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The wind was howling and the sea rolling after we boarded Monday morning’s ocean ferry from Berneray, bound for the next most northerly island in the Hebridean chain, the Isle of Harris (of Harris Tweed fame). We docked an hour and a half later at Leverburgh on Harris’ south coast and first motored to nearby Rodel to see the 16th century Church of St Clement, built by Alexander “Hunchback” MacLeod of Harris and Dunvegan (the nickname the result of a heinous sword wound that would have completely immobilized a lesser man than Alex).
It would be hard to imagine a greater contrast of landscape than that existing between the east and west coasts of South Harris, so we did a circuit to see the difference. The east coast is all rock and lunar-like while the west coast is fertile, grassy and with iridescent beaches that might make the Thais envious (Lonely Planet calls this coast “paradise refrigerated” – not a bad description). Of course we stopped in at a few of the small-scale establishments that still make the famous Harris Tweed, lightly dyed fabric of hand-woven Scottish sheep’s wool, and tried on an assortment of beautiful creations.
After an overnight stop at the beachside village of Drinishader, we headed north to the Isle of Lewis (Harris and Lewis are not really separate islands, but are connected by a narrow neck of land between two lochs, so it’s possible to drive a car from one to the other). Lewis has several nationally significant pre-historic sights; for example, the Standing Stones of Calanais (Callanish), an alignment in the form of a Celtic cross with an inner circle of 13 stones enclosing a central monolith over 12 feet tall. The amazing thing is that this structure was built around 5,000 years ago (older than Stonehenge) by Neolithic farmers and survives today. Being buried for a few centuries by peat that enveloped the area no doubt helped its survival. Nobody really knows what was the significance of the structure to the people who built it, though current-day theories abound.
We later stopped by Dun Charlabhaigh (Carloway) Broch, the ruins of a 2,000 year old roundhouse with great views across Loch Carloway to the sea beyond. Ancient houses like these were built by the wealthy and important during the Iron Age to impress and defend; obviously surviving ruins of such houses are extremely rare today.
And finally we came to Stornoway, Lewis’ main town where our Outer Hebridean adventure would end. But not before a fascinating hour in the Museum nan Eilean in Stornoway to see the fabulous Lewis Chessmen. Almost two hundred years ago, several incomplete sets of chessmen were unearthed on a Lewis beach. They were soon identified as Scandinavian in origin, dating from the 12th century when the Vikings ruled the region. The pieces were elaborately carved from walrus tusk ivory and whales’ teeth from Iceland. Most of the pieces found their way into the British Museum in London where to the chagrin of many Scots, they still “live” today. But in a fortunate coincidence for us, the British Museum has loaned several of the pieces for a temporary exhibition on Lewis in 2011, resulting in both the chessmen and us being in Stornoway on Tuesday.
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