All photos for this trip can be found in our
2019 Ireland/Scotland Photo Album
Look for the "Week 4" tag for photos added this week.
2019 Ireland/Scotland Photo Album
Look for the "Week 4" tag for photos added this week.
Our general travel route for the week (although we did drive all over the Outer Hebrides, which is not depicted here)...
Up early for breakfast at the Redburn House before heading off to Berneray to catch the ferry over to Leverburgh on the Isle of Harris. At breakfast we chatted with another couple of people who were walking the Hebridean Trail (part of the Hebridean Way). One woman, who sounded like quite an accomplished distance walker, had decided to forego the trail across the peat bogs for her last stage on North Uist and just walk the road to Berneray. She left about an hour before us and we passed her later on our way to the ferry. At the ferry terminal we also met the couple who had departed the Redburn House the previous day on their walk north.
Arriving on the Isle of Harris we drove the short distance to Northton and stopped in at the Seallam! Visitor Centre where Kris had a nice chat with Bill Lawson the genealogist who had given her some great ancestral information when we stopped in there on our last trip. He was quite pleased with the additional information she has gathered since then.
The rest of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were just take it easy days to tour around Harris and Lewis with most activities depending on the weather. There was a lot of "intermittent" heavy rain spells. Having arrived late Monday afternoon in Stornoway, we wandered a bit of central Stornoway near the Crown Hotel, where we stayed again this trip, going into a variety of Harris Tweed stores while we waited out said intermittent heavy rains. Back at the hotel we decided to have dinner in the dining room. A few years ago when we stayed here they had a very nice "traditional" dining room. It has since been changed to be, in someone's mind, a bit more upscale, modern and a menu seemingly aimed at a younger crowd. Too bad. We settled on a pizza for Kris and Mac & Cheese for Brian. OK, but we were looking for something along the lines of a nice seafood dinner in this part of the world.
Tuesday, after a pretty decent breakfast at the hotel (at least they haven't changed that part) we walked over to Kopi Java a popular newish coffee place for a couple of pretty good lattes. Afterwards, continuing to dodge the intermittent rain we spent the morning looking in shops in central Stornoway, stopping at the small HMY Iolaire memorial,...
... and dropping our laundry off at Euroclean near the large Tesco grocery store. For lunch we drove up to the nearby Lews Castle...
... very busy little cafe but we managed to find a table and had a couple of bowls of their fine lentil soup for lunch. Later in the afternoon we drove out to the old St Columba' Chapel site but the rain and wind were both too heavy to even think about getting out of the car and walking across the farmer's field to get to the chapel ruins and cemetery. On the way back to town we drove out to the much larger HMY Iolaire memorial but again the wind and rain were suitable deterrents. For dinner that night we dodged the rain the best we could as we walked up the street to the Golden Ocean Chinese restaurant. Very decent meal. That night the wind and rain just howled as it battered the side of the hotel we were on waking us both up several times. Apparently this was part of the tail end of the hurricane Dorian that had ripped up the eastern coast of the USA.
Wednesday, after breakfast and coffee, we picked up our laundry then stopped at a local museum where a special exhibit told many stories of the men on the HMY Iolaire, and families of survivors as well as of those killed in the mishap, Just a horrible situation. Leaving the exhibit we drove to west side of the island to revisit the fabulous Callanish Standing Stones. Not surprising that they have not changed in the two years since we were here. After a quick lunch in the cafe we walked up the hill to the site. The wind was so strong most people had a bit of a struggle to get up as well as down the narrow trail. BUT... worth the trek. This place is wonderful. A must see place (and notice we even had a wee bit of blue sky on this day).
... and when we say narrow, we mean narrow. Our smallish rental car had only about 4-6 inches on the outside of the tires on either side of the car and the passing places were much further apart than we have seen on most single track roads. It was slow going as even bicyclists were forced to use the diversion so numerous times we had to crawl along behind them until the next passing place. Oh well, we made it, had a look around the village and then headed further north on A858 to the northern main road back to Stornoway. For dinner we opted for an Indian/Turkish restaurant where the combination of chicken curry and lamb kabobs turned out to be very tasty. For a night cap we went to the bar in the Crown Hotel for a beer and glass of wine.
Thursday up early for a one hour drive to Tarbert to catch the ferry to Uig on the Isle of Skye. We were concerned about the sailing because of the high winds experienced late Wednesday night but no worries and it was quite a calm sailing. Departing the ferry on Uig, we had about 4 hours before we could check into the Cowshed, our home for the next two nights, so we drove around the peninsula to Portree. What fabulous views along the coast and the interior mountains (ok, large hills, but still quite spectacular) and we even had some blue sky along the way...
