Author Archives: Andrew

Hebridean Way: Day 13 – Stornoway to Inverness (and home)

Distance cycled 15.6 miles / 25.1 km
Cumulative distance cycled 334.8 miles / 539 km
Islands visited (daily total) Lewis
Total islands visited 10+1 of 10
Average speed 11.1 mph / 17.9 kmph
Weather conditions Drizzly rain

In the Museum Nan Eilean we’d seen a photo and some drawings of a stone structure that we didn’t recognise, and so with our ferry leaving Stornoway early afternoon we had some time (if not the weather) for a final wee jaunt in the morning to make the most of our last day in the Outer Hebrides.

Memorial Cairn to the Grias & Coll Raiders, March 1919

The plaque nearby reads:

This memorial commemorates the events following the First World War, then returning servicemen took the law into their own hands and claimed the land that the government had promised them.

It is built at the place of confrontation between the crofters of the area and Lord Leverhulme, the owner of Lewis and Harris at that time.

Conflict arose when Leverhulme bought Lewis and Harris in 1918. He planned to industrialise Lewis and opposed the Board of Agriculture’s scheme to divide some of the farms into crofts for landless families.

In March 1919, some of the biggest land raids took place at the farms of Upper Coil and Gress. Land raiding continued throughout Lewis until 1921, when a disillusioned Leverhulme gave up his industrial projects for good. As a result, many people without work emigrated to Canada.

The government finally kept their promise to meet the demand crofts, and the people won the right to the land.

Before he left the island in 1923, Lord Leverhulme gifted the parish of Stornoway to the people, it is now run on their behalf by the Stornoway Trust.

While we were researching its location, we found that these memorial cairns are dotted around Lewis so we were surprised we hadn’t come across them. Then we found they’re of various different designs and we had seen one on the route – the one for the Pairc Cairn Deer Raiders.

Sheltering from the weather with a coffee and cake in Stornoway while we wait for our ferry

While waiting for our ferry we found out that the strike action by ScotRail was extended and as a result our train from Inverness to Edinburgh had been cancelled 2 days prior. Their call centre were very helpful – we were booked to travel on a Sunday, so we could use our ticket for any train on a day either side, and while there were seats for us, there were no bicycle reservations for the Saturday left. LNER have one train which was also fully bicycle-reserved.

Boarding the ferry from Stornoway and the end of our time on the Outer Hebrides.. for now :o)

We’d pre-booked a specialist bike transfer from Ullapool to Inverness with the excellent (in service and in name) Ticket to Ride, and spent the time thinking of ideas for getting us and our bikes home: car hire – ~£200 but none available; van hire – same; turn up at the train station and hope for a bicycle cancellation; coach – ~£50 a last resort and we’d have to pack up the bikes into boxes or bubblewrap; courier the bikes – ~£30 each packed up again, and we would have to impose on our lovely AirBnB hosts in Inverness for storage…

The excellent Ticket to Ride collecting us and two fellow Hebridean Way cyclists from Ullapool – hi Charlie and Alice!

Anyway, cutting a long story short, we decided that we’d rather have the full Saturday to explore Inverness, and ended up booking a taxi-friend of a taxi-friend of Ticket to Ride to take us and the bikes to Edinburgh to meet our onward connection home.

That first night we had a lovely evening at the Black Isle Brewery bar with Charlie and Alice drinking beer, eating pizza and talking cycles and holidays! As is so often the case, we came away from one trip with more ideas & recommendations for future ones!

Our day in Inverness, clockwise from top-left: Inverness Botanical Gardens; the view from the top of Tomnahurich Cemetery; real ales and wood-fired pizza (heaven!) at the Black Isle Brewery Bar – so good we went twice; Leakey’s book shop (also heaven!)

Hebridean Way: Day 10 – Lewis (Shawbost to Butt of Lewis and back)

Distance cycled 50.8 miles / 81.8 km
Cumulative distance cycled 290 miles / 466.9 km
Islands visited (daily total) Lewis
Total islands visited 10+1 of 10
Average speed 11.6 mph / 18.7 kmph
Weather conditions Overcast with sunny spells, glorious tailwind on the way there and brutal headwind on the way back

Today’s the day we complete the Hebridean Way!

Given that the Butt of Lewis is ~25 miles from the nearest campsite on our map (though we had heard of a bothy/bunkhouse near the top), and the only road to Stornoway and the ferry home is ~15 miles from said campsite, it made sense to us to stay 2 nights here with the added benefit of doing the final stretch with unladen bikes – our legs and Julie’s pannier rack would thank us by the end of the day!

