Spring Time

Spring is coming to the Outer Hebrides.  The clocks moved forwards an hour last Sunday (British Summer Time) and the weather is definitely warmer than when we arrived.  We had a beautiful day on Sunday and did not light the peat fire as the house was so warm with the sun streaming in. 
The shrubs are starting to get leaves on them and there are daffodils everywhere in the road sides by the houses.

Miniature Daffodils

With the warmer weather the bird life has definitely increased.  We have seen hen harriers, a golden eagle and owls out hunting over the heather.  (Still looking for otters and sea eagles)  The graylag geese have also arrived.  They are not very popular with the crofters (farmers) as they eat the grass and make a mess, especially when there is a mob of 5000 on your paddock as one of the crofters up at Solas had.   The eagles are also not so popular either as they are accused of attacking lambs (along with the sea eagles, ravens, and "hoodies").  The large eagles apparently pick up the lambs, take them up and then drop them to kill them before taking them away.  It's a tough life being a lamb out here.

a Golden Eagle

The other wild life that are in for a lot of bad press at the moment are the wild (not very wild at all) red deer that live on the moorland.  There was 1700 counted at the last census.  About 80 stags are shot each year for trophy hunting.  By my calculations you are getting at least 700 fawns born each year so there is a rapidly developing problem here.  With the increasing numbers, the deer are coming down onto the macher and into peoples gardens to graze.  This is bad enough but deer and ticks go hand in hand and there is a serious tick problem here now as well (partly due to the deer).
To make it even worse the ticks carry Lyme's disease (zoonotic) and louping ill (untreatable neurological disease of sheep, cattle and alpaca).

Red deer on the moor

Public meeting are being held to workout what to do, with exterminating the deer a real option.  Talking about extermination, I am pleased to announce that hedgehogs have been eradicated from North Uist, but are still very prevalent on South Uist.  Hedgehogs were introduced (why?) and are a pest, attacking ground nesting birds.  (I met a registered "hedgehog dog" the other day in the clinic that works for Scottish DOC).  One of the not very wild animals that we have come across that no body has a problem with has been the ponies at Lock Sgioport - unless you have Digestive biscuits that is.

Maureen and ponies at Loch Sgioport

Lambing is just starting but we are having an epidemic of cervical prolapses in the ewes.  I worked the weekend and replaced six.  Most are very fresh and I have had several that I have replaced and then gone on to have live lambs.  The reason seems to be the very good Winter that they had here (every silver lining has a cloud).  Off to the Butt of Lewis this weekend !

A sunny morning at Clachan Sands

Inverness and the mainalnd

The day before I left New Zealand I developed an ear infection that started discharging on the flight over.  Three visits over a 5 week period to doctors in both Wales and Lochmaddie and it had not improved so I was referred to an ENT clinic at Inverness hospital.  Given the reputation that the National Health Service has I was expecting this to take weeks - how wrong.  Doctor's referral on Monday, appointment date given on Tuesday, appointment on Friday at 9.30am, seen, treated and discharged by 10.30am.  As the treatment was at Inverness the cost of my ferry trip, car petrol and a nights accommodation was subsidised by the NHS.  Even more surprising, despite sounding like a forienger, my eligibility was never questioned.
Seeing as I had to go to Inverness I took a couple of days off and made a trip of it.  The ferry trip over from Lochmaddy to Uig (on Skye) was really calm and we had a lovely relaxing drive across to Inverness.

Sunrise leaving Lochmaddy

Uig on Skye

From Uig you drive for about an hour down to Kyle of Lochalsh, where the bridge joins the island of Skye to the mainland.  We stopped for lunch at the Kyle of Lochalsh hotel.

The bridge to Skye

Inverness is at the mouth of the river Ness, fast flowing shallow river, and out accommodationg   was on the river bank below the castle.  We had a day and a half in the city so Maureen had a chance to do some retail therapy.

Cathedral, Inverness

Ness river and bridge at night.

