Thursday 23 June 2011

Isle Of Lewis

Here's the unfeasibly beautiful place I am staying tonight. Unfortunately it's not actually called (or pronounced) Barrabas, the English is Barvas.





This is the view from my B&B:



This is mostly a monolingual place, and the language isn't English. By coincidence I chose the town where the highest percentage of people in the UK speak a non-English language - 74.7% speak Gaelic. Whereas in the Highlands Gaelic is on roadsigns as the second language - almost a touristy gimmick - there are roadsigns here which aren't actually in English at all.

Gearraidh na h-Aibhne is Garynahine in English, Liurbost is Leurbost (OK, that one's close), Steornabhagh is Stornoway, Tairbeart is Tarbert. Rathad Aon-fhillte means Single Track Road.



While in Stornoway I had a chance to visit the Lewis chessmen exhibition. There was more than three, but I couldn't go round and photograph every case! I don't think the last exhibit is actually a Norse relic.









I'm back in Stornoway again, sitting in the Arts Centre as I think it's the only place in town with wifi. It's 9.15pm and the sun is still out ...



The sort of thing you see everywhere in the world in town centres except England. The inscription on the edge reads: "A'leth-aithneachadh gach duine air a chuideachd, aithne gun chuimhne, is cuimhne gun aithne". It's from "Air an Aiseig gu Leodhas" by Derick Thomson and it translates as "Half-recognising each by his kin, a knowing-without-remembering, and a remembering-without-knowing". Thank you, random bloke on Flickr!

Callanish (or Calanais, if you're a local)

Finally got to Lewis then. Had to make ELEVEN calls before I found a place to stay that had vacancies - why didn't I book ahead? Glad I didn't because I found a very nice place in a quiet village on the west side of the island, with an off-licence not too far away.

Anyway, back to the ancient relics. How many photos of these things can I take?
Let's find out ...
















Oh and check out the SHADOWS and the BLUE SKIES, we have SUN here! I am listening to Boring Wimbledon on the car radio (yes, they get DAB out here, amazingly) and I know it's raining down there!

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Ullapool

Maybe the fourth or fifth time I have visited but the first time I have stayed here. Still seems exactly the same as when I first came here.







My favourite ex-Esso station on the edge of any town. All that's missing is a blue Capri.





This is the hotel I stayed in, one block back from the shore.





It had its own bookshop - if you look carefully through the doorway you can see the bar. And good old Maisie mouse, she gets everywhere!



The Long Hard Drive From Aberdeen To Ullapool

I think this took me about NINE hours in total. It wasn't so bad as I got to Aberdeen at 7am, and made it to Duncansby Head by about 1. Had an hour or so in the morning but after that it was just overcast with the occasional bit of blue sky and sun.

Of course there wasn't much to photograph for the first few hours except Scottish football grounds:

Elgin City



Forres Mechanics





I think this was my favourite one because I was able to drive up to the pitch itself. Plus you can visit the Red Beastie after the game.





Inverness Caledonian Thistle, taken safely from the A9.



Brora Rangers





Wick Academy



Can't wait for the new season to start and the Highland League results to come up on the BBC, so I can shout "I've been there!" at the TV.

Anyway enough of the football for today. This was the first bilingual road sign I saw. I didn't see another one until I was out of the north east and much closer to Ullapool.



After a long drive up the A9, on something that at least resembled a proper road, I got to Duncansby Head, the most north-easternly corner of the British mainland.







This was the first of three stops close together to visit the local "first and last" landmarks. The second was John O'Groats. I don't know why it gets such a bad press, it's not THAT bad, especially compared to Land's End which is much tackier. It was a shame to see the John O'Groats Hotel boarded up. Many years ago I had an enjoyable evening of drinking beer and playing pool there before sitting down on the waterfront behind it to watch the sun go down over the Orkneys at about 11pm.







Finally, Dunnet Head, the most northernly point on the British mainland. As the sign says.





Had a brief stop at Bettyhill to see the Farr Stone, an 8th century Pictish thing.







After that it was about 80 miles to Ullapool, mostly on single track roads. There was pretty much only one town on the way, Lairg. That was a tough afternoon, although there wasn't much traffic at all - I might have seen another car every 3 or 4 miles.



Tuesday 21 June 2011

Lerwick

As the major city on the islands, hard to describe the feel of it. Big, empty and loving the Vikings, I think.



We didn't have a King Erik, did we?



This is pretty much the town square. Had a great bookshop by it though.



I have to admit that I love record shops but I didn't go into this one for some reason. Perhaps I might have bumped into an angry Clive, who is selling the shop according to a notice in the window. Perhaps he runs Shetland Turf Accountants which is situated in the basement.



Perhaps it was the pricing. Yes, that's right, you can buy this new album on cassette only for 12 quid!



Shetland's biggest department store! They have THREE departments, listed proudly on the shop. Toys are on the second floor, would that be the tiny dirty attic on top? They advertise in one of the local magazines saying "London has Harrods, we have Harry's!" Why do I automatically think of Ireland's biggest lingerie department?





Just opposite Harry's, towards the end of the main shopping street, is a well-preserved Georgian fort. It's always nice to see that in a town centre.