With near perfect cycling conditions of slightly overcast skies and tailwinds we set off, our first stop en-route is a giant whale jaw-bone arch which the locals salvaged from a beached whale in 1920.

Andrew standing under the whale bone arch – nope, I’m not brave enough to stand under the harpoon!

The story goes that the whale washed ashore with the harpoon in its head trailing 50 feet of rope. A whaling company was contacted but no-one came to deal with it. The decaying whale caused quite a smell, so the locals rolled up their sleeves and sorted it themselves! As a memento, the village postmaster and general merchant managed to get the 4 tonne lower jawbones from the shore and erected them at his home as a gateway. The harpoon hangs from the centre.

It wasn’t on our map, but a Sheiling House was signposted and visible from the road so we stopped to investigate

Sheilings are small huts or buildings used during the summer as a base near grazing land and are often in remote locations

It looked very inviting, especially as this one was made up and ready to move in. That is until we realised the bed is probably crawling with bugs.. on second thoughts..

A little further along, and past the turning to Stornoway we stopped at the Ballanstrushal Standing Stone, where, seated on the picnic bench was a guy taking in the scenery with a cup of coffee. Turns out he lives in the house right next to the stone and he told us there was “quite the story about the old woman that is buried beneath it” but didn’t elaborate any further!

The Ballanstrushal Standing Stone – we think it’s taller and heavier than the central stone at Callanish

Having boiled some eggs we’d bought from a roadside honesty box yesterday, we stopped for accompanying provisions first at the shop in Borve (side note: I think I’ve seen a sign for a Borve on every island – sometimes multiple!) – which was like stepping into the 70’s with the brands available – and then the community run co-op at Cross which was well-stocked, had a little bakery and made their own black pudding!

A sausage and shop-made black pudding roll – still warm too, lovely!

Refuelled, it wasn’t long before the lighthouse at the Butt of Lewis peeped over the horizon and after nearly missing the turning and spotting a buzzard take off from a roadside fencepost we were there – the official end of the Hebridean Way.

Made it! The sun came out for 10 minutes when we arrived too, how nice! Officially it’s 185 miles from the start in Vatersay, at this point we’d ridden about 275 miles

We enjoyed our lunch as 4 or 5 seals enjoyed bobbing in the rocky coves in the waters below!

A little further along the northern coastline is the small and quiet fishing marina of Port of Ness which has a lovely (and very busy) cafe. We didn’t stop for lunch as we’d just eaten but we did use their semi-public facilities which is notable as there aren’t that many public loos along the route!

The quiet marina at the Port of Ness. There’s a memorial to the fishing boats lost at sea from near this vantage point

There’s a maxim that things going up must come down, and if there were a cycling equivalent then it must surely be about headwinds – and as soon as we turned south the weather was against us and took a turn for the worse. No more than a drizzle and not enough to get us wet or dampen our spirits but it did make it feel like a bit of a heads-down slog, especially as we’d stopped at all of the interesting places we wanted to see on the way up.

Lovely view even with the drizzly yucky headwind

Back at the campsite, showered and changed, we celebrated with nibbles, a mini Highland gin and tonic, a bottle of red wine and camp-stove made mozzarella and tomato calzone!

Thanks to Tara from Bike. Camp. Cook. for the inspiration and the recipe, but extra thanks to Julie for making it :o) x

Hebridean Way: Day 8 – Day off at Uig Sands

Distance cycled 0 miles / 0 km
Cumulative distance cycled 201.3 miles / 324.1 km
Islands visited (daily total) Lewis
Total islands visited 10+1 of 10
Average speed n/a mph / n/a kmph
Weather conditions Windy and rainy. Very rainy

Joining 2 days worth of cycling together gave us a fantastic semi-wild camping spot and day off to recover and explore an area of Lewis that’s a good 20 miles away from the official Hebridean Way route. We’d seen a large wood carving near the entrance to the Uig Sands and Ardroil Beach community campsite so we went back to learn a little more about it..

Large wood carving of the King piece from the Uig Chessmen chess set, and explanation board

The very much enlarged wood carving of the king from the Uig Chessmen

This sculpture is based on one of the kings in the collection of walrus ivory chess pieces which were discovered nearby in a sand dune in 1831. According to the information board they’re believed to be of Norse origin, and 82 of the pieces are now in the British Museum, with 11 in the National Museum of Scotland.

Abhainn Dearg (Red River) distillery sign board and 2 whisky barrels

A few miles down the road is the first single-malt whisky distillery on the Outer Hebrides since 1829 – Abhainn Dearg or Red River. We understood they were open with limited spaces for tours, but like most of the businesses on the islands they’re closed on Sundays.

However, in their car park were 2 more Uig Chessmen carvings..

