An enriching encounter at Huisinis

I left Loch Crabhadail with some regret, it's a special place.  The fresh breeze was behind me as I headed back down the Caolas an Scarp toward Huisinis.  The wind combined with an  ebbing tide had me fairly racing along and I decided to continue around to the south facing beach rather than land on the slipway and trolley my boat back over the machair.

As I left the comparative shelter of the channel the ebb and wind began to oppose a big swell.  Rubha Huisinis (Huisinish Point) is a pretty "out there" place, fully exposed to the open ocean; in fact apart from a few skerries the next landfall to the west would be in Canada....

It's been a while since I've paddled in an Atlantic swell; this was the last image I took for quite a while.  While there was no breaking waves, the swell was typically long period and very powerful.  The noise of the swell bursting on the cliffs of the headland was really something and once I settled a bit the situation was really engaging.  I was acutely conscious of how thin the margins are here; a remote headland in a big sea in an area with little realistic prospect of rescue if things went wrong - it focuses the mind wonderfully!

Almost abreast of the point I entered a strange area of calm water where the foam from the bursting swells was forming a broad line arcing out from the headland.  There was no change in either breeze or swell but this just felt more relaxed and I followed the line of foam until I got close to the source at the south end of the headland.  It would have been interesting to get close in to the point, but prudence kept me at least a kilometre offshore.

Turning into the south facing bay brought an immediate change, sheltered from both wind and swell.  It was a different world and a relaxing end to a few hours on this great stretch of the Hebridean coast.  A gentle landing and a short carry up the beach were a bonus too.

There's a new building at Huisinis together with an enlarged parking area;the Huisinis Gateway is a great initiative by the community-owned North Harris Trust.  There are toilets and showers within the building along with indoor picnic benches and information boards.  A site for camper vans is a little way along the road too, constructed to keep vehicles off the sensitive machair.

As we packed up and had a flask of tea before heading back along the road, our day was made even better when we spent some time chatting with another visitor.  A very sprightly 97 year old gentleman stopped to look at the kayak and to talk about how kayak design has evolved.  He'd served in the Royal Navy throughout World War 2 and had then been one of the instructors at the Outward Bound school in Ullswater in the Lake District.  He mentioned a fifteen year stint in East Africa too....it was one of those conversations where one feels enriched by having met such a wonderful person; I really regret not asking his name and learning more about a life well-lived.  That he was holidaying with his daughter from his home in Devon (just about as far away as you can get in UK) and was full of excitement at the trip was just remarkable.

The black sheiling of Loch Crabhadail

The curving beach of Traigh Mheilein is a delight; a bold curve of dazzling white sand backed by dunes.  The seabed is also white sand for most of the width of the shallow Caolas an Scarp, and reflects light in beautiful aquamarine shades. I paddled along the length of the beach, then around Rubh an Tighe (point of the house) to land on yet another fine beach.

Even though it's comparatively sheltered, the beach at Loch Crabhadail (pronounced "Cravadale") clearly sees some big swell; the boulders at the top of the strand are of considerable size.  This is a quiet, empty spot, but it hasn't always been empty.

Between a small freshwater lochan and the beach, a distinctive pattern on the ground tells of different times when this land was farmed.  The system is known as rig and furrow, more commonly known as "lazy beds" (feannagan in Gaelic).

Scarcely can a more inappropriate term have been applied than "lazy".  The ground here is unpromising and poorly drained, so in order to grow crops it had to be modified.  The rigs were dug by hand and would have been built up using a mixture of sand and seaweed to make a usable gowing medium.  The furrows between the rigs helped to drain the soil and allowed potatoes and mabye some barley to be grown.  Usually the beds were re-made each year, sometimes at right angles to the previous year though here at Crabhadail they may have stayed in the same alignment due to the narrow site and the drainage to the lochan.  It must have been back breaking labour, but necessary to avoid starvation.  And, if that doesn't seem hard enough, when seaweed was in demand for making potash for glass and soap, many landlords banned their tenants from using it for fertilising the soil.

The line of an old wall can be seen at the end of the lazy beds, perhaps built to both shelter the crops from the wind and to keep out cattle.

What now seems an idyllic, lonely place would probably have held a couple of families - and although it's a beautiful setting, you can't live on a view.  This place was a sheiling, used mainly in summer by the people of Scarp and called Am Bhuaile Dubh (the black shieling).  Often it was the young folk and women who worked the sheilings, many Scarp and Harris men went away to work the herring fishery as the fish moved around the coast to the North Sea.

The remains of a couple of small houses can be seen, probably single roomed with low drystone walls and turf roofs.

The larger enclosures were used to confine cattle at night to stop them getting in at the crops; by day the beasts were herded away from the sheiling to graze.  There's a great deal of information about Scarp and the Crabhadail area on the Isle of Harris website -well worth a read.  As ever, these "rickles o' stanes" make me think about the people who made their lives here - all gone now.

Bogbean was flowering in the lochan, the waves on the beach were a gentle rhythm and above the crags a Golden Eagle turned on a thermal.  On this sunny day, Am Bhuaile Dubh and Loch Crabhadail were peaceful and evocative.  On another day just like today I'll come back here and camp in order to spend some time exploring and absorbing something of the place.

Huisinis - pure brilliant light

The first couple of days of our Hebridean holiday had been spent exploring Lewis from our base in Harris. The two are actually one island, but considered as separate entities.  The largest of the Scottish islands, Lewis and Harris are quite different from each other.

 

Where Lewis is fairly flat and has a landscape dominated by peat bogs, Harris is mountainous and has a rugged, rocky landscape fringed with jewel like beaches.  Harris itself is divided into North and South Harris, and is almost cut in two by the sea at Tarbert, the main settlement.  As elsewhere on the west coast and in the islands, the name "Tarbert" indicates a narrow neck of land between two bodies of water - the name derives from a Norse word meaning "draw-boat" and indicates a place where a longship could be hauled from one body of water to another across the land.

Great eagle country, North Harris has the highest population density of eagles anywhere in northern Europe and we were to see both Golden and Sea Eagles regularly, sometimes at close quarters.

But the thing that Harris is most notable for is the stunning quality of light.  We'd deliberately not gone to visit the coast while the weather was dull and wet, but the third day of our trip dawned bright and sunny, so we headed west...........

....to Huisinis, a crescent of white sand fringed with aquamarine and deep blue - this is what we'd come for!  The journey from Tarbert along a narrow, twisting single-track road takes much longer than the mileage would suggest - and this is a good thing.  Spectacular views, a landscape in parts otherwordly and wildlife (we had two good views of Golden Eagles above the road) are a great introduction, and the destination is well worth the effort.  Huisinis Bay faces south and was sheltered from a brisk northerly breeze; the sun was hot rather than warm which added to the impression of a slice of the tropics adrift in the Hebrides.

We strolled across the machair to the northern bay which has a good view up the Caolas Scarp.  The last time I was here was in 2011 and I was very much looking forward to more exploration of the area. A slipway gives access to the water, and this is was the only viable landing point when the island of Scarp was fully inhabited - these days there's just a couple of holiday homes and an occasionally used croft house.

I did my own bit of "draw boat" by pulling my kayak on a trolley over the machair path to launch from the slipway.  The northerly wind blowing down the Caolas (Kyle) an Scarp made for a bit of swell and a tricky launch but I got underway and headed out between Scarp, on the left of this image, and Harris.  I considered myself very fortunate - the kyle is shallow and in heavy weather swells break right across from shore to shore and travel the length of the channel, cutting off Scarp for days at a time. My first destination was the white sand beach on the right of the image.....

....which is actually the end of a curving beach backed by low dunes.  As I moved into shallower water the colours began to grow in intensity.....

......until they reached a crescendo as I landed on the shore and the sun emerged from behind high cloud.  This is the quintessential Harris scene, dazzling white sand and a sea of aquamarine, turquoise and violet shades.  It could scarcely get any more stunning....

...unless you add a brightly coloured sea kayak into the picture!  I spent a good time just strolling around on this beach, allowing the colours and the pure brilliance of the light to fully register.

The "other" Calanais

For the last stop on our visit to some of the ancient sites on Lewis, we returned to Calanais, but not to the main standing stones.

The main stone stones were visible and impressive on the skyline, the cross shaped formation is actually easier to appreciate from a distance than when among the stones.

