We've just returned
from a trip across the sea to a land where the natives speak an
ancient tongue, a place where there are temples to the sun and the
moon and tombs of the ancestors, a place of turquoise waters lapping
on white sandy beaches, a place where orchids grow wild and dolphins
splash in the surf.
No, not the Spice
Islands nor the Grecian archipelago – the Outer Hebrides!
We sailed from Oban
up the sound of Mull to Barra. The entrance to Castlebay is
dominated by Kisimul Castle. Our hotel room provided us with splendid
views of the seat of the MacNeils of Barra.
No visit to Barra is
complete without witnessing the sight of an aeroplane landing and
taking off from the beach Traigh Mhor
Sustained with
superb local food, we crossed by a small ferry to Eriskay - the
island of the Love Lilt and the Eriskay ponies and the original site
of the story of "Whisky Galore" and proceeded up "The
Long Island". South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist are all
joined by causeways with only the ferry to Harris still need to
complete the journey to Lewis.
Staying at Langass
Lodge, we visited the 5000-year old, Neolithic tomb at Barpa
Langas-Barpa Langais-
a
great mound of stones over a central tomb. The entrance passage is
easily found but is partially collapsed. Apparently, cremated
remains were found within. Not far away is the fine stone circle of
Pobull Fhinn.
On
the way to the ferry from Uist to Harris, we stopped at the island
fort of Dun An Sitcir - the "fort
of the skulker"
- a 16th century redoubt built on the remains of an Iron Age broch.
The
dun was inhabited by Hugh MacDonald, one of the MacDonalds of Sleat
and son of Hugh the Clerk, until 1602. He sheltered here after
plotting to slaughter his kin, but was eventually captured to be
starved to death in Duntulm Castle
on
Trotternish, in Skye. They were tough times in those days !
The
ferry to Harris brought us to Tarbert and our stay at the Harris
Hotel where again the cuisine was mouth-watering. A visit to the
Harris distillery introduced us to Harris Gin with its unique
infusion of local sugar kelp. The addition of a few drops of Sugar
Kelp Aromatic Water as a bitters to the neat spirit was an
experience!
The
drive through the rocky landscape of Harris took us across An
Clisham, the highest point of Western Isles to the flat moors of
Lewis and our last stop at Aignish of the edge of Broad Bay
where our old friends, the basking seals waved a flipper of welcome.
The
next day a trip to the nearby moorland had us watching the arctic
skuas harassing the terns to disgorge their catch, a bit foolish as
the terns were heading out to sea. The skuas would have been better
waiting until they returned after their fishing trip.
Another
Neolithic chambered
cairn,
An
Dursainean,
occupied the high ground. It would seem that a stone circle or a
tomb is around every corner in this trip up the Hebrides.
It
passed only too quickly.
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