This journey was undertaken by three people, myself Adrian, Ken and Paul. We departed Elland at about 6.30 on the Sunday morning of the 1st of March 2009 heading for our overnight hotel in Uig on Skye. Being Sunday we had an uneventful journey, sharing the driving between us. We stopped off briefly at Fort William for a comfort break. This turned out to be a mistake because as soon as we parked up the rain came down.
After settling in at the Ferry Inn Hotel in Uig, we had dinner in the restaurant. In spite of it being a chilly evening, Ken and myself struggled down to the pub at the port. The pub has a brewery almost next door, but unfortunately did not have any cask beer available. They did however have this local beer in bottles. It is perhaps as well that we were taking the ferry to the Isle of Harris the following morning because we drank them out of this beer. It seemed easier walking back. Maybe it was a combination of the beer and a tailwind.
After a good breakfast at the hotel, we departed for the short journey to the port where we drove onto the ferry. During the summer months it as a direct crossing to Tarbert on the Isle of Lewis. At this time of year, though, it goes to Port Maddy on the isle of Uist. Fortunately it was a good crossing, and as it turned out was an added bonus, because the scenery as you travel along the coasts of Uist and Harris is spectacular. The crossing was very relaxing: there were more crew on board than passengers.
Arriving at Tarbert, on seeing a Fish & Chip shop, Ken and myself decided to have a fish butty. I don't know why, but the proprietor seemed taken aback by this request, maybe he didn't understand the Yorkshire accents. We thought at first that because Tarbert is quite a small place that he didn't have many customers, which turned out not to be the case. Anyway, he said that as the fish were rather large that he would cook just the one fish and split it between two bread rolls, something which appealed to us prudent Yorkshiremen.
Leaving Tarbert, we headed north towards Stornoway. The scenery of north Harris is stunning, being very hilly, and the peaks topped with snow. The road meanders over these hills and down into glens. Everywhere there are lochs. As you drive into Lewis the terrain becomes more gentle and peaty, a different kind of beauty. We arrived at what would be our accommodation for the next four nights late afternoon. The Hal 'o the Wynd guest house is in a good location right on the edge of the centre of Stornoway and overlooking the port entrance.
After settling in we set out to inspect the town. Having a population of about 6000, the town centre isn't very big, but it seems that everything that you need can be found here. We weren't intending to eat until the evening, but we came across the Caledonian Hotel at tea time and decided to eat then. We all ordered a steak from the specials board, and very nice it was too. We found out early on that cask beer would be hard to get in the Hebrides. Ken and myself favour this type of beer whereas Paul being a lager drinker is much easier to please. Leaving the Caledonian Hotel we ventured into a number of pubs before we came across the Carlton. Now, the Carlton did have some hand-pulled real ale which came all the way from Wales Brains SA from Cardiff. What is surprising is that Stornoway does have a brewery the Hebridean Brewing Company yet it is difficult to find it, even in bottles.
After a splendid breakfast on Wednesday morning we decided to tour around Lewis, taking in the Standing Stone circle at Callenish. Our first stop was to look at the standing stones at Achmore where there are apparently two stones standing, the others laying down. We, however were unable to determine any of them. Dissapointed, we set off for Callenish, first taking a look at what is known as Callenish 2. Access to the stones is via a stile and the ground was sodden. This is one of three local sites that make up Callenish. We didn't go to Callenish 3, but left here to go to the main site at Callenish 1. The first thing that we did on arrival was to go into the visitor centre and get warm over a cuppa. Suitably refreshed we walked around the visitor centre and watched a video. We then took the short walk to the actual stone circle site.
Leaving Callanish, we made for the broch at Dun Carloway. This is a hollow dry-stone walled iron-age structure. Our next place to visit was the Blackhouse village at Gearrannan, a crofting village lying on the west coast which, once derelict, is now being renovated and used as holiday homes. Heading off again in a northerly direction we stopped off at Port of Ness which is almost the most northerly point of Lewis. But, not quite, the most northerly point is at the Butt of Lewis where we stopped next, parking on land next to the lighthouse. From here we made our way back to our B&B to relax before attacking the evening.
We ate at the Stornoway Balti House, and although it was OK, it wasn't anything special. We finished off the evening in the usual way with a few beers. One of the places we visited was the An Lanntair where we made a reservation to eat there the following evening. While there we sampled the local Hebridean beer on cask.
St.Clement's Church at Rodel, we had decided would be our destination on Thursday. So, we headed south through Lewis into Harris where snow was starting to settle on the roads in the hills. As we approached lower ground near to Tarbert the sun came out. We took the east road to Rodel, which apart from being single track is also very twisty. The road surface, as with all the other roads on Harris and Lewis, is extremely good. It started raining while we were at Rodel, so we were able to dash into St.Clement's Church. The church is not locked and it is possible to ascend to the top of the tower mainly using vertical wooded ladders.
We left Rodel and travelled towards the west of Harris, stopping off by the golf course at Scarista. The views from here are quite stunning. The golf course in the foreground adjacent golden sandy beeches and snow capped mountains in the distance. Nearby is the Scarista standing stone. We continued north along the west road to Tarbert, which is the main road, although still mainly single track with passing places.
The evening meal at the An Lanntair was extremely good. An added bonus was the local Hebridean beer on draught, which we all sampled, even the lager drinking Paul. Paul retired to the B&B to read a book while we remaining two had to partake of some more beer, even returning to An Lanntair for some more local beer.
Friday, we decided we would relax in Stornoway. We were given directions to a butchers where we could buy the local black pudding from. This was near the Masonic Hall in Stornoway. The Hebridean Brewing Company was just a few hundred yards from the B&B so thought we would pay it a visit. Unfortunately there was no-one there. We all did a bit of shopping, including black pudding and haggis. Ken and myself had fish & chips for lunch.
Paul went back to the B&B while Ken and myself found the Masonic Hall. We were conducted around the hall which turned out to be quite interesting. After winding down for a short while, we had an evening meal at the Golden Ocean Chinese Restaurant which we all rated extremely good. The evening was finished with a few beers. Again a wonderful breakfast. Our ferry wasn't leaving until after lunch, so, after loading the car and settling bills, we had a steady drive down to Tarbert for the ferry. It was a bit wet this morning, so, leaving Paul in the car, Ken and myself went to the port office to obtain our ferry tickets. Picking Paul up on the way back we had a drink at the local tea-rooms. The weather forecast for today, earlier in the week, had predicted gales and high winds. Fortunately the crossing to Uig was very calm.
After disembarking at Uig, we travelled about a mile and then left the main road onto the A855 which we followed for about 2 miles before taking a right turn into a mainly single track road. This extremely scenic route eventually brought us back to the A855 but on the opposite side of the island. We arrived at our overnight accommodation at the Independent Hostel in Portree late afternoon. We had an early evening meal at a restaurant just outside Portree. Returning to Portree we had a walk down to the harbour. This was followed by a few local Skye bottled beers in the case of Ken and myself while Paul stuck to lager. We moderated our beer intake and had an early night because we had a long journey the following day.
Rose early on Sunday morning, and after a quick drink departed Portree. We had bought sandwiches, etc, for this journey before leaving Stornoway so as to keep travelling. As forecast, we had a snow storm as we travelled through the highlands. This cleared up before we neared Glasgow. We arrived back in Elland by late afternoon.