September 2024:
Gill and I set off from Gullane, embarking on a scenic 180-mile drive through Scotland's breathtaking countryside to Oban on our way to The Outer Hebrides, and back via Ullapool. Our route took us past the stunning Loch Lomond, where the views were nothing short of magnificent. The highlight was the old military road over "Rest and Be Thankful," a picturesque route that truly lived up to its name. We stopped for lunch in Arochar and explored the charming town of Inveraray, home to a fabulous castle worth visiting: Inveraray Castle.
The Outer Hebrides:
This is a link to a pretty cool website that will help you get to know the Islands -where to stay, places to visit etc: some history
Barra:
We took the ferry from Oban to Barra Island. Caledonian MacBrayne seem to provide all the ferry services. There has been a lot of criticism of these ferries and the services, but we enjoyed seamless ferry rides throughout the entire trip and the people we met were extremely nice and helpful. (Calmac)
We stayed at the Barra Island Hotel. Very nice and run by some really lovely people. Breakfast and dinner were excellent, with a lovely dining room and lounge areas. The whole island is tiny and very easy to get around to see everything pretty much in a morning. One cool thing to do is see the plane land on the beach at the airport.
South Uist via Eriskay:
From Barra, we took the ferry to South Uist via Eriskay. The ferry ride itself is very short and Eriskay was a bit of a disappointment. The island is famous for the sinking of a boat loaded with cases of whisky, made into a book and later film called “Whisky Galore” by Compton Mackenzie. The boat was called the SS politician, and there is a place that supposedly was the site of the bar that coordinated the rescue of the whisky, but now it looks like someone’s house which was a bit disappointing. South Uist is quite different from Barra. It’s much bigger and has some spectacular mountains to the west. It also has Ashkernish golf course.
Benbecula:
After visiting Ashkernish, we drove up to Benbecula. This is a tiny island south of Harris, linked via causeways. We stayed at the ominously sounding Dark Island hotel (hotel) which was a perfectly acceptable place. It is close to a lovely bay, and about a 15 minute drive to the main town. We had dinner one night in the hotel - ok. The other night we went to Charlie’s Bistro (Charlie's). This was terrific. We had a really great meal, and the service was just super.
North Uist:
Our journey continued to North Uist, where we visited various galleries and enjoyed delicious lobster rolls at a café on Berneray (Berneray Shop and Bistro), which served some of the best we've ever had.
South Harris:
Driving from Leverburgh to Harris Golf Course revealed stunning beaches like Seilbost and Luskentyre that rival tropical paradises.
Lewis:
From Harris, we drove up to Stornaway. This is a really spectacular drive. The mountain range off to the west is just amazing. We stayed at the Royal Hotel, for the first night only, as it was incredibly noisy and the bedroom quite uncomfortable. We were able to move to The Cabarfeidh instead, (cabarfeidh). This is a good hotel, which is going to get better as it goes through significantly renovation. We really liked Kopi Java, a great place to get coffee and snacks. ( Java). Blake’s Bar and Grill on Bank Street was also really quite good. The town has a rather striking memorial to the soldiers who fell during the first great war. It’s on a hill that affords sweeping views of the area and well worth the visit. We went to the Coll Pottery Centre, about 5 miles out of town. (Pottery). We thought the pottery was really very good.We took a trip to The Butt of Lewis lighthouse at Ness Point. ( Butt). We also drove over to the amazing Callanish Standing stones. These stone circles are really fascinating, and there are several of them in the area. (Stones) . Why and how people built these circles is the subject of much speculation. They seem to date from 2900BC, that makes them older than Stonehenge. From Callanish we drove over to the Gerarranan Blackhouse Village. Again, this is a fascinating glimpse into the very distant past. There is a good amount of information about the place, and some of the houses have been upgraded and you can stay there.
Ullapool:
From Stornaway, we took the ferry to Ullapool which takes about three hours. This was fun as we saw several pods of dolphins and one gigantic whale. Also, the views of the area around Ullapool truly are spectacular.
Ullapool to Edinburgh is around 4 hours, and the drive takes you through the extremely attractive Spey Valley where there are several other great places to visit and play golf like Boat of Garten (website)for example.
Golf:
We did briefly visit Ullapool Golf. website. The 9 hole course runs alongside Loch Broom, with just wonderful views across the bay. The Club began life in 1998.
