Uig

 Di and I walked (alternating so one could stay with Hilary who was sleeping still) up to the apothecary tower overlooking the harbour. It was built in the 1700’s as a signal to the ships and crofters that there was medicine and health care available in that port. There is also one at Uig and Uist.

Apothecary's tower

Portree harbour from apothecarytower

Portree from the tower

A quaint Portree building (youth hostel)

We went to a place called Skeaborst which Di’s cousin Alice had told her about. It has a very small island on the river called Nicholson’s Isle which is the burial site for that family. There used to be a cathedral there from 1079 when it was the head of the church in the area. Some of the tombs were from the 1400’s very small, as were the people then.

The weather was lovely, a one tee-shirt, no merino kind of day, may have reached nearly 20out of the shade, just about a heat wave!!! You can understand why the locals go crazy and leap into fountains in Trafalgar Square (the Londoners) when the mercury tops 23 or whatever because after the early teens or worse, single figures for the height of summer, it does feel quite hot.

A tombstone at Skeaborst

Scotch thistles

From Skeaborst we headed up to Uig which is where we are now. It is a very small little village, not much more than a pottery, pub, brewery, petrol station and ferry terminal. But pretty, little white houses amongst the green/brown fields, beside the seaside.  It was sunny for the first hour or so, then the dark cloud came over and just as I finished putting the last peg into our washing on the line the rain came down. Though the sun setting looked pretty with bright red skies over the hills in the west, it rained overnight, and is still raining this morning. 

 We had planned to take the ferry over to the Outer Hebrides this morning, there is a day trip which involves a few ferry rides and a coach trip showing off the highlights of the two lower islands. We decided it would be pointless in this weather though, so instead we’ll have a day out catching upon chores, blogs, post-cards, maths, writing, music practise etc. There is a café here where you can do painting on pottery too, so we will probably do that a bit later too, and poke around a couple of galleries a bit further away. Still sick of the weather, even though there is relief every now and then with sunshine and warmth it does get you down. We have noticed on the community notice boards all over the island that there are lots of support groups running for people with mental health issues, addictions, and people affected by suicides. I wonder if there are a lot of issues with such things particularly related to weather and remoteness?? Or else just good support community awareness of such issues. I can imagine it would be likely to affect you adversely after a while, unless that is all you know, grey days, cold weather, open paddocks, sheep, ……… beautiful for a holiday, but to live it????

Neist Point Lighthouse

10.6.11

We left the campground, gouges in the grass testament to our having been there, and headed back down the west coast towards Portree. We stopped at the hydro power station on Loch    it was built in 1950 something, and with it came electricity to the island. It is only tiny, but obviously enough for the population. It overlooks an amazing beach which was actually our reason for going here. The road meanders off from the main road to the dam, where you park your car. From there, there is a continuation of the road down to a house which I presume is occupied by one of the hydro workers, perched high above the beach. The walk down to the beach is on a very steep rock lined path with stunning views down into the bay at crystal clear water which looks blue and turquoise, and huge cliffs. We went down the track (the only people to do so, we saw many other people stop at the top of the track while we were on the beach but they were obviously put off by the descent. The purpose of our visit to this spot was we had read that it was a really good fossil beach, we spent about an hour and a half clambering amongst the rocks but didn’t find anything much. Apparently when the tide is out (it was about half way out when we were there) there are often ammonites to be found. We would have loved to find one but it wasn’t to be. Not sure what the Cites rules on such treasures are either?? The fact that everyone knows about this beach makes me think it must be OK to harvest them??

From here we headed over to Waternish which has galleries and potteries and we were hoping somewhere to stop for the night. We couldn’t find any where to stay, the road was incredibly narrow, up on peaty/ heathery fields, very exposed and nowhere off it, just passing bays every now and then. We popped down to Stein which is a pub, a restaurant and a jetty with a large car park (but even larger “No camping” signs. So we drove back along said road to Dunvegan hoping to find a camping spot, but settling for a bonefide camping ground overlooking the sea/loch. It was sunny and beautiful that evening as we sat in the van reading, stitching, drinking Lithuanian and listening to music.

The next morning we headed out on another single track road to a spot called Neish Point, where there is a walk to the old light-house. It was a good twenty minute drive to nowhere really. The area was badly affected by the Clearances with many deserted crofting villages/areas to be found and memorials to the people who were affected and those who resisted. We walked to Neish Point light house, the photos will show the cliffs, boulders, sea-scapes, cairns, and buildings better than I can. It was a gorgeous day, I stripped off layers of merino, until I was wearing just a tee-shirt (well a bottom half as well you’ll be relieved to hear).

We stopped at the Toy Museum in Glendale, Hilary and Di went in while I sat and stitched in the van and got lunch ready. They said it was great. Two rooms of toys from bygone eras, and a rather eccentric man running it. He is 68 and he is planning on stopping running the museum next year. I guess he wants to retire and relax, I think the museum is open nearly every day of the year so it must be bit of a bind, though obviously also his passion. We have promised Hilary a horse ride which she keeps trying to keep us to, so we stopped at a trekking place on our way towards Portree. They wanted £25 each for one hour which seemed rather steep when compared to NZ prices, so we managed to persuade Hilary to defer her ride for now.

Instead we headed into Portree and went for an evening wine and nibbles cruise out in the harbour to spot wild-life. Unfortunately by this point the weather had closed in, and though it wasn’t raining it was bitterly cold on the viewing deck in the wind and a bit hazy. We saw a white tailed sea eagle flying, though so far away, even through binoculars it was a smallish silhouette. We did see its partner sitting on a branch up on the cliff face, watching out for its fledgling/s in the nest. Again, quite distant and therefore you could tell it was a bird of prey, but couldn’t get an idea of size. They are huge!!! When standing beside a sheep they tower over it apparently.  Though the people on this boat earlier in the day had seen a pod on Minke whales and porpoises we didn’t get to see anything other than a few shags and oyster catchers. We did watch the salmon at the salmon farm leaping out of the water and skimming along like flying fish, which was quite spectacular.

We got back to the harbour at about 6.30, Hilary had haddock and chips from the local fish and chip shop, Di and I had left over chicken Korma and rice from the night before.  We stayed in the Portree car-park for the night and woke to another beautiful day with the sea sparkling and smooth.

Lighthouse and fog horn

View from beside the lighthouse

Our cairn

Making peat bricks

Our evening cruise boat