An adventure!

Today is Chris's birthday ( yes I know just two days after mine!) We have just had a lovely seafood meal for both our birthdays in a hotel overlooking the harbour in Stornaway, Isle of Lewis.

After an amazing orange sky last night at 11.00pm we woke this morning to howling wind. We quickly packed up and headed to Ullapool for our ferry to Stornaway. Whilst waiting in the queue the rain came, lashing in the wind. (At least we weren't on push bikes as they were having to stand out in it! ) This didn't bode well for a crossing of the Minch but it was amazingly smooth, an excellent new ferry with hardly a sway. We even managed breakfast rolls. I made the mistake of popping down to the shop for some postcards and came back to find I had missed a passing pod of Dolphins! About 12 Chris said.

On landing we set of straight away to do a circuit of the north of the island. Some of this area is very bleak, much of the interior is peat bog and there was lots of evidence of peat cutting. Rain here seems appropriate somehow!
By the time we reached Port of Ness it had stopped raining but the Atlantic waves were lashing the beach.

We came back to Arnol on the west coast and visited this Blackhouse. The young man kindly pointed out to us that
we could get in free if we were members of English Heritage but as we were saving money would we like to buy an excellent book/guide? We did!

He told us this was a preservation not a restoration as there are others on the island restored for visitors to stay in. This house was lived in until 1968 just as it is. The smoke was terrible but he said you got used to it and it was thought to be healthy. The lady who had lived in it was 90 when she left! Another now derelict one across the road had had someone in it who lived to over 100. They had a White House built next to it (also open) and moved in in 1911 only to move straight back out as it was cold and damp. ( the building of 'white houses' gave the blackhouses their name)

This is the main living room with the peat fire burning all day, no windows or chimney (the shaft of light here is from the sun coming in through small windows made for the benefit of visitors). There is a bedroom with box beds and an adjoining Byre for the animals and a barn for fodder etc. you can see a exterior view of the two linked buildings in the extra. The walls are about 4ft thick made of stone with a thatch made of local grasses. They were built in the style of Norse long houses.

We saw many more ruined examples as we toured the area. We also stopped to see the Broch at Carloway. These circular structures are about 2000 years old believed to be built by the Vikings. Many of these were rifled for their stones to build the Blackhouses.

Luckily we have seen the even older Standing Stones at Calanais when we came about 5 years ago, as they would have been closed by the time we got there. Tomorrow is Sunday and most things will be closed but hopefully it will be another adventure as we head south to Harris.