As the end of our week on the Isle of Lewis was approaching, we visited some places that weren’t too far away.
First up were the The Callanish Stones (or “Callanish I”: Scottish Gaelic: Clachan Chalanais or Tursachan Chalanais) are an arrangement of standing stones placed in a cruciform pattern with a central stone circle.
They were erected in the late Neolithic era, and were a focus for ritual activity during the Bronze Age. They are near the village of Callanish (Gaelic: Calanais) on the west coast of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.
Next up was the Gearrannan blackhouses village where unique cottage style houses date back to the 1600s.
This village is only open to visitors during core hours of the day so when we called by, the gate was locked.
There was no access via the gate or any place to get to a viewpoint over the hill, so I got this shot zoomed in from the car park. It’s pretty similar to the shot in the fotoVUE Scotland book.
We went back to our accommodation at Aird via a route we’d not done, and called by another blackhouse albeit not as striking as the ones at the village.
I took the shot below of a bus being broken up for parts, but I wish I got a shot from the front on as I think it could’ve been a really good shot.
On our last day, we decided to visit some local places. First up was the Isle of Lewis Tower war memorial.
The Lewis War Memorial is a war memorial dedicated to the men from the Lewis area (Outer Hebrides, Scotland) who lost their lives in World War I and those who survived the war only to drown while returning home during the 1919 sinking of HMY Iolaire. Completed in 1924, the memorial is situated at the highest point of the town of Stornoway.
We then had to visit the memorial site for the men lost when the Iolaire sank so close to shore at Holm, just outside Stornoway. I didn’t actually shoot the memorial, but I did get some shots of the other installations.
HMY Iolaire was an Admiralty Yacht that sank at the entrance to Stornoway harbour on 1 January 1919, with the loss of at least 201 men out of the 283 on board. The overcrowded vessel was trying to negotiate a difficult route under exceptionally bad weather conditions.
The disaster cost the Isle of Lewis almost the whole of its young male population. The sinking was one of the worst maritime disasters in British waters during the 20th century. A memorial was erected in 1958 at Holm, outside Stornoway.
We then called in at Lews castle, specifically to see the Lewis chessmen.
The Lewis chessmen (Norwegian: Lewisbrikkene; Scottish Gaelic: Fir-Tàilisg; Scots: Lewis chesmen) or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most of which are carved from walrus ivory.
Discovered in 1831 on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, they may constitute some of the few complete, surviving medieval chess sets, although it is not clear if a set as originally made can be assembled from the pieces.
When found, the hoard contained 93 artifacts: 78 chess pieces, 14 tablemen and one belt buckle. Today, 82 pieces are owned and usually exhibited by the British Museum in London, and the remaining 11 are at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
We enjoyed the castle’s museum learning more about the islanders, and how they have made a living over the years.
There was also a photography exhibition with some amazing old photos. It was interesting to note different mount sizes and landscape shots with smaller mount apertures.
From the back of the castle, there was a pleasing shot of Stornoway.
Back at our accommodation, we packed our things in readiness for an early start leaving next day, and enjoyed the evening view for the last time.
As we said our goodbye’s to Aird, Stornoway and Lewis, we raced down to the south of Harris at Levenburgh where we were due to get an early ferry to North Uist.
Just making it, we drove onto the ferry, and arrived at Berneray where we drove around to experience North Uist. As it turned out, and is often the case on our last day of a holiday, it was raining and visibility was low so the conditions were not great for sightseeing and taking photos.
We found Uist to be quite flat and bereft of any life, considerably so when compared to Lewis.
We headed for our ferry at Lochmaddy where we arrived early enough to grab some food and drove onto the ferry which would take us to Uig on the Isle of Skye to begin the final full week of our holiday.
We arrived on Skye and made our way to our accommodation not far from the ferry port where we would then plot our weeks location targets
Onwards and upwards…