HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting to the edge of Scotland and the wind gusts
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Besides the weather can’t think of a single thing
WORD OF THE DAY: Butt of Lewis
So we find ourselves in the small city of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The town's population is around 9,000, making it the largest settlement in the Western Isles (with a third of the population) and the third largest town in the Scottish Highlands after Inverness and Fort William. Stornoway is an important port and the major town and administrative center of the Outer Hebrides. Stornoway was originally a Viking settlement and developed around its well sheltered natural harbor. Reflecting this, the name Stornoway itself is derived from 'Stjórnavágr', an Old Norse word for 'steering bay'. Medieval development of the town was spurred by the construction of the original castle in the High Middle Ages by the Nicolson (or MacNicol) family, themselves of Viking descent. Infighting between rival clans continued throughout the Late Middle Ages and resisted an attempt by the then King of Scotland James VI to colonize Lewis in 1597.
We were picked up at 9am this morning for really what was really going to be a half day tour, as Alan had worked ‘overtime’ yesterday, he wanted to make up some personal time and have us back in town around 2pm. It sort of worked out okay as it gave us time to do our own thing, walk the town, washing or just kick back and relax. It also wasn’t a great day today, the weather was stormy and as we drove out it started to rain so all up it was going to be okay to have half a day in the sardine tin today.
The Callanish Stones was out first stop this morning which are located on the west coast of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides (Western Isles of Scotland). The weather held as we got off the bus as we walked the 400m to the stones. It was sprinkling rain a little bit, but nothing that a wet jacket couldn’t cope with. Umbrellas were a little useless as there was quite a wind ripping around but I don’t think you really needed one here. Construction of the site took place between 2900 and 2600BC, though there were possibly earlier buildings before 3000 BC. A tomb was later built into the site. Debris from the destruction of the tomb suggests the site was out of use between 2000BC and 1700BC. The 13 primary stones form a circle about 13m in diameter, with a long approach avenue of stones to the north, and shorter stone rows to the east, south, and west. The overall layout of the monument recalls a distorted Celtic cross. The individual stones vary from around 1m to 5m in height, with an average of 4m, and are of the local Lewisian gneiss. So what do they mean? The first written reference to the stones was by Lewis native John Morisone, who in c. 1680. The tallest of the stones marks the entrance to a burial cairn where human remains have been discovered. An excavation campaign in 1980 and 1981 showed that the burial chamber was a late addition to the site, and that it had been modified a number of times. Pottery finds suggested a date of 2200BC for the erection of the circle. It has been speculated, among other theories, that the stones form a calendar system based on the position of the moon.
Local tradition says that giants who lived on the island refused to be converted to Christianity by Saint Kieran and were turned into stone as a punishment. To be honest I didn’t even know these stones existed and it is still mind blowing that we are allowed to touch these stones all we want when they are over 4,000 years old. Doesn’t that just make your mind boggle? Okay they may not be as impressive as Stonehenge that seems to be wrapped up in cotton wool compared to all these stones found in Scotland but they are still impressive to see……
We had a chance to use the restrooms here, the coffee shop and also they had a pretty cool gift shop here that had a good selection of Harris Tweed. I found a hat that I quite liked but already having a bursting bag and 2 caps/hats already the last thing I needed was another one, especially heading to Ethiopia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, I really don’t think I am going to be in need of a winter Harris Tweed hat. So what is the big deal with Harris Tweed? Harris Tweed is a cloth that has been hand woven by the islanders on the Isles of Harris, Lewis, Uist and Barra in the Outer Hebrides using local wool. Traditional Harris Tweed was characterized by subtle flecks of colour achieved through the use of vegetable dyes, including the lichen dyes called "crottle" which give deep red- or purple-brown and rusty orange respectively)and is quite expensive material and goods to buy and known all over the world for its quality. A traditional story has the name coming about almost by chance. About 1830, a London merchant received a letter from a Hawick firm about some tweels. The London merchant misinterpreted the handwriting, understanding it to be a trade-name taken from the river Tweed that flows through the Scottish Borders textile area. Subsequently the goods were advertised as Tweed, and the name has remained ever since. During the economic difficulties of the Highland potato famine of 1846-7, Catherine Murray, Countess of Dunmore was instrumental in the promotion and development of Harris Tweed as a sustainable and local industry. Recognizing its sales potential, she had the Murray family tartan copied in tweed by the local weavers and suits were made for the Dunmore estate gamekeepers and gillies. Proving a success, Lady Dunmore sought to widen the market by removing the irregularities caused by dyeing, spinning and weaving (all done by hand) in order to bring it in line with machine-made cloth. She achieved this by organizing and financing training in Alloa for the Harris weavers and by the late 1840s a London market was established which led to an increase in sales of tweed.
