We left Inverness this morning, crossing the River Ness
We drove very briefly through part of the peninsula called The Black Isle.Then we turned to go through Easter Ross towards Ullapool. On the way, we stopped to view Corrieshalloch Gorge, some 300 or 400 yards down a steep path from the car park.
We viewed the 45 metre high falls from a Victorian suspension bridge. The bridge has needed several repairs in the last 9 years, and it is now recommended that no more than 6 people should be on it at any time. We did observe this rule - especially when we noticed the bridge bouncing and swaying when somebody walked across it! It’s quite unsettling.
This is one of the most spectacular gorges in Scotland. It formed at the end of the ice age, about 10,000 years ago, as the meltwater from the ice sheets that had covered Scotland exploited existing lines of weakness in the underlying rock and eroded the gorge.
We drove on towards Ullapool, a pretty little town of just a few streets of white buildings facing the harbour.
Ullapool was established in 1788, Thomas Telford acting as consultant to the British Fisheries Society in the development of the village and harbour (he was also responsible for the Caledonian Canal which we saw yesterday and countless other canals, bridges and roads in Britain and abroad). Ullapool has had somewhat mixed fortunes since then, with periods of prosperity and periods of decline. Part of the harbour is pretty.
The harbour currently supports a domestic inshore shellfish fleet, creel and trawl fishing for prawns, crabs, lobsters and scallops. It also plays a pivotal role in the daily passenger, car and freight ferry service from Ullapool to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, run by Caledonian MacBrayne, known as CalMac. There are several sailings every day, including Sunday, which was very controversial when it began in 2009. Many on Lewis, particularly the Lord’s Day Observance Society and the Free Church of Scotland opposed the Sunday sailings. No shops open on a Sunday and it was apparently quite hard to arrange for us to get an evening meal!
We boarded the ferry about at 11, and spent some time taking photos from the deck both before and after it sailed, and some time in the comfortable Observation Lounge. We were fortunately in that it was a sunny day and the sea was a flat calm. The crossing took about two and a half hours, and we were able to spot a pod of dolphins on the way. Apparently this is quite common, and people also see humpback and minke whales and also orcas. We didn’t see any of those though. We arrived in Stornoway by 2pm.
Stornoway is the main town in the Western Isles and the capital of Lewis. It is small, having a population of about 8000. However, we did not spend any time in it. We set off immediately for Harris, intending to return to Stornoway after our evening meal in Tarbert. I should perhaps explain that Lewis and Harris are part of the same island, but are called the Isle of Lewis and the Isle of Harris. This could be because they are separated by mountains and the terrain is somewhat different.
Lewis is low and boggy and full of small lochs.
By contrast, Harris is more mountainous, though there are still many small lochs. But I never saw so many stony fields in my life - it really looked as if somebody was growing a crop of stones!
You can see I took this out of the bus when it was moving, so there are bits of the bus in the photo. By this time we were on very narrow roads, just single tracks with passing places.
After a long trip down these narrow roads, we arrived at Luskentyre Beach on the south west of Harris, a huge curve of while sand. The sand is fine and very soft, and the water is turquoise.
We walked down to the beach and along it. Some people paddled because it was such a lovely sunny day. We didn’t - I didn’t like the idea of putting damp sandy feet into my boots. Then we drove further to see another beach, even lovelier I think.
Then we made our way back to Tarbert for our supper. Apparently it is very difficult to get food anywhere on Lewis or Harris on Sundays, but Tarbert has a hotel that serves travellers as well as hotel guests.
Tarbert is the main town on Harris, but we did not get any time to explore it. We will have some time there on Tuesday before we catch the CalMac ferry to Skye.
After supper, we returned to Stornaway where we are staying for two nights - in a B&B, in our case.
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