On the Saturday we drove to Aviemore, Scotland ski town.  We had had a family holiday here in the 1970's when Dad was still in the RAF.  We stayed at in military R&R huts at Rothimerchus, just out of the town on the slopes of Mt Cairngorm.  When we asked at the information office they said - "oh that will be Rothemurchus lodge, it's up a locked road but here is the code so you can get through and drive up there."  It was still quite recognisable as the place we stayed in 40 years ago.

Rothimerchus lodghe

We took the fenicula up the Mt Cairngorm ski field.  The snow was quite patchy but people were still skiing, before driving to Fort Augustus for the night. (Stopped at the Commando memorial on the way). 

Above the top cafe, Mt Cairngorm

Fernicula up Mt Cairngorm

Commando memorial with Ben Nevis in the background

Fort Augustus is at the bottom of Loch Ness and has a flight of locks that joins the Caledonian canal to the Loch.  A very pretty place and probably overrun with tourists in Summer.  (One advantage of travelling out of season is the lack of crowds.  The disadvantage is that a lot of places are closed)
On Sunday drove back to Skye and the ferry home.

Caledonian canal locks at Fort Augustus.

Harris and Lewis

This weekend was my first weekend off for 3 weeks so we went off to the big islands to the North, Harris and Lewis.  Actually they are both one island; just.  At one point at the village of Tarbert  the island is less than a kilometre across.  The two sections however are divided not at this point but at a mountain range that runs East West just North of Tarbert.
To get there we took the ferry from Berneray to Leverburgh on Harris.  This was a very casual affair run by a crew of about 4.  They seem to have just been given the boat and told to get on with it.  We had booked but never showed any tickets either way. 

It did run to time however.  The route across the channel was very round about to avoid multiple rocks, islands and shallows.  Still the weather was good and the sea calm. 
Leverburgh was named after Viscount Leverhulme who developed the village as a fishing port.  He died suddenly in 1925 before the work was finished and it all came to nothing.  There is not much there now apart from the ferry slipway and a hotel, (closed for Winter).
The road round the coast to Tarbert has some of the best beaches on the Hebrides and some very flash holiday homes. 

I have come to realise that every island in the Outer Hebrides is different.  Harris is very rocky and has real mountains (with snow) and Lewis has trees.

The two claims to fame that Harris has are both centered at Tarbert.  Harris tweed must be from wool grown on the island and must be hand woven on the island.  The tweed can then be used by anybody to make items.  I purchased a Harris tweed jacket from the Harris Tweed main shop at Tarbert.  The other enterprise is the  Isle of Harris Distillery.  Opened in 2015 it is currently selling Gin while its first batch of whiskey matures until it can be sold.  The building dominates the town and is very modern.  It calls its self a "social distillery" and was conceived, and is run by, a group of locals from Harris.

We stayed the night in the town of Stornoway.  A coastal fishing town that looked like any fishing village in the UK.  It is the largest town in the Outer Hebrides (8000).  The castle (castle Lews) is new being built in the 1840's.  We stayed at the Royal Hotel on the waterfront.  It was surprisingly good.  They must have spent money recently upgrading the rooms, and the restaurant was  very good.  Local haggis and black pudding (from Charles MacLeod, butchers of Stornoway) features strongly on the menu.  I had the haggis and black pudding entree for dinner and the full Scottish breakfast (including black pudding) the next morning.

Sunday is very quiet on Harris and Lewis.  As strict Presbyterians nothing is open on Sunday.  We called into the Callanish Standing Stones on the way home.  Second only to Stonehenge in significance in the UK the construction dates back to 3000BC.  Unlike Stonehenge it is not in the middle of a major road intersection.  From there we went on to Dun Carloway Broch.  This is an iron age structure that dates back to 100BC.  It was 9 M high and doubled walled with a spiral stairs between the walls.  There are no windows and only on door.  Broch are only found on the Atlantic coast of Scotland.  Archaeologists a still arguing as to what purpose they served however.

A quick drive back through the mountains (lunch at Tarbert) and home on the ferry to Berneray where we stopped to watch the seal sunbathing before driving 30 minutes to home.
All in all a great weekend away.