The Outer Hebrides - Lewis and Harris

Back on the Scottish mainland we had a stop at Wick Pets at Home for some more food and treats (Woofbrushes) for Purdy with an overnight stay at Fortrose. The next day we visited Fort George on the other side of the Moray Firth and were lucky enough to spot several large pods of Bottlenose Dolphins just off the shore. The fort is still home to the 'Black Watch' regiment (now part of the Royal Regiment of Scotland) so only some of it was accessible.

Suits you Sir!

We travelled to Ullapool for the ferry the next day to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. We had a lovely flat and warm crossing with glimpses of Dolphins and Fin Whales on route.

On entering the Isle of Lewis the weather took a turn for the worse - it had to come! We demounted Muy at a campsite and visited some local sites along the west coast.

Arnol Blackhouse (a traditional dwelling)

Carroway Broch

Callanish Stones (a disappointment!)

A friendly standing stone!

Chessmen everywhere - a hoard of missing pieces from Scandinavian
sets from the 12th century were dug up in Lewis in the 1800s 

Most of Lewis is quite bland, made up from a lot of boggy flat moorland and not very inspiring so with the weather against us as well we quickly moved south to Tarbert in Harris. Harris and Lewis are connected but they are talked about as separate islands. We had a day out driving along a great single track road to Hushinish.

Lovely old building in Tarbert

The road to Hushinish weaves through the grounds of a
castle which is a private residence

Hushinish beach

Lots of rainbows that day!

A walk in search of Eagles togged up in waterproofs!

The Eagle Observatory

We only saw loads of midges - dead luckily but very interesting as they
had all hit the glass whilst in a swarm (and drowned in the condensation).

We did see some young Red deer stags

Lovely Northton beach in South Harris

We liked South Harris better but with the bad weather and nothing to really inspire us we decided to leave earlier than we thought and took our next ferry to North Uist.