Andrew and Julie pulling silly faces in the style of the 2 Uig Chessmen carved statues

Two more carved Uig Chessmen were guarding the empty car park of the distillery – a knight on the left and a berserker on the right. Berserkers would bite their shields before battle to get themselves into a state of frenzy. Look out!

Another reason for the timing of our day off was the weather forecast we’d been keeping a keen eye on and sure enough, at this point the weather started turning for the worse. We headed back to camp via the sandy beach as the drizzle started and before the wind picked up. From the inside it felt like our little tent took a battering!

Hebridean Way: Day 6 – Harris (Leverburgh to Likisto)

Distance cycled 18.5 miles / 29.8 km
Cumulative distance cycled 135.6 miles / 218.3 km
Islands visited (daily total) Harris
Total islands visited 9+1 of 10
Average speed 10 mph / 16.1 kmph
Weather conditions Overcast and very still (perfect if you’re a midge)

After the long, tiring but extremely enjoyable previous day hiking around Hirta, and after many a discussion with our wonderful bed and breakfast hosts about locations of suitable wild camping spots the other side to Tarbet (which they lamented the lack of given the unsuitable moorland landscape), we decided to stop a little short and set off for a campsite just before it on the ‘Golden Road’.

The western coast of Harris, like the western coasts of the isles so far, is a string of white sandy beaches and gorgeous turquoise waters, each one as breathtaking as the last. We were compelled to stop at every one to pause, take in the view, and take a photo!

Scarista Mhor

Horgabost

Seilebost. I think it’s a requirement to pull into the lay-by and appreciate this view. While we were here a guy hopped out of a camper van and said “Devon & Cornwall aren’t a patch on this”

After crossing to the east coast of Harris we turned south away from Tarbet and onto a lovely twisty single-carriageway called the Golden Road – very nice on a bicycle!

Julie on the Golden Road

Soon we arrived at Likisto and our home for the evening, but the welcoming party of midges soon found us and with no breeze whatsoever at our pitch they were about as thick as we’ve seen them. We just managed to put the tent up then retreated into the converted blackhouse where we found not only a small kitchen, bathroom and shower, but a huge lounge and dining table! Best of all it was a midge free zone!

Inside a converted blackhouse

Inside the very homely converted blackhouse. We spent the remainder of the afternoon drinking tea and writing up our diaries, then set up the stove in one of the fireplaces to avoid the midges!

Julie had explored the campsite and found another pitch named ‘Otter Watch’ right by the loch side and with just enough breeze to keep the midges away the spot proved true to its name – we spotted one, then two, then three sea otters – shame we’d left both the cameras and the binoculars in the tent!

Hebridean Way: Day 4 – North Uist, Berneray, Harris

Distance cycled 26.9 miles / 43.3 km
Cumulative distance cycled 117.1 miles / 188.5 km
Islands visited (daily total) North Uist, Berneray, Harris
Total islands visited 9 of 10
Average speed 10 mph / 16.1 kmph
Weather conditions Blue skies & sunshine, cool breeze

We woke to a beautifully clear, crisp and sunny morning with a fairly short ride ahead of us to make the second and final inter-island connecting ferry. This north western area of North Uist is how I had imagined the Outer Hebrides: Remote. Sparse.

Small stone folly or tower on an island in the middle of a loch

Scolpaig Tower, a small folly built on an island in a loch. A suitable metaphor for the sparseness of this part of the Outer Hebrides and is why I think North Uist is my favourite of the trip

3 horned sheep grazing with rolling hills behind them

Sea Eagle souring high in a clear blue sky

A Sea Eagle! It was circling overhead long enough to get the zoom lens on the camera and this is the best photo – it was about a mile away at this point

The causeway onto Berneray seemed like it was always going to be over the next rise or just around the next corner, instead it teased us, just out of reach with more sparse rolling countryside until eventually we were leaving North Uist. After a very decadent packed lunch of local smoked salmon and seaweed water biscuits, we took the ferry hoping we’d see sea otters. Sadly it wasn’t to be, and as the terminal is pretty much at the causeway we didn’t see much of Berneray either.

We dropped our bags at the bed and breakfast in Leverburgh – our home for the next couple of nights – and with lightened bikes headed south east to Rodel to visit St Clement’s church which has some very detailed carvings inside and out.

St Clements Church, a small church

St Clements Church at Rodel. We got to it and the signs said follow the road to the right (even though the parking was straight in front of us) and we ended up cycling all the way around it where we serendipitously passed The Girnal – an old storehouse in Rodel’s tiny fishing harbour

We ended the day with a lovely meal in The Anchorage.