Clan Morrison and Clan MacAulay used to steal each others cattle and then fight with each other. In the 16th century, a member of the MacAulay clan climbed the broch to root out cattle stealing Morrisons who were hiding in the broch, he smoked them out by lightening heather on fire and throwing it into the broch.
Then we went to meet the Lewis soapmaker who has done a fabulous job of remodelling an old stone croft into her workshop and store. The humidity is so high I asked her how well her soap cures, she does a steep water discount and the soap never does harden up very well. She is the only soapmaker on Lewis and does very well, she also wholesales to a company in Japan. Her house is across the road and she has the most beautiful ducks with black feathers.
Then we drove down the road to Calanais II and III. We actually cheated and went to Calanais I the day before because it was sunny. We had to practically walk right through a guy’s yard to get to Calanais II. On the way back it was raining so I asked him how he got any work done in this rain. He was hilarious and said it doesn’t go through his skin but if it did he would be in trouble. He had a few pigs rooting up the yard.
The Calanais stones are Lewis gneiss, a light grey colour, gneiss is very old rock. Calanais I is really amazing, the layout is quite complex. To the north, there is a long avenue of stones that lead to a double circle with the tallest stone in the centre. I couldn’t resist walking down to the end and up the avenue to begin my visit. Three single lines come out from the double circle in the other three directions. It is estimated that the avenue and circle were placed before 2000 BC, while the other three lines and a burial cairn were placed around 1500 BC. Originally, the site had been used by farmers who constructed lazy beds (built up tracts of earth) for growing crops. The one thing that is a bit of a drag is that the fence lines are close to the stones and houses are not far away so you don’t get the same feeling of the stones standing alone in the landscape like you do at Ring of Brodgar in Orkney.
Some hippy looking dude came while we were there and put a mat down to sit among the inner circle so we had to shoot our pics on various angles so he was hidden behind stone. I cannot imagine the place in summer, the guys at the visitors centre said they got 40,000 visitors, their numbers increased by 40% since the gov’t altered the ferry fare to a road equivalent price, that means lower.
We went out for dinner last night to the local restaurant which is run by very nice English people, the English seem to be spreading out all over Scotland, we have encountered this often. The food was really good, I tried black pudding as the butchers in Stornoway are world renowned for their black pudding. I won’t comment on what is in black pudding and I don’t think of these things when I eat it. It was served with a nice mustard sauce which complimented the black pudding very well.
Then we went into Stornoway for the Don Black concert at An Lanntair Arts Centre. This guy was just great to watch, he has a very casual attitude and plays a whole bunch of harmonicas, switching between them in rapid succession. He is middle-aged (yeah idiotic term but the guy is not a youngster) and has been playing the harmonica since he was 4 years old. He played mainly west Highland and Highland music and some Canadian Cape Breton music as well, it was incredible. When he talked about the Cape Breton music he said he was going to drink Canadian Club, I was thinking, omfg, why anybody drinks that crap I don’t know. Which reminds me, time for the whisky report of the day.
John measures all whisky against Highland Park so that is what he had, I had a Bowmore from the Isle of Islay, it was peaty as is most of the whisky distilled on the Islands, very good. The people who run the restaurant were telling us about the horror of tourists ordering coke to put in their single malt whisky.
Back to the concert, Don Black also told bad jokes. There was a Highlander living in the Lowlands and his friend said to him, you don’t go home much, the Highlander said, no, just for weddings and funerals. I prefer the funerals because I get the same amount of whisky but don’t have to buy a gift, hahahaha. Okay, I will leave out the Irish joke but will tell you one more. A guy was sitting in the café enjoying his fish and chips and beans when three burly bikers walked in. One biker went up to the guy, grabbed the beans off his plate and ate them, the guy eating said nothing. Then the next biker came over and grabbed all the chips off his plate and ate them. The third biker then came over and grabbed all the fish and ate it. All this time the guy just sat there quietly and did nothing. Then he went up and paid for his food and left. Another person in the restaurant said to the waitress, did you see that, they took his food and he did nothing, he isn’t much of a man. The waitress said, he isn’t much of a driver either, he just backed into three motorcycles, hahahahahaha.
It is goodbye to Lewis today, we are back on the ferry making the 2 3/4 hour crossing to mainland Scotland. I really liked Lewis, it is very different from Orkney but both are a must on the travel list, travelling rural is the very best.
Calanais III
Calanais II
Calanais I
Dun Charlabhaigh
Oh, those stones, those glorious and lovely stones!
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