On the Hebrides

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Tuesday was an easy day in Inverness. The first part of the day we traveled by boat out to the Castle Urquhart on Loch Ness and were dropped off for an hour. After our return we headed to the Loch Ness Exhibit Center which is dedicated to telling the story (scientifically) of the Nessie mystery. It was a pretty good exhibit for 6 pounds. After that we went off to the battle of Culloden interpretive center that open up just last year. The center was great and gave an excellent description of the battle, the atrocities that took place after and the significance to the shaping of the world today on how that battle turned out. That was pretty much it for Inverness, short but sweet.

Yesterday was a travel day... Since our ferry didn't leave until 5:30 in the afternoon, we took the long way by first heading South (completely the wrong direction) the headed a bit West. We found the natural reserve area around Glen Affric. We did some hill walking (that's hiking in Scottish), found some excellent views, and did it all in a steady drizzle. We're getting close to becoming true Highlanders. After that we stopped at Bealy for lunch and that's where we started to notice something... as we got closer to the islands, the tourist got older, if there was an island to the west of Lewis the tourist would be dead. Anyway we got to Ullapool with engineer's time to spare so we walked around there for a while. It was a pretty uneventful ferry ride except for the excellent curry chicken and chips. Once we got to Stornoway (on the Isle of Lewis) we went straight to our B&B which was about 6 miles out of town. (Great place to stay if you're here, it's called the Crowberry)

Today we toured the island of Lewis... First stop was the stone circle at Callnish(picture Stonehenge just a little less sophisticated), then it was off to the Black House museum at Gurrannan. The black houses are home where people live right up unit a few years ago(many are now fixed up and let out at summer cottages). They're basically 3 or 4 room buildings with barn on one end, kitchen in the middle and bedroom on the other. These are the houses of the crofters who lived off the land and many still do. It’s pretty cool to see the traditions being kept up.(without the cramped quarters) They were heated with dried peat which on the Isle of Lewis is in great supply, but difficult to harvest. Again it’s still a significant source of heat for the islanders and as you're driving around you see the pile of peat drying in the wind. Near the end of the day we went out to the Butt of Lewis (that's the very tip). Due west from there is nothing until you hit Newfoundland. The nearby town of Port Ness also has a nice sandy beach. We ended the day up by strolling through Stornoway.

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