The Uists

Our Outer Hebridian adventure began on the island of North Uist, where our ferry came in from Skye. I was particularly excited as I have wanted to visit these islands for many years and had never had the opportunity before. As many of you, I have a passion for stone circles and the Hebrides is a Neolithic paradise - they believe there are many sites still waiting to be discovered under the peat bogs and sand dunes. Anyway, for the first few days we based ourselves in Lochmaddy on North Uist and explored the southern islands of the Outer Hebrides. We visited (from south to north) Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist and Berneray. here are some of the many highlights:

SOUTH UIST

Poll a Charra Standing Stone. In the distance you can see the Sound of Barra.

Our Lady of the Isles - She stands 9m tall!

The view from Our Lady of the Isles Statue

Beinn A'Charra

BENBECULA

Teampall Mhuire - medieval chapel and burial ground.

While looking around Teampall Mhuire, we came across the graves of three Australian airmen from WW2. Benbecula has been an airforce base for many years and is still operational today. My homework is to find out a bit more about how these 3 ended up here.

The slow life....

NORTH UIST

What a view!!

A traditional house

Peat bogs

Barpa Langais Chambered Cairn

Pobull Fhinn Stone Circle - conveniently located a few hundred metres from Langais Lodge Hotel where we came across the scallop and black pudding dish as seen in previous blog entry.


BERNERAY

On the beach, looking towards Harris

Cemetry

A'Clach Mhor Standing Stone

This picture pretty much sums up the pace of life in the Hebrides...

Coming soon.....
Harris and Lewis; Assynt (West Coast of Scotland); Malta and Sicily

Sahara Gal

A Day on Skye

On our way to the Outer Hebrides, we spent a fantastic day on Skye. The sun was shining, it was a clear day and The Cuillins were spectacular.

Views of The Cuillins

North of the town of Poretee is the Trotternish Peninsula which is absolutely stunning. There are sheer cliffs dropping down to the ocean, green pastures, dinosaur footprints and spectacular rock formations, including The Old Man of Storr, a 50-odd metre high pinnacle. You can walk up to the base of The Old Man, which we did:

On the way up

Getting closer

The Old Man of Storr

The Glenfinnan Monument

In 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie raised the Jacobite standard at the head of Loch Shiel and a monument later built to commemorate the occasion. We stopped at have a wee look and the Desert Rat climbed to the top to find out what is really under a Scotsman’s kilt....

Looking down Loch Shiel

The Glenfinnan Monument

On top of the monument

The coolest pub….

Over on the Knoydart Peninsula on the west coast of Scotland is probably one of the most remote pubs in the UK called The Old Forge in Inverie. To get to it, you have to either trek across mountains for 2 days or get a boat – there are no roads to it. Once there, you are treated with fine ale and some bloody good nosh (see below)!! Definitely well worth the trip. We were lucky enough to have our friend organise a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) to get a bunch of us over there.

Looking towards Inverie

Getting closer...

Looking down the main drag

Entree of Haggis, neeps and tatties

A fine selection of smoked and pickled seafood

Email Dilemma

Hi Folks

Just letting you know that my email provider has taken it upon itself to randomly delete my emails at will, regardless of whether I have seen them or not. Thus, I apologise if you have tried to contact me and you are thinking that I am extremely rude and ignoring you. I will be changing email address in the very near future, so will keep you posted....

In the meantime, the Desert Rat and I have just come back from 3 1/2 glorious weeks of travel through the Hebrides Islands and West Coast of Scotland, Malta and Sicily. We had a wonderful time and over the next few weeks I will endeavour to put some photos onto the blog . As I have no phone line and thus no internet at home, I will have to wait to come into the office, so it may take some time to get all of it up.

To wet your appetite for what is to come, here is the Dish of the Trip - a scallop sitting on Stornaway Black pudding topped with a fine slice of smoked Ayrshire bacon. Bring it on!!

Sahara Gal