Time for a view, from, Pobull Fhinn (Finn’s people) a stone circle on the isle of North Uist, over looking Loch Langass
We had a fine lunch (if a little upmarket by our usual campervan standards) at Langass Lodge . A hunting shooting and fishing kind of establishment, with a hearty stock of midge repellent and tick removers for sale in reception. Ticks yuk, we’ve had trouble with them in the past during Mr Uphilldowndales fell running days they can get anywhere! Time to tuck our trousers in our socks!
Brochs, are found only in the West of Scotland, mainly Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, where suitable stone was readily available. A fort, a fortified house, a status symbol. the jury is out, but one thing seems to be agreed on, they were certainly the tallest buildings to be found.
Looking a bit like a cooling tower, its built of dry stone, and is double skinned, at Dun Carloway you can crawl through and scramble around between the two skins, and admire the handy work of skilled builders ( health and safety and preservation concerns seemed a little more laid back on the outer islands, than we’ve found elsewhere in Scotland).
Following on from the Brutalist style church, a Brutalist bus stop with postbox, on the isle of Lewis
Looking like a remanent of the cold war, a bus stop with presence, its quarters offering shelter from which ever way the wind blows.
I couldn’t help but think if you were back at home in Derbyshire and tried sheltering around the back of a bus stop, the 199 bus would sail straight past without stopping.
Where the water flowing from the flanks of Beinn Mhartainn, on Barra, meets the sea. I thought there must be a special word , for when a river meets the sea, but I could only find estuary, which just didn’t seem to capture the moment, so I’ve gone with riparian, which means located by the banks of a river , stream or other body of water. (Is this where ‘rip tides’ come from?)
I’m sure that this rich mahogany coloured water is the kind of thing that must enhance the flavour of whiskey? But I can only find references to the use of peat in the process of distilling whiskey, not the water that goes into it..
Mr Uphilldowndale took to rock hopping, and pretending to make a beach landing. Spud the dog and I kept our feet and the camera kit dry.
There’s more than one way to arrive at the Outer Hebrides, we sailed, from Oban to to Castlebay on the island of Barra, but not before we had a very tasty lunch at the cafe at the ferry terminal, lovely food, delivered by lovely people, I had a bowl of cullen skink, delicious, safe in the knowledge the weather was fair and we were in for a smooth passage, it probably wouldn’t be the best dish for heavy seas! Spud the dog is pretty chilled about ferry crossings, he stays in the van on the car deck, but there is a lounge on the ferry where you can be with your pets for the passage, but we think he’s happiest in his home on wheels and it avoids him having to navigate the precipitous stairs between decks.
But back to Barra, you can if you wish arrive by air
And my many friends who like a Landrover, will be taken with the fire engine.
It also has a cafe, I’d been told in advance about its legendary fish and chips. But we were out of luck, I was gutted, it was to be a reoccurring theme.
We waited for the flight to arrive, there is something that feels very wrong about standing in the path of an aeroplane as it comes into land!
Plenty of spray, you probably don’t want to buy a second-hand plane from this route!(All that salty water can’t be good for the mechanical bits).
It taxis up to the door, and the ground crew attend.
The passengers disembark, take a selfie or two.
Things that need to be done for the return flight are swiftly attended to, and away they go again, before the tide comes in.
You can watch a landing, they are using one of the two other ‘runways’, landing across the beach rather than up the beach.