With the industrial revolution the Scottish mainland turned to mechanization, but the Outer Hebrides retained their traditional processes of manufacturing cloth. Until the middle of the 19th century the cloth was only produced for personal use within the local market. It was not until between 1903 and 1906 that the tweed-making industry in Lewis significantly expanded. Production increased until the peak figure of 7.6 million yards was reached in 1966. However the Harris Tweed industry declined along with textile industries in the rest of Europe. Harris Tweed has survived because of its distinctive quality and the fact that it is protected by an act of Parliament limiting the use of the Sovereign's Orb trademark to tweeds made in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. One high profile promotional success of Harris Tweed in recent years has been their use on several Nike running shoe designs including the Terminator, Blazer, and Air Force 1. They export to more than 40 countries and supply designers like Alexander McQueen, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Steven Alan. Every length of cloth is stamped with the official Orb symbol, trademarked by the Harris Tweed Association in 1909, when Harris Tweed was defined as "hand-spun, hand-woven and dyed by the crofters and cottars in the Outer Hebrides."
The weather was just holding out as we made our way to Dun Carloway which is a broch (building) situated in the district of Carloway also on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis. It is a remarkably well preserved broch - on the east side parts of the old wall still reaches to 9 meters tall. In places there are also more modern repairs to the east wall. Dun Carloway was probably built sometime in the 1st century BC, and radiocarbon dating evidence from remains found in the broch show that it was last occupied around 1300AD. At the base the broch is around 14 to 15 meters in diameter and the walls around 3 meters thick. It has a circular plan and hollow walls and was built without mortar. It probably had wooden floors, internal partitions and a thatched roof, necessary to make it habitable, but the only remaining evidence of this are post-holes. Together with the roof, the narrow passageway presumably secured by a wooden door, were the most vulnerable points of the building, especially to fire. This is one of the best preserved of all brochs and a part of the wall still stands to a height of 30' and illustrates clearly the technique of building the outer and inner wall faces with a median gallery. The kids were able to climb the ruined stairs to get up as far as they could, but again this Nana is a little old for that and was happy to take photos from the ground. There was also a tiny museum giving you an idea on what the broch looked like when it was inhabited and again it amazes me just how old these monuments are and how we are allowed to climb all over them with no worries. I guess they have stood this long, what are a few people climbing over something that has been there for 2,000 years.
Our next stop was The Black Village. Alan made out that we would be inside as the heavens decided to open and it was pouring down and we thought there was a lot more to see than what we did. We did get inside 2 buildings but you had to run between the two of them to try and not get too wet. I used my umbrella that I bought in Edinburgh to try and keep dry which helped to an extent. Entering the first ‘blackhouse’ it is easy to imagine that you have stepped back in time to experience the way of life in a typical crofting township of the last century. You can see traditional activities, including the weaving of the famous Harris Tweed, which there was a man to the left on the loom and to the right was a typical house you would have found from the 1950’s way of life on the island. It was very smoky in here with the log fire burning and all of us couldn’t spend too much time in these rooms and the second ‘blackhouse’ was an educational video about the land and how they lived and worked. There is a small shop where you can buy mementoes of your visit; there was a cafeteria where you can enjoy the best of home-made fare. The blackhouses have seen the cycle of life through generations of crofting families. They were occupied until the early 1970s when the last few elderly residents moved to new accommodation that didn’t need the annual maintenance of thatch and stonework. The old houses and their environs were declared a conservation area shortly after the last residents left as there was a unique opportunity here to preserve a style of house building which had survived for centuries but which had almost disappeared in the last half of the 20th century – the blackhouse. The double drystone walls, the low profile and the insulating thatch made the houses suitable for the Hebridean weather, and they were indeed eco-friendly houses in that all the building materials were natural and found locally.
We had a 50 minute drive to get to our last stop of the day at The Butt of Lewis. It gave me time to start thinking about my next leg to Ethiopia and I am getting nervous and excited that I will be there in 4 days. A lot is riding on this visit and it will be a decision maker or breaker for me which adds that extra bit of tension for me upon my return. Part of this is the fact I haven’t been back in 6 months and I can tell you now this will not happen again. 6 months is far too long for a long distance relationship and I won’t be doing it again for that long no matter what. I just need to see Zeme again and I know everything will be okay, but I need to have that reassurance from him and know deep down that what we have now is what we had before. The rain was coming down and the grey skies really matched my mood today.
