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!