Our tour of the northern islands (Orkney, Shetland) is done, so now it is time to head to the western islands, the Outer Hebrides. The ferry to the nothernmost island, Lewis & Harris (two names, but one island), leaves from the town of Ullapool on the Scottish mainland (not to be confused with the “Mainland” islands in Orkney and Shetland). This means a short tour across the north coast and down the west coast of Scotland. We are following the famous (infamous?) NorthCoast 500 (NC500) route to get from Scrabster (where the ferry from Orkney dropped us) to Ullapool.
Our first night back on the Scottish mainland was in Fresgoe, near Sandbay Beach, where a herd of curious cows came to see Rosie.
Moving along the NC500 we encountered more traffic than we had seen in some time (not a lot of traffic in Orkney and Shetland), and a lot of tourists in motorhomes. We stayed at an odd little campground right on the road. A farmer had just scraped out a flat spot on a slope in a field, near the town of Smoo, and nailed up a sign for overnight parking. Great view and easy to get to for a quick overnight stop.
Just a few miles along the road from Smoo is the village of Durness. Durness Beach is a large pocket beach and a perfect spot for the dogs to get in some beach time. In the photo below you can just see a boardwalk along the top of the cliff on the left side.
I don’t have any pictures from the end of the boardwalk as Lump decided the boardwalk was much too scary and refused to go another inch. Too bad as there were pocket beaches on either side of the cliff and the view would have been spectacular. Thanks Lump.
The next night was also spent just off the NC500 road. We found a slightly elevated dirt track running parallel to the road, which had amazing views, and stopped for the night
Castles are everywhere in Scotland and we happened upon one driving down the NC500. Ardvreck Castle was built in the 15th century by the MacLeod’s of Assynt. Clan Mackenzie attacked and captured the castle in 1672. The
In the early 18th century the wife of the Laird Mackenzie didn’t appreciate the austerity of Castle Ardvreck, so a manor house called Calda was built nearby.
Ullapool is a small town on a peninsula that juts out into Loch Bloom. Apparently lochs are not just lakes, but also inlets. Fortunately for us, there is a campground at the edge of town, so it won’t be too difficult to make our early morning ferry.
First off the ferry and first to drive into Stornoway. Interesting Canadian connection: Stornoway is the name of the official residence of the leader of the opposition in the Canadian federal parliament (located in Ottawa, Canada). Built in 1914 this residence was named by the by the occupants at the time, the Perleys. It was named after the ancestral home of the Perleys, Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides.
We have decided to start at the north end of Lewis & Harris which is referred to as Lewis, and the bottom of the island is called Harris (Lewis takes up about 2/3 of the 2178 square km of the island).
The northern tip of Lewis is called Ness. We have found a croft that has been turned into the appropriately named “Uncle’s Croft Campsite”. This is a quirky little place with an Honesty Box, great views and cliff walks.
The land on the other side of the fence at the end of the croft is filled with parallel mounds of earth. We found out that these are called “Lazy Beds” and were made to provide drainage, increase the amount of arable land and to give sheep dry areas to stand.
Walking to the end of Uncle’s Croft, past the fence we come to a cliff at the coast. Heading west (left) we wander through the rainy mist along the cliff top. Dogs are on leash as we don’t trust them not to get too close to the cliff edge, and we also don’t want them to chase the sheep that we encounter along the walk.
There is a local festival being held at the football grounds just down the street from us. The festival was supposed to have been held earlier, but was postponed due to rain. Luck for us! It is a small local festival, with the Ness firetruck and ambulance on display. Some “vintage” (from the 70’s and 80’s) automobiles are lined up on the field. It is not an agricultural show (no animals or tractors), but there is an ATV pulling carts full of kids through a farmer’s field right next to the football fields. A tent holds a selection of homemade baked goods – yum!
As we wander around the festival many people come up and ask to pet the dogs and/or take photos of the dogs. We should have charged 1 quid each and donated the money to a local charity at the festival, we could have made some serious money for them!
After wandering around for an hour or two we decide to walk down the road to the nearby beach.
Time to explore the coastline at the end of Uncle’s Croft in the other direction (east) towards the Port of Ness.
We left the dogs behind one day, so we could do some longer distance exploring on our e-bikes.
Standing stones, like ruins, are found everywhere in Scotland. The Callanais Standing stones are the most impressive we have seen yet. Built in the Neolithic age and still in use in the Bronze age, stones were continually added to the collection over the centuries.
As we are heading south, towards Harris, we encounter… Ontario?
Trees! We found trees and a scene that could have been taken almost anywhere in Canada. The Aline Community Woodland is a small area that has been set aside as a managed forest, and definitely feels out of place on the island, where trees are few and far between.
There is a 3 mile long estuary that, at low tide, the entire inlet, and it is a large one, is high-and-dry. On the north side of the estuary is Rosamol Beach, and Luskentyre beach further to the north. Seilebost beach is on the south side of the estuary.
Further west and south along the coast we find a small spot that can hold 2 or 3 motorhomes called “Harris Campsite #5”. It is getting stormy out, so a perfect spot for the night. It actually turned out to be a perfect spot for two nights. A storm blew in with winds of 100 km/hr, so we decided to sit tight and wait it out.
