Day 20 - South Harris

I started the day with parkrun at Lews Castle, one of the most scenic runs I have done.  I wish I could have taken some photos on the way round. 




Lews Castle

Little house in the castle grounds

Sea wall at edge of castle grounds 

After a shower we set off south to see North Harris.

The Isle of Lewis and the Isle of Harris are one island but called Lewis in the North and Harris in the South.  

We stopped at the 3rd Land Raiders memorial, the Paircs memorial, in memory of the people of the lochs who challenged their landlords.  This one has an upper floor.  It started to rain while we were here and the wind gusts were very strong.

Pairc Land Raiders memorial - this one has 3 entrances

Paul going to upper floor

Viewers upper floor

Paul on upper floor


About a mile further on there is a monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie.  He had landed here in 1746 after defeat at the Battle of Culloden.  

Bonnie Prince Charlie's monument

Wording on monument. 

We see a lot of concrete structures on the roadside that are bus shelters.  They have 4 sides so passengers can shelter from wind and rain from whichever direction it is coming from.  It seems they are only in Lewis and not in Harris.

Bus shelter

We continued to the Isle of Harris (north) and took the road to Hushinus beach.  It was 13 miles of narrow single track road and very hair raising in places.  There were a lot of blind summits and often the road turned at the summit but you just couldn't see over it.  It would be easy to come off the road if going a bit too fast.  Along the way we encountered cattle and sheep on the road.  We also saw a massive castle on the shoreline and lots of waterfalls.  It was still windy and rained off and on.




Waterfall along the road

Calf suckling mother

Young calf having a nap

Cows on the road.  The one on the road would not move.  We waited and Paul eventually had to shoo it away.


Blind summit


Amhuinnsuidhe Castle Gate

Amhuinnsuidhe Castle grounds

Amhuinnsuidhe Castle gardens

Amhuinnsuidhe Castle

Amhuinnsuidhe Castle waterfalls 

At the end of the road was Hushinus Beach, another huge expanse of sand.  Unfortunately they had pay and display car parking and at a high daily rate so we didnt stay. 

Hushinus Beach

We travelled back along the scary road and went to the little village of Tarbert.  Ferries run from here to Uig on Skye.   There was a fascinating shop which was spread over several building which sold anything from Anaglypta wallpaper to hemorrhoid cream!  We bought a couple of things and we're served by a very nice Asian man who was wearing a suit and tie!  Very smart but looked a bit unusual.

The Aladdins cave shop

Harbour at Tarbert and fishing port

Tarbert Church - like most churches in Scotland, just an unattractive concrete building.

Little community park

The Harris Post Office in Tarbert

Finally we took the road east of Tarbert to the island of Scalpay.  Until 1997 the people living there had to take a ferry to Harris and this was weather dependant so a bridge was built.  The first car to drive over it was driven by a 103 year old woman from Scalpay.

Bridge to Scalpay

Greylag goose that held us up for a while, standing in the middle of the road

Scalpay Fire Station

Scalpay bus stop

Little harbour on Scalpay

View of Scalpay

We had a takeaway for dinner and then went back to the Criterion pub for a drink.  No entertainment tonight but it was busy and far too noisy so we had one drink and came back.  The sun was now shining and we watched the CalMac ferry arrive from Ullapool.

On offer at the Fish and Chip shop

Stornoway Town Hall

Harbour statue of Stornoway Herring Girl

CalMac ferries meet! Loch Seaforth on left, just arriving and Isle of Lewis on right which has been in the harbour throughout our stay.


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