Saturday 30 June 2012 – Isle Ornsay to Arisaig

A bit windy overnight and some disturbance whilst another boat motored about and re-anchored.  I waited up for a while to see if they would stay put.  All the boats seemed rather close. Later, in daylight, they were all further away again – it’s strange what a difference darkness makes to distance judgement.

There did not seem to be anything special here to persuade us to make the long trip ashore, so we headed over to Loch Nevis for a brief recce as this is a place we would like to visit later, preferably in better weather.  Loch Nevis has mountains all round and those on the windward (South) side are close to the loch. We soon started getting big gusts coming from the mountains, so dropped sails and motored to the visitors moorings at Inverie.  We found the bay more sheltered than I had expected.  There are a few houses and a pub.  The unusual feature here is that although there is a road linking the houses around the loch it does not connect to the rest of the road network.  This is part of the lonely Knoydart peninsula.  To get here you either come by boat or have a full day’s walk from the nearest proper road.

This place needs a bit of time to explore properly, followed by a meal at the pub.  There was not the time or weather for exploring, so we had lunch on a visitors’ mooring and headed to Arisaig, where we anchored in the Loch as our mooring is not available until tomorrow

Follow our track on Google Maps.

The anchorage at Isle Ornsay

View looking N up Sound od Sleat towards Kyle Rhea

Friday 29 June 2012 – Mallaig to Isle Ornsay

Barometer reads 987 but it seems a fine mild day with some sun.  The XC Weather forecast at the marina is lots better, mainly in terms of lesser wind strength, than the Inshore Waters forecast.  Bought our train tickets home and did some more shopping, in particular some prawns (in the restaurant they call them langoustines) and Camping Gaz and diesel.  Among the outer isles we had seen some fish carrier ships, Viktoria Viking and Ronja Viking.  They collect the fish from the fish farms (by pumping them from the cage into a tank on the ship) and bring them alive to a factory at the dockside at Mallaig.  Here they are killed and pumped into tanker lorries together with ice and water.  They are then taken to the processing factory, with about 200 tons leaving every night – maybe that’s why Mallaig is not as peaceful as some places for an overnight stay.  The other reason may be the 2 ferries which berth there overnight and keep their generators running.

Mallaig is a good little town to do basic shopping.  However although the pontoons are nice and new and solid they have not provided any toilets, showers and stuff – we are supposed to wander round the town and find them.  For this we are charged the price for a top marina: £2/m +VAT + more for electricity; however we were given a slight discount.

After lunch we had a slow sail to Isle Ornsay, which is a bit to the North, on the Skye side.  It is a popular anchorage with plenty of room.  Too wet to go ashore, so we had prawns for supper.  Tomorrow we go to Arisaig, but on the way we hope to look at one or 2 other anchorages for future reference.

Follow our track on Google Maps.

Visitors pontoons at Mallaig

View into Loch Nevis

Thursday 28 June 2012 – Loch Slapin to Mallaig

Not the sort of weather to enjoy a walk up Bla Bheinn, or any other mountain, so we left Loch Slapin and sailed painfully slowly to the Point of Sleat, where the wind picked up a bit.  Moored at the new (last year) pontoons at Mallaig.  On the way in to the harbour we were met by 3 Bottle-nosed Dolphins.  These are bigger than the Common Dolphins which we have seen so far.

Did some essential food shopping.  Tomorrow we will buy train tickets ready to go South

Follow our track on Google Maps (I know it goes over land - must have been late turning the GPS on)

Quiet morning in Loch Slapin

A bit cloudier when we leave

View up Loch Nevis

Wednesday 27 June 2012 – Loch Scavaig to Loch Slapin

Mild and with very low cloud.  Decided to move on to Armadale or Isle Ornsay or somewhere else.  We soon ran out of wind and decided to motor to the nearest place, which was Loch Slapin.  This gives access to go up Bla Bheinn, but we want better weather for that!  This evening, after an afternoon of reading and knitting, the cloud seems to be down to masthead height.

Follow our track on Google Maps.

Leaving Loch Scavaig

The cloud starts to lift

Tuesday 26 June 2012 – Soay to Loch Scavaig

A quick look ashore showed that although there are a few houses on the island only 2 or 3 seem to be lived in.  Some look like holiday places and others are derelict.

I lifted the anchor to find a huge pile of weed on it – possibly the result of dropping it at random in the poor light last night.  Motored over to Loch Scavaig which is spectacularly placed right under the mountains of the Black Cuillin.  This is a top destination by boat as it cannot be reached by road and is a long walk by footpath. It also has the interesting distinction as the place most subject to gusts coming down from the mountains in any sort of wind – however the wind was light and mostly blowing into the loch.  After lunch went ashore and walked round Loch Coruisk, which is a fresh water loch in the heart of the Cuillins. Enjoyed excellent views of the jagged Cuillin ridge, which is a bit out of our range as you need to be prepared for rock climbing to attempt most of the peaks. Rained a bit but did not tip down until we were back on the boat.

Follow our track on Google Maps.

Soay Harbour

Soay Harbour

Approaching Loch Scavaig,
yachts at anchor, Cuillin in the background

Enjoying lunch in the sunshine

Loch Coruisk

Loch Coruisk

The mountains dominate the anchorage

Returning in the rain

Monday 25 June 2012 – Loch Maddy to Soay

Filled up with water at the ferry pier and headed off towards Skye without much hope of going far without a lot of motoring.  However the wind was fair and with the cruising chute up we just made enough speed.  The cloud slowly lifted and eventually the sun came out.  Eventually we started the engine near Loch Brittle and motored to Soay.  Were met by dolphins in Soay Sound; they stayed with us for 10 minutes and we took a lot of poor photos  I had earlier had a glimpse of a Minke whale after hearing it blow.

