Uig Walks

We have returned to winter here.

The temperature dropped dramatically in a few hours here last night, and the winds kicked way up again. It also has been raining/snowing/sleeting on and off.

It remained cold and windy all day today, but there were periods of brilliant sun between the rains. After looking at the weather, I decided it was a good day to go touring further around the Uig area, because I could do small, shorter walks there and drive between during the less-pleasant weather.

This idea really worked great for a good bit of the day. I started by driving all the way out on the road to where it ends, at one of my favourite places -- Mealasta. I found Mealasta just as beautiful this time as I did in the summer, which is hard to believe, as I thought it was breathtaking then. I stopped where the road ended and wandered for a bit here, then moved to the nearby beach and explored it a bit, even finding what I believe is the ancient Nun's Habitation that Wayne and I failed to find last time, I think.

I stopped at a third place and wandered for a bit as well there. On that stop, a car came by and a guy called me over. I came over and chatted for a bit. He had thought (from my car license plate and colour) that I was the wife of a friend of his, home for holiday. He was very friendly, though. We had a nice chat.

After exploring here, I moved up the coast to the next town (where the man was from), Brenish. I headed down the only road off the main road, because Wayne had read that there is an underground blowhole here, and I wanted to see if I could find it. Right after I turned down the road, I passed a hill with Lapwings on it! I was so excited, as I hadn't seen any the whole trip, and they are one of my favourite birds. Unfortunately, they saw me looking at them and went behind the hill, but at least I saw them!

I drove to the end of this road and started hiking across a very boggy moor towards the coast. I was met with quite a spectacle. There was a spouting of water on the far side of some rocks from me. The water would suddenly shoot up into the air, and on occasion it was so loud that I could hear a pop from it, hundreds of feet away, and over the closer surge of the sea. It was totally fascinating.

There were pretty rock formations in front of it, and I saw that I could climb them to get a better look, so I did, and I stood there and watched this thing pop now and again for quite some time. It was incredible. The surf from the sea was also beautiful, and the weather was changing rapidly from blue to stormy to brilliant, so I got to see the beautiful landscape in lots of conditions in a short time.

From here I walked a little farther north, and then headed back to the car, having another beautiful but boggy hike back, facing the Harris mountains. It's hard to go wrong with scenery in the area -- rocky and sandy coasts and incredible mountain faces behind.

From Brenish I drove farther north to Aird Fenish, known for it's dramatic rocky coastline. I walked out onto this dramatic point of land. There's a cairn at the far end of the point, which is a nice enough feature, but the rocky cliffs and jagged rocks sticking up from the sea are totally incredible here. The winds were high, so I couldn't get too close to the edges, but the views were still amazing, and again the weather changed from stormy to clear in a short time, giving me some great views! There were more fulmars soaring about here, and nesting on the cliff ledges. It was a truly awesome place.

I then drove north again, returning to the parking place where Laura and Justin and I had started our cliff hike. Instead of heading up the cliffs, though, I headed down the steep bank to the beach below. I had not been to Mangersta beach before, and it is beautiful -- sandy and rocky. It leads up to another beautiful point of land, but there was no way to reach it from the beach at this time - the tide was too high to reach the access point, and the water was much too cold to go wading.

After enjoying this beach for a bit, I headed on to Uig sands, where I wanted to walk and explore. Up until this point, I'd been rained on a bit a few times, and gotten slightly wet, but mostly the major rain had occurred while I was in the car. I had waited it out on a couple of occasions -- usually the rain only lasted for 20 minutes before it would turn sunny again. When I reached Uig, it was sunny, but as I started down the path to the sands, I found the sky was turning dark. I was debating turning back when I reached the sands themselves, and realized that the wind was so strong I really couldn't go on -- I was leaning into it and it was keeping me there. I hurried back to the car and just managed to get back before the heavens opened up and it poured down rain, then snow, then sleet. After a bit, the rain stopped, but this time the sky did not clear at all, and the winds didn't drop as much as they had after the other brief storms. I decided to just sit and wait to see if the storm was really over. In that time, a family came up and parked beside me and headed to the shore. They turned back before they even reached the sand, and it started to pour on them again right after then got to the car.

I waited for almost an hour, but it showed no signs of clearing, and I knew I couldn't walk in those winds, and I really didn't want to get that wet anyway. So, I finally gave up my hope of walking Uig sands this trip, and headed back towards home.

As I cleared Glen Valtos (between Uig and the area where I live) the greyness of the skies lightened significantly, so I decided to take a quick driving tour of the Valtos area before heading home. This is where the beach with the Eiders is, and we had driven that circuit before, but not stopped to really look. I stopped at a couple of the beaches just for a quick look, but the winds were still really high, so I didn't do more than hop out of the car, snap a picture, and hop back in. I decided it wasn't worth hoping to try to see the duns marked on the map here, so I headed on back towards home.

On the drive, I suddenly spotted a group of red deer standing near the road. I stopped and took some photos. They knew I was watching, but didn't let me bother them much. They were quite beautiful.

As I headed east, the sky lightened further (apparently the bad weather was mainly in the west at that time -- it's here now this evening.) When I reached Garynahine, I noticed that the rain had stopped completely, so I decided to get out and hurry up the totally soggy hill to the Garynahine stone circle for a quick look. The stones here were beautiful, mossy and stark, and the views were great, but the wind was still high and it was cold and boggy, so I didn't stay long at all.

I went back to the car, but the idea of stone circles and sunset, plus the hope of seeing more lapwings, urged me to stop at Callanish and take a quick look. I've seen lapwings at Callanish frequently, but not this trip. I decided to stop at the main visitor's centre location instead of at the back entrance, thinking I might see them there. No luck. There was also someone else at the stones, so I didn't stay long, but the stones were gorgeous against the developping sunset, so I snapped a few photos.

I returned home and started what I hope is my last load of laundry here. I also arranged for meeting several folks for the last time on this trip, and have my days fairly scheduled until I depart from here very early Saturday morning. (The ferry is at 7:10 am.)

If you want to continue reading the individual reports, on to

Uig Sands