Day 22 - North Uist and Benbecula

I started the day with a run.  It should have been 4 miles but I took a wrong turn on the way back and ended up doing just over 5.  

Linnet ot Twite

We had a bit of rain so didn't go out too early.  We did the circular road around North Uist in an anti clockwise direction.  In the interior are a few hills and lots of peat bogs and there are no roads.  The coastal side of the road is mostly sand and machir grass and a few communities exist and quite a few farms

We went to see the Trinity Temple, the remains of a medieval monastery and college thought to be Scotlands oldest university, and Barpa Langais, a well preserved Neolithic chambered cairn.  As it was raining we didnt stay long at either.

 

Trinity Temple 

 

Barpa Langais 

By the time we got to do the Langass Forest walk to see Hercules the bear it had cleared up and become very warm.  Langass Forest is a small wooded area with lots of trails. It is largely made up of varieties of Scots Pine and Norway Spruce.  The green, yellow and orange colours in the trees made it look very autumnal. There are no native trees in North Uist so this is quite a special area.  There are some wood carvings including one of Hercules the Bear who escaped in August 1980 while filming an advert for Kleenex on Benbecula and was found on North Uist the following month.  The whole story of Hercules and his owner Andy Robin is lovely.  The link to wikipedia is below:

Hercules the Bear 

Norway Pine

 

Hercules the Bear 

 

Hercules grave 

 

Memorial sculpture to Andy Robin from his wife Maggie 

 

Memorial seat to Andy Robin 

 

Landgass Forest 

 

Sculpture garden 

 

Scots Pine variet 

 

Scots Pine variety 

 

Scarlet Waxcap Fungi?

 

We then went to Lochmaddy, the biggest community on North Uist.  It seems to have quite a lot of residents but just one small general store, a post office and a fuel station.  The community centre advertised a cafe but the room had been turned into a gallery for modern art.  We had a look around but didnt like any if it.  A short walk along the coast were 2 statues.  One was The Mosaic Mackerel and the other was High Tide Low Tide.  The Mackerel one was quite good but I couldnt work out what the other was about and it just seemed to be a lump of concrete with a wedge removed.

 

The Mosaic Mackerel 

 

High Tide, Low Tide sculpture.  I dont understand it. 

 

Lochmaddy from the statues 

 We had lunch overlooking Malacleit beach with Vallay Island in the distance.  Vallay is now uninhabited now but has ruins of Vallay Hall and a few other buildings. It is possible to walk across the sands at low tide.

 

Malacleit Beach with sheep roaming freely 

 

Vallay island and deserted buildings 

 

Loads of scallop shells that seem to have been discarded on the beach.  Paul took a couple for our garden.  The smell here was not nice. 

 

While driving back we disturbed what I think was a Corncrake which rose up out of the grass and flew  off behind us.  Next we visited the RSPB reserve at Balranald. The unmanned visitor centre had lists of local birds and said a corncrake was often seen in the adjacent field.  It wasn't clear where the nature walk went as there were no signs and the path seemed to go to a camp site.  It was misty and drizzling so we moved on.

 

RSPB Balranald 

 

The beach near the visitor centre at RSPB Balranald 

 

Lots of snails around the window at the Visitor Center.  There were even more on the other side. 

We briefly visited a couple of other places on the way around.

 

Memorial to Land Raiders of North Uist 

 

Small croft cottages 

 

Scolpaig Tower - a folly on an island in a Loch 

 

We had a drive to the small island of Baleshare which is connected to North Uist by a causeway.  There we found a roadside honesty shop selling home made cakes so bought some to take with us tomorrow.

 

We havent seen any tall pillar boxes, just these small postboxes but the residents of Baleshare still knit covers for them.  

 

The cake shop

We decided to see a bit of Benbecula before going back to our accommodation.  Like North Uist, it has a circular road and we just saw the north west side today.  There is a town called ....... Balivanich which must be the biggest on the Uists.  It had a couple of supermarkets, a fuel station, 2 banks, a hardware shop, a hospital, a police and fire station and the airport serving the Uist islands.  It also has a large whisky distillery.

 

Entrance to the airport 

 

Gift shop 

We stopped at a couple of other places on Benbecula and will see the rest tomorrow. 

 

Welcome to Benbecula 

 

Cula Bay - lots of sand and seaweed and ponged a bit. 

 

Gramsdale Standing Stones 

 

Eagle or buzzard?  Was soaring over high ground alone.  Eventually flew off at high speed.

When we got back the tide was coming in.   There are 2 patches of sea thrift in bay opposite.  At high tide both were completely covered by water.  At low tide they are very pretty.  About 8 sheep and several rabbits were stuck on the island in the bay, cut off by the tide.  It didnt seem to bother them.

The bay at high tide