Dolphins in Sound of Soay, near Skye

Tomorrow we hope to go to Loch Scavaig which gives a good view of the Black Cuillin.

Follow our track on Google Maps.

Cuillin Ridge

Basalt cliffs on the W side of Skye

Dolphins

Dolphins

Sunday 24 June 2012 – Rodel to Loch Maddy

Sailed from Rodel to Loch Maddy.

Bike ride across the island to Bharpa Langass where we took in the short circular walk to an unusual chambered tomb and a stone circle.  Tea in the hotel and then we continued to the West coast.  The piece of coast that we reached was reminiscent of the Frisian Islands in that there are sandy islands running parallel with the coast and separated from the mainland by shallow muddy water.  The machair was disappointing here too – I presume it has been badly affected by the drought.   We tried to find another standing stone which was marked on the map. No luck, so we returned back over the island.  The inland part is a big peat bog with many small lakes.  There are many small peat diggings as peat is a common domestic fuel.

Follow our track on Google Maps.

Follow the track of the ride / walk.

Entrance to the Chambered Cairn,
closed because of a structural problem

Peeping through the entrance

Lochs and peat

Stone circle

West coast scenery

Peat cutting

Peat drying

Visitors’ moorings at Loch Maddy

Saturday 23 June 2012 – Rodel

Visited the famous St Clement’s Church at Rodel.  Apparently it is the second biggest old church in the Hebrides, but seems quite small, and contains a specially decorated tomb or 2.

We were given 2 mackerel by the chef at the hotel after he and his assistant arrived back from their morning fishing trip.  We were then given 2 crabs by a fisherman who really only wanted to catch lobster.  Lunch at the hotel.  Dried out in the harbour to check for fouling on the bottom (none) and clean the prop again (hardly necessary).  Biked over to the other side of the island.  After-supper beer at the hotel then returned to the mooring as we did not want to have to supervise taking the ground in the small hours.

St Clement’s church – special Tomb

St Clement’s church

St Clement’s church

Nearly dried out at Rodel

Golf on the machair – W of N Uist

Ancient standing stone

Friday 22 June 2012 – Loch Scadabay to Rodel

The entrance to Rodel is tidal, so there was no point in being there early.  Loafed around in poor weather in the morning.  Later the sun came out so we left and sailed to Rodel.

Follow our track on Google Maps.

Looking out of the narrow entrance to Loch Scadabay

Steering seems stressful in the narrow channel

Entering Rodel

Thursday 21 June 2012 – South Harris

Went ashore with the bikes to look for the Weaving centre.  Good thing we took the bikes as it was not as close as it looked on the map and we started by going the wrong way.  Anyway we covered lots of narrow road through Cnoc and Lochan countryside – lots of little round rocky hills with little lochans in between, many of them having water lilies.  Anyway the Weaving Centre turned out to be nothing better than a shop selling expensive tweed and knitwear and was not as good as another shop which we passed on the way.  The nearest we got to weaving was to hear the clatter of a loom from a shed beside a house.

Getting back to Loch Scadabay, we found we could not launch the dinghy where we had landed, so had to fiddle about carrying everything to a different place.  By the time we got back to the boat is was a bit late to move on, so we are staying.  Forecast not great – going to cyclonic tomorrow – so we will see how it looks in the morning.  It’s our turn for a depression to come this way – most of the recent ones have passed further south, flooding Wales or going up the English Channel.

Water lilies in wee lochan

Cnoc and Lochan countryside

Oops. The water has gone down too far

Loch Scadabay

Loch Scadabay is a very sheltered place

Wednesday 20 June 2012 – Stornoway to Loch Scadabay

Shopping then left to go South and visit some of the places which we missed in the dash for gas.  Strangely the gas cylinder has still not run out, and with a spare now in the boat we have enough for this part of the trip.

After a hard-earned 32 miles we reached Loch Scadabay.  This has a very narrow entrance and then opens out to a perfectly sheltered pool, where we anchored in the middle.  There are about a dozen houses around the loch, with a number of streetlights.  These seemed incongruous but must be welcome in the early winter evenings.

Follow our track on Google Maps.

Passing Scalpay with Eilean Glas lighthouse

Narrow entrance to Loch Scadabay

Tuesday 19 June 2012 – Sightseeing on Lewis

More brilliant weather, though a little cold.  We took the bikes on the bus to the Callanish Stone Circle, which we found very interesting and had a look round before many people turned up.  We are now on the well-trodden tourist trail so keep finding people wandering into the photos.  On the plus side there are more tea-shops.  The stones are possibly No 2 in terms or historical importance after Stonehenge in the UK, but have the great advantage that you are free to walk round them and there are not many other visitors.  It was related to the moon whereas Stonehenge is based on the sun.  We also took a look at the 2 other smaller circles nearby, then moved on to Carloway Broch.  This was one of the earliest sites to be protected by law as an ancient monument to stop people taking the stones away.  Quite a bit is missing, but the remainder is impressive for something about 2500 years old.

Fast forward a couple of millennia and we find ourselves a few miles away at a village of Black Houses which was occupied until 1974.  Thermal insulation of the black houses is better than modern building standards, but they do lack water, sanitation and other useful stuff, so they are maintained as a museum.  I was surprised to find that these houses were built between 1850 and 1900, probably the same time as the smart and comfortable old houses in Stornoway, just 20 miles away (or maybe half a world away).  There are many ruins of similar buildings in the area.

Follow the track of the bus and bike ride.

Callenish Stones

Callenish Stones

Callenish II

Callenish III

Carloway Broch

Within the wall of the Broch

View from Carloway Broch

Inside a Black House

View from the coast walk

Hattersley Loom in a Black House