One of the main reasons we wanted to come to Lewis was to see the Calanais Stone Circles - a place I particularly had wanted to go to for many years. Apart from the gale force winds, the three stone circles on the west coast of Lewis lived up to all my expectations. There were hardly any other tourists around so we were able to walk around the stones by ourselves, which made the experience really special – quite different to sharing Stonehenge with hundreds of people!
Calanais 1
Calnais 2 – Cnoc Ceann a’ Ghàrraidh
Calanais 3 – Cnoc Fhillibhir Bheag
Lewis is covered in peat bog and there is no doubt that there are many archeological treasures under the surface. Neolithic sites are often found accidently when people dig the peat up to use as fuel. We stumbled across a couple of sites on our way to Calanais:
Achmore Stone Circle – not as impressive as Calanais but still quite significant!!
Steinacleit Stone Circle – this circle has a 50 foot diameter, making it a bit hard to photograph. In the centre is the remains of a Stone Age Burial Cairn.
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Dun Carloway is an Iron Age broch. Brochs were tall timber round houses with an outer drystone wall for protection.
The Gearrannan Blackhouse Village was first built in the seventeeth century on a site that had been settled for at least 2000 years. Blackhouses were where the crofters lived. No one lives in this village anymore and it has been developed as a museum. We got to see first hand how Harris Tweed is made (though we resisted the temptation to buy the dvd!).
And finally, the Standing Stone - Clach an Truiseil
Sahara Gal
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