One very popular place on the island is the Old Man of Storr. Thousands of people flock to this place to hike up the mountain (large hill). It must get crazy here in the peek tourist season because it was very chaotic when we went past there. There is a small parking area that is so inadequate it's not funny. Hundreds of cars that parked on the edge of an already narrow road disgorged so many people making passage on the road quite trecherous. At one point Brian had to swerve to avoid being hit by an oncoming vehicle and barely missed hitting the rear end of a badly parked car on the side of the road. There were so many cars on the road that at one point there was an equally large number of cars coming the other way that the single track road passing place was too small and the traffic ended in a deadlock. Slowly, slowly the deadlock managed to unravel but there was a lot of frustration being shown by drivers in both directions. Chatting with a local fellow in Portree later, he said that ever since The Old Man of Storr was discovered on social media, it has become a zoo. June and July are just insane. We can believe it!
We wandered around Portree for a while, stopped for a break in a coffee shop where we chatted with a young couple from California who had hiked up "the Storr" earlier in the day, apparently before the massive crowds started to show up. For dinner we thought we would order a pizza for take away as the Cowshed has a shared kitchen so we had access to utensils etc. We found a small pizza placed named L'incontro Takeaway which looked pretty decent and their pizzas were advertised as being thin crust, which is what we prefer. They had a couple of pre-cut pieces which we ate while waiting for out takeaway order. A tad tough on the crust but somewhat tasty. Maybe they had been sitting there a while? Anyway, our pizza finally arrived. At this place, they do not slice the pizza for you. They provide a pizza slicer so you can do it yourself. So, Brian opened the box and proceeded to try to slice the pizza. Man, was it tough. However, that wasn't the worst of it. After several slices through the middle the pizza finally split into two halves but in the middle it was total mush and swimming in liquid! YUK!!! Brian picked up the box, took it over to the counter and told the young woman that the pizza was inedible and we were just going to leave. She picked up the pizza and took it over to a table where she and another young woman looked at it with wide eyes and wondering what could have gone wrong. We were prepared to simply walk away but one of the women hustled over to the till, pulled out eleven quid and gave it to Brian and apologized profusely. So no pizza for tonight! We drove back to Uig, went to the Uig Hotel where we each had a starter plate of mussels (more than enough) before heading back to the Cowshed where we sat on the deck of our pod, had a drink and watched the sun set. Long day...
Friday was "tour Skye day". Here's the route we followed from and back to Uig (where the red dot is)...
This island sure is one beautiful place. We lucked out on this day as the wind and rain totally abstained for us with some patches of blue sky sneaking through the clouds. It is somewhat unfortunate that, like the outer isles, the single track roads with few real stopping places make it difficult to get pictures of some of the beautiful spots. One local woman, at a craft studio we stopped at, told us there are many instances of people hanging out the passenger side windows of cars trying to take videos or photos of the passing scenery. We'll just go with the memories and get pictures where we can. Here's a few from around the Isle of Skye...
Friday night the Uig Hotel was fully booked so we drove around to the ferry pier where The Pier Restaurant (aka Bakur Bar) was open and served up an excellent dish of fish strips for Kris and a pretty decent burger for Brian. When we were paying our tab we got chatting with the waitress who asked where we were headed next. We told her and she said "wait while I check something, I think that highway might be closed for this weekend"... and she was right. Part of our route was closed so we when we got back to the pod we checked the maps and found we would have to detour way around to the east. DRAT!!! We had planned to stop in Lochcarron to visit the place where Kris' 4th Great Grandfather had lived when, as an old man, he packed up the entire family and emigrated to Canada. We decided that we would have to give Lochcarron a miss but would see if our return south from the Orkneys could be adjusted so we could get there. That night the wind whipped up and the rain pelted down making a fair racket in the pod. Not much sleep that night.
Saturday morning the rain had stopped but the wind was still really strong. When checking out of the Cowshed, the young woman at reception told us the overnight winds had reached over 55 mph. We stopped in Portree for some breakfast and coffee. While in Portree the rains started again. Through the entire length of the Isle of Skye it was wind and rain with low visibility so no scenery watching that day. It was basically the same with intermittent rains all the way around to and along Loch Ness as we headed north towards Inverness before veering off to the north west and the village of Garve where we stayed overnight at the lovely Inchbae Lodge Inn. Here's a pic of our planned and revised route for the day...
For dinner that night, at the lodge, Kris chose the roast lamb shank with veggies while Brian had the breaded Scampi with chips (and peas). Excellent meals. Afterwards we sat in the lounge and watched tv while sipping on beer, wine and some excellent single malts as a night cap. Back in our room we looked at revising our plans for when we leave the Orkneys and decided to stay at the Inchbae Lodge again next Friday. Steve, the main man at the lodge confirmed our new reservation and Brian cancelled our hotel reservation in Tain.
Sunday morning after breakfast we packed up and headed west to Ullapool where we stopped for a couple of lattes and looked around the town centre for a few hours before continuing back east, north-east across the highlands passing a small hydro-electric dam...
on the way to the quite remote Crask Inn, our stop for the night...
.... and the beautiful early evening view across the valley...
.... not to mention the sunset...
The night's accommodation at the Crask Inn included a wonderful 3 course home cooked meal in a shared communal table area where we met 3 folks who were staying at the inn as they prepared to hike a local mountain Monday morning. Despite all the weather woes, a pretty good week all in all and a wonderful end to the week.
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