Saturday was another glorious weather day, although there were a few rain showers interspersed between the hours of brilliant sunshine.
I was missing Wayne pretty badly that day, so I decided to drive out to Dun Eistein, the Morrison "castle," to hopefully feel a bit like I was with him. It worked pretty well.
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| On the way out, I stopped for a quick look at the glorious Dalbeg Bay, sparkling a brilliant blue in the sunshine, and also at Port Ness, very close to Dun Eistein. When I arrived at the bridge to take me across to the stack where the castle was, I found the waters here to be phenomenal shades of turquoise and blue, intermixed, and the clearness of the air allowed me to see the Butt of Lewis lighthouse as if it was only a few yards away. It was quite spectacular! The sun was shining brightly, and the fulmars were circling in all directions, appearing to have choreographed a flying dance to welcome me. |
There was also almost no wind to speak of, which I've never felt while here before. It was a quiet and peaceful retreat. I sat by the cairn and ate my sandwich, enjoying the glory of the day.
As I was just preparing to leave, the rain rolled in, and I had to pull up my hood to help me stay dry. My jeans and shoes got soaked on the walk back to the car, which I had left a good ways back on the track to enjoy the walk and the approach to the monument. Despite this, it wasn't all that cold, so it wasn't particularly uncomfortable.
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From here I explored several other Northern regions of the area, including a
few I hadn't seen before. I went down some back roads to towns east of Ness,
Eorodale and Skigersta, and walked along their coastal areas. There was a
cairn visible from a distant point from Skigersta, which looked quite large.
There was supposed to be a dun at Eorodale, but I couldn't find it. However,
the rock formations here were beautiful, and the water was sparkling in many
colours. I also passed a strange carving of a cormorant trying to steal food
from a large fish's mouth. Interesting.
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Since the views were so nice, from here I drove over to the Butt of Lewis to see if I could see Dun Eistein from there. I could really see it without assistance with binoculars, for the first time ever. The views here were also impressive and beautiful.
| I then took a road back to Swainbost, which ended at a cemetery. From here, I walked along the coastline, looking down at beautiful sandy beaches below. The first beach had very rocky cliffs, and no obvious access, although I'm sure it could have been climbed down if I was feeling very adventurous. Instead, I walked on to the second beach, where there were dunes leading down to the beach. This beach was sandy, but with large hunks of rock interspersed on the sand, making it a maze of sand and rocky crags with tidal pools around them. Simply beautiful. The tide was coming in, so I picked my way among the rocks and sand, trying to find a way to reach the end of the beach, but the tide got too high to make it all the way without getting soaked, so I turned back. The rocks along here were incredible, made up of a wide variety of types of rock in composite -- including some incredible colours of quartz mixed in with the more standard sedimentary rock you see on Scotland beaches. |
On the way back to the car, it rained again. I headed south towards "home," but stopped on the way at Dalmore, the bay just south of Dalbeg. This is the bigger of the two beaches, and was also quite beautiful, although I think I like Dalbeg better. This one has a cemetery right on its edge, and a rainbow formed behind it just as I arrived.
I drove home and started to get ready for my dinner engagement with my landlady -- we were to go out to the good local restaurant, but he mother was feeling ill so we cancelled it. Instead, I ended up going over to Laura and Justin's house and having a nice visit with them.
On Sunday, Laura and Justin picked me up and took me out to the Uig area for a hike. They are very fit, outdoorsy types, and they took me on a hike up the cliffs around Mangersta. It was a bit of a challenge keeping up, but the views were totally incredible!
When we arrived at the Mangersta area, they exclaimed in wonder because you could see St. Kilda across the sea, about 40 miles from shore. They've lived here almost ten years, and they said they'd only been able to see it about four times the whole time they've been here. So, it was an unexpected and exciting sight! I've always wanted to visit St. Kilda, and was pleased to at least get to see the outline of the islands.
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The landscape around Mangersta beach is quite beautiful -- again covered with
rocky cliffs and beautiful colours of the sea. We climbed up a very steep
hill to start, getting us quite warm for the rest of the walk. We passed
spectacular rock formations along the way, and eventually came to a small
bothy (hut) built it the existing rock face of the cliff. If they hadn't
known it was there and led me to it, I probably would have walked right by
it and never seen it. It's an adorable building with an incredible view, but
the sun was warm and bright, so instead of staying in the bothy, we headed
outside and sat and had a picnic there on the rocks outside instead. The
views here were magnificent, and we watched as large black-backed gulls and
fulmars flew around against an incredible backdrop of colourful rock faces
and formations.
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We followed the cliffs a bit farther before turning inland and hiking through
a peat bog and back along the small road of this area to reach the car. From
here, we drove over to Valtos, to Traigh na Berie, a beautiful, long sandy
beach faced with islands. We came here specifically so I could see Eider
ducks, which I had never seen before. Justin knew there was a colony there
regularly, and sure enough, there were some out swimming in the surf. They
have an unusual call, and although the surf was loud enough to mostly cover
it, I did catch the sound a couple of times. We also saw Slavonian Grebes.
The beach was a gem, the water sparkling in brilliant colours against the
white sands. It was a lovely place to stop and spend a bit of time.
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From here, they drove me home, but I was to come over again in the evening for dinner with them and Norma and Ian. We had a very nice meal of excellent curry, which they made extra spicy just for me. Although I do expect to see them again briefly at some point before I leave, this was bittersweet for me because I knew it was the last time we'd get to spend much time together, on this trip, at least.
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