been.

 

 

 

 

 

and finally to our less than single track road where our cottage was, but still with no street lights at all.  I still don't know how we found it.  Had to be all the Google driving I did ahead of time:

 

And there is our cottage in the trees:

 

 

 

 

 Master bedroom downstairs:

 

Living Room:

 

Kitchen:

 

Goodies left for us by the owners: