Tuesday 17th June

After breakfast, we first went to Arnol Blackhouse.  The weather was alternating between being misty and clear today, and first thing was misty.  The Blackhouse was cosy inside and the smell of the peat fire was rather intense!  It reminded me of the Iron Age round houses we went into when we were in Ireland.  The Whitehouse across the road was an example of how they modernised - still using peat to keep the fire going and the box beds to sleep in, but the building was made just like houses today.  Apparently they didn't work out at first because the new builds let more damp in, so families went back to their Blackhouses whilst the damp problem was fixed.

Next, we went to Shawbost Norse Mill & Kiln - the mist came down again and we walked along a path to the Mill and Kiln which were open access.  The mill had everything in it, including a diagram showing how it worked.  Next door and on the same side of the stream which babbled next to it was the kiln, which was more like a corn-drier with a roof.

Afterwards, we went to the Callanish Stones.  We went into the visitors centre first to read the interpretation and a short video.  Before we came here, I hadn't actually looked at what the arrangement of the stones were like, so I wasn't expecting the stones running off the sides almost in a cross-like formation if you look at it from above.  It's quite an impressive monument, and the first time we have ever seen a burial cairn INSIDE a stone circle.  In the distance we saw two other stone circles known as 'Callanish II' and 'Callanish III' which we walked over to.  We also noticed the metal gates by these stone circles had been designed to show stick people propping up stones, and also the sun and moon alignments.  I wondered how many people notice those when they get there?  We thought they were quite fun!  The stone circles here were very small, but they were both on small mounds but high enough to see the other two stone circles from.  It was definitely worth wandering out to these two because you get a wider sense how the rest of the landscape fits in around monuments like this, when you're outside the touristy area.  These were a little way out and there weren't many people there, and of course the only visitors centre was at the main and largest stone circle.

After, we walked back to the visitors centre for some lunch. I had a tomato, cheese and  pesto ciabatta whilst Mathew had a quiche salad.  Afterward we were naughty and had some dangerous pudding - I had a strawberry cream pie and Mathew had some apple pie with whipped cream, which had actually been recommended by David from the B&B we were staying at.  He told us that they often go there during the winter just to have the apple pie!

Stomachs full, we went on to Carloway Broch where, shortly after we pulled into the car park, we noticed a tour bus approaching.....so we made it quick sharpish to the Broch and took lots of photos - they were really fast coming up the path so by the time we were towards finishing exploring the Broch for ourselves, it was full of a Dutch tour group!  We stayed up there for a little while longer taking photos before returning to the tiny interpretation centre and shop, which I thought was worth the visit and quite a good use of space here!

Finally, we made our way to Gerranan Blackhouse Village as the tour group went on to Callanish.  Gerrannan Blackhouse Village is part holiday accommodation, part museum.  We were able to go into one house which had been modernised like the Whitehouse which we saw earlier today, but in the shell of a Blackhouse.  So there was Lino on the (very sloped) floor, a fireplace and box beds, along with crockery from the 1970s and 1980s.  The other Blackhouse had been turned into a small interpretation centre with a video and information panels.  It struck me that the local accent in Western Scotland is noticeably different from accents in towns in mainland Scotland, which I think is quite interesting.  I may have mentioned this before when we were in Scourie where our host sounded part Scottish part Irish to my ears.

Dinner was in Stornoway where I had monkfish and Mathew had pork before we returned to our B&B - this evening the Corncrake had moved on!