Framedlight

After a walk around Stornoway we fancied exploring a little further, and so we drove out on the Eye Peninsula, due north east of the town. There is a lighthouse at Tiumpan Head, at the very end, where you are supposed to watch for wales. We looked for a while but no large mammals broke the surface of the sea. It was blowing quite hard and quite dull with a weak sun. I managed to find an informal rubbish dump. At the base of the peninsula is the ruined St Columba Ui Church, the ui meaning isthmus. This is one of the most important archaeological sites on Lewis, The church was the main place of worship on the island in medieval times and is the resting place of the Macleod chiefs and the Mckenzies who ruled Lewis in later years. The memorial cairn was built to commemorate the crofters of Aignish who rioted in 1887 against the tyranny of the landlords. Our final visit of the day was to Holm, from where we walked out onto the cliff to

We finally boarded a ferry and made it to Stornoway on Lewis, across a clouded sea. The town proved to be another of those rather left behind Scottish places with quaint independent stores, displaying a strange collection of cluttered goods. The town also had a collection of primitive wooden carved figures of animals and people, presumably to illustrate it's heritage.

Here is a corner for the exciting campsite we stayed in when in Idrigal. However we left and retraced our steps across Skye, stopping briefly to photograph the weather over the Red Cuillins. Then it was a hard drive up to Ullapoo, where we stayed the night in order to catch the morning ferry. The rain came with us all the way although we did come to a halt by Loch Maree, which is always worth a glance. The rain was quieter by the time we got to Ullapool and we again decided a swift drink was in order.

The Sky ferry to Tarbert crosses from Idrigle on the north west tip of the island. There was one going in the late afternoon and so we left Glenbrittle passing a rather irresistible waterfall, much swollen by the recent rain. As we approached Loch Harport we noticed a little graveyard and some ruined boats by the top of the loch. While I was photographing the boats Alan strolled to edge of the shore and saw two great sea eagles, not 30m from him. He watched for a while and then beckoned to me. They noticed and immediately flew to the other side of the loch. I took some pictures of them sitting in a tree but they were too far for a decent shot. The I saw some movement in the water and a whole family of otters were swimming. Miraculous! But again too far to photograph. But never mind, we watched for about half an hour till they went away. Driving across the Red Cuillin to get to Portree the weather worsened and the rain sheeted down. We took shelter and had some lunc