The Ancient Hebrides - Travelling to historic sites

Today we headed to the West of Lewis. As I've previously mention the East and West coasts of Lewis and Harris are very different from each other. With the East being rocky and craggy with fjord type lochs, like the one outside our accommodation. The West on the other hand has wide sandy beaches with lots of sand. While today we might think of the East as accessible - both Tarbert and Stornoway, the main ferry ports are on the East coast. Earlier traditions had the West more accessible, with seafarers coming from Ireland or the Norse lands to live in the Hebrides. Thus much of the ancient history of this island is found not here in the East, but across in the West. This is where we are travelling today. The journey looked like this:

The Hebrides

It seems amazing to me that the name for these groups of islands was known to the Ancient Greeks, Pliny the Elder speaks of 'Hebudes'. But more amazing is that they have had human occupation for at least 8,000 years. Francis Thompson in his book Lewis and Harris provides a fascinating insight into the island, and much of my thoughts come from him or from the signs at the various sites we have visited (this isn't an essay, so I'm not line-by-line referencing.) Before 1,500BC the weather was much warmer than it was after that date. This may explain why well developed civilisations disappeared leaving only stone or rock evidence of their existence. Our first visit today was to evidence of that civilisation.

Callanish Standing Stones

   

After Breakfast today we left the house at 8.30am and headed due west on the unnamed road which after six miles meets the A858 and leads to Callanish on the west coast of the island where the Callanish Standing Stones dominate the landscape. These stones, the first of which date from 3,000 BC were added to over the centuries until being abandoned in 800 BC. 

The beginning date is important as it means this ring of stones was begun before Stonehenge, the most famous British neolithic site. Standing among the stones if very eerie, and the views in all directions is impressive, with the land, sea and mountains all echoing the centrality of this place in its environs. 

We left the stones and went to the visitors centre, which didn't open until 10, so we read some of the materials about the stones and moved on.

Dalmore and Shawbost

It is likely that we would originally have headed South from Callanish, but one of our friends - Denize McIntyre - had mentioned on Facebook that Lewis was on the news. The BBC article describes the Oil Rig that had run into Dalmore Beach which is only 10 miles north of Callanish, the Daily Record has video and more photos. So we headed up in that direction, however the Police and Coastguard had blocked access to the beach, so the only people who could get photos had to walk a long way around - we were happy seeing the ones online. 

However the visit was fortuitous as we, when unable to turn on to Dalmore kept going to the next village of Shawbost, which has a lovely beach. As we walked down to the beach we saw the tip of the rig over the hill beyond, as you will see close to the centre of the photo.

I'd like to thank Denize again, as also in Shawbost was a reproduction Norse Mill and Kiln. The Norse people came to the Hebrides in the 8th Century and they ruled here until 1266. Indeed the major clan of Lewis and Harris, the MacLeod's may owe their heritage to the Norse folk as Leod seems to be a Gaelic form of the name Olav, very much a Viking name. We wouldn't have got near here if we hadn't decided to see what was going on in Dalmore.

Black Houses

Our next stop was also not in our original plan, but was one of the best parts of our visit. This was a visit to the Black Houses of Carloway in the village of Gearrannan. Black Houses, so named either for the peat which smoked through the thatched roofs not through chimneys or through the distinction between them and the new white (rendered) houses, had been the common form of home on Lewis, and the other islands, from the 1600s up to the 1970s. Indeed the last residents of the Gearrannan houses left in 1974 and the houses were taken into trust and since then have been renovated, so that a number are rental accommodation one a hostel and the others form the museum.

The restored house is set in the 1950s so includes mod-cons like electricity, but the smell of the peat fire is the most pervasive memory. It has a smell more like baking mud, than any other smell I can recall, but for many people on this island and the rest of Scotland and Ireland it was a life-line as the only source of low cost fuel to keep people alive in the winter months. Given it was 11C/52F today the fire was not unwelcome. 

Dun Carloway

Our next stop was to a whole new generation of homes. This the one before both the black houses and the norse locations - a large, and still impressive Dun. This one, Dun Carloway, is an Iron Age Broch. A Broch, an elaborate form of a Roundhouse, would have been home for a large extended family, Brochs are the Outer Hebrides' gift to architecture, not occurring in this form anywhere else. Dun Carloway Broch is the best preserved of the form - though built in the last century BC it was still in regular use until 1,000 AD and seemed to have still been in complete form in 1,500 AD when a group of cattle rustlers from Clan Morrison holed up there to avoid the people from whom they had stolen.

Lunch at Doune Bras

Today is one of the two days I've been allowed not to cook for us while on Lewis. So after such a busy morning it felt good to pull into the Car Park of the Doune Braes Hotel. I would say the Doune Braes is more a Pub with Rooms than my definition of an hotel, but the place did serve homely, tasty food. The hotel is located on Loch an Dunain which can be seen in the photo.

The Lunch Menu had only one starter and six main course options. We both decided to go with the starter which was a home made tomato soup with soda bread. I would have liked a little more bread, but the soup was rich and creamy with real tomato flavour along with onion and .

For mains I opted for the beef lasagna while Drew had the battered haddock. Both were served with chips and salad. The chips were the crispest and least fatty I had ever tasted and the salad had a nice peppercorn dressing. All in all we couldn't have done better.

In addition the hotel had a busy bar area with lots of the salvage workers from Dalmore talking about the kind of things that would be necessary to solve the issue. Someone important was flying up that afternoon - apparently. Just before we left a police officer arrived for sandwiches and crisps for his colleagues who were involved in blocking the road. It felt like we had become a part of the story. As we left the hotel we saw some of the gear the people staying there were using - this can be seen at the top left of the photo.