Saturday 8th July
Leaving Uist for Harris – the last leg of the journey

We parked up yesterday on the little island of Berneray, in the very North of Uist ready to sail the next morning. Unfortunately, it was quite exposed and there were windy rainstorms all night meaning we had very unsettled sleep.

After the nights storms, we were amazed to be sailing on calm seas. It’s not far from North Uist to South Harris but there are lots of rocks and small islands which the boat navigates through, so it takes an hour. It is a lovely journey.


Our friends were waiting at the port to met us and had also just arrived on Harris. It was really lovely to see them and we excitedly shared experiences from each other’s journeys.

We then visited St Clements church on the very Southern point of Harris. It’s a very interesting church in many ways. It’s built around the base stones of Roineabhal, the southern most mountain know as An Aite Boidheach (the beautiful place). The majority of the locals are fighting to stop the building of one of Europe’s largest super-quarries where Roineabhal would virtually disappear in the next 70 years.

St Clements church has many stones in the graveyard that are very old, not the carved and polished headstones we use nowadays.

One small stone with a hole in it was different. Then there is a tower you can climb. Small steep stone stairs that tightly snake up to a small room where there are ladders that go up two floors to the top.
We found the sheelagh-na-gig halfway up the South side of the tower and, unusually, she has a male counterpart displaying his genetiallia on the towers west face.

 

We drove up the West coast of Harris which is just stunning and today quite dramatic with the dark clouds. The golden sands of wind swept beaches and beautiful blue sea, which you know would be turquoise in the Sun.

We parked up and all walked along a beach and up onto the machair (a Gaelic term describing the sand enriched coastal grassland) up to a glorious and majestic standing stone.

What I love about seeking standing stones is that their surroundings are usually beautiful. I just love this landscape and I love walking with the land. It fulfils something deep within.

We are now parked up on one of these beautiful beaches and will travel tomorrow to the cottages, all our friends and the Major Lunar Standstill, the climax of our journey.