Alan was saying that a rainy windy day like this is the best time to visit here as it adds colour and texture to your photos. He said on a fine day when it is all calm and blue is a little boring-so even through the weather wasn’t the greatest it was going to work in our favor here at this stop and he was right. When we arrived at The Butt of Lewis the rain magically again stopped for us as we got off the bus-talk about lucky. The Butt of Lewis itself comprises rocks and cliffs of 60 to 80 feet high and there was absolutely no way that you could put an umbrella up here as the winds were so strong you would have been lifted off the ground like Mary Poppins. Seriously the wind gusts were strong enough to push you, it was like being in a massive wind tunnel and you had to make sure if you didn’t want to lose anything it was taken off or tied down. It was very refreshing and also quite exhilarating. The Butt of Lewis is the most northerly point of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The headland, which lies in the North Atlantic, is frequently battered by heavy swells and storms and the sea was angry and waves and spray was coming up the cliffs to us. With the wind came the wind chill factor as well, but I have to say Shaz and I were rugged up enough that we weren’t that cold and we walked along the cliff edges for around 1km with some of the other group. It felt like the edge of the world here and not just the edge of the Western Hebrides. There were bits of foam coming up from the spray of the water and you really had to watch your step as there were no hand railings or fences here and there were a lot of rabbit holes and bumps and grooves in the ground and with the gusts of wind in your face or back you had to make sure you had your feet at all times. I could see if you weren’t paying attention and a gust of wind caught you, you would be over the edge in a flash, it really was that strong.
A lighthouse stands 121ft high and was built between 1859 and 1862 by David and Thomas Stevenson and was built at Butt of Lewis to aid shipping in the 1860s. Unusual for a lighthouse in Scotland, it is constructed of red brick, and is unpainted. The station was automated in 1998, one of the last to have been converted. A modern differential GPS base station has now been sited on a nearby hill to further aid navigation. This hill was also the site for a Lloyd's Signal Station from the 1890s. The Butt of Lewis features some of the oldest rocks in Europe, having been formed in the Precambrian period up to 3000 million years ago. The Butt of Lewis is about as far north as you can go in the Western Isles. Standing at the north tip of the Isle of Lewis, it achieves a mention in the Guinness Book of Records for being the windiest place in the UK. Look west from here and there's nothing between you and North America: look north and its open ocean all the way to the Arctic. It was so cool here and definitely worth the hours’ drive, one way and the strong winds and the chill factor. Shaz and I were the last on the bus and it was a great way to finish off a pretty good day all round.
We were back to Stornoway at 3pm, nice and early. I was done, I had some washing to do and photos to load so when Shaz and JemJem decided to go for a walk around the town I declined and told them I would hold the fort and when they got back we could have a few quite beverages to wile away the rest of the afternoon. Jem asked to borrow my Scotland umbrella as she had misplaced her and my last words to her was to look after it; I bought it in Edinburgh in jest. Well Shaz returned first wet and looking like a drowned rat, apparently the weather had really turned out there and JemJem returned she was also soaked and had some bad news that my umbrella had turned inside out during the freak storm and was wrecked but she had bought a nice new red spotty one in its place, so I am super glad I didn’t go for that walk and after the girls changed the vodka started to flow. Some guys were going for Chinese for dinner and we asked them if they could bring take away back for us, so we didn’t even have to leave the room for dinner. Shaz went to the kitchen and got us plates and cutlery and we just ate our dinner in our room and continued to drink. Once the guys came back before we knew it there were more and more people coming to join us and I think at the height of the night we had the whole bus in our room which was really cool as we all talked and laughed together. I have been asked how this group rates on the scale of all my tours that I have done and I have to put it in the top 3 of all tours on my Odyssey which is a total of 18 so far, this making 19 and I am serious when I say that. We have had a great group and it is a shame that the tour isn’t longer……. We headed downstairs later in the night as people wanted to go to bed and then we were all pretty much alcohol-ed out at 2am and we headed to bed with smiles on our faces. What a great night and I think that it will be tough to beat, even on our last night which is tomorrow night – YIKES!!!!!! I’m going to miss everyone, well most people……..
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