Along the road from the visitor centre, a minor road leads to a small parking area.  On the skyline another stone circle can be seen, reached by a walk across a field.  This elliptical circle is known as "Calanais II", neither circle or individual stones are as large as Calanais, but it's an atmospheric place.

The 18 stones vary from 2 to 3 metres tall and are arranged in an ellipse on a ridge very close to Loch Roag. A metre of peat was removed from the site in 1858 to reveal the full extent of the stones, and it is believed that a timber circle preceded the stone one.  As at Calanais I, the orientation of the stones seems to be on the moonset.

A feature of Calanais II is that the stones are slender and proportionally tall. A slab lies near the westernmost standing stone, pointing to the centre of the circle where there's the remains of a cairn.

Just 200 metres from Calanais II, there's yet another stone circle in this remarkable area.

Across a rough field you come to Calanais III, a double concentric circle.  The outer ring has 13 stones, while the inner circle has just 4 stones remaining.  There's no central cairn here, and once again the balance of interpretation is that the circle was oriented to the major moonset.

There are over twenty neolithic sites in this part of Lewis, a remarkable concentration.  For over 5000 years the stones have been part of the landscape, impressive but never dominating their surroundings.  It's entirely likely that despite the crowds at Calanais I, you'll have these two circles to yourself - which adds to the experience.

As with all such sites, the Calanais stones inspired us to reflect on the community effort of construction, the stones in use and what's been lost in our understanding of the world.

Blown away by Dun Carloway

From Calanais we headed north along the road which hugs the coast of Lewis to a visit a place which I'd been really looking forward to, possibly more so than the stones we'd just seen.

Dun Charlabhaigh (Dun Carloway) is visible from a long way, and was meant to be seen.  An iconic outline on a prominent ridge line, even in a partially ruined state it's a striking sight.

Dun Carloway is a broch; a type of fortified residence unique to the north of Scotland, the Northern Isles and Western Isles.  A "Broch" can be described as a tapered round tower construction with more than one internal floor level, and the walls are usually galleried internally.

Built around 100BC, Dun Carloway was constructed at a time when brochs were beginning to be replaced by buildings which required less in the way of resources, particularly timber.  It may have been in use as late as 1000AD, which is quite late in comparison with other brochs.

Even in a partially ruined state you can clearly see the two walls with galleries in between.  The ruin stands nine metres tall at its highest point and is likely to have been somewhat higher.  It would have been had a conical timber roof and timber floors at each level - a significant use of what's a scarce resource on Lewis.  Much of the stone from the side which is easier to access has been re-purposed into constructing nearby blackhouses in the past, before the site became one of the first to be taken into national protection under Historic Scotland.

The quality of construction is astonishingly high.  No mortar was used, the walls are drystone built with hardly a gap - the building of a concentric, tapering tower of stone in this way must have required skill and vision; and must have been commissioned by a person of significant power.

The stairways between floor levels spiral up inside the walls themselves and are still in remarkably good condition.  You have to remind yourself that the brochs date from the Iron Age, but the folk who built this were far from primitive or uneducated.  Given that Dun Carloway has stood here for over 2000 years, the fact that internal stairways are intact and usable is nothing short of astonishing; how many modern structures will last that long? 

The graceful taper of the walls is carried through internally in the galleries which run around each level.  It's likely that livestock could be housed at the ground level with human occupants living above.  Brochs are believed to be part defensive refuges and part impressive statements of power and control - several were probably used as refuges from Norse raiders well after they had ceased to be permanently occupied.

Supporting stone slabs were used higher in the structure to strengthen the whole - the more one explores the more the skill and vision of the broch builders becomes evident.

Dun Carloway is looked after by Urras nan Tursachan (Standing Stones Trust) who also look after the stones at Calanais and there's a small visitor centre below the hill which is built to echo the broch itself and is partially underground. Access to the broch is free and you can explore the inside by going through a small gate at the ground level entrance.  We were blown away by Dun Carloway

We were blown away by Dun Carloway.  In contrast to Calanais there was just two other people around and we were able to glimpse the power, symbolism, the setting of the broch and the craft of its builders.  If you visit Lewis, don't miss Dun Carloway!