Making our way north through the rugged mountains of Harris we head towards the Isle fo Lewis. The two islands of Harris and Lewis are actually one land mass and yet have very different identities. Lewis is the larges of the Outer Hebridean islands and has so much to explore. Many of the Historic Scotland sites are still closed until the end of this month so we are glad that we have visited them on a previous trip. Our goal with this visit is to spend more time at the magical Bosta Beach which is on the island of Great Bernera. When we arrive some cute hairy coos are wandering about oblivious to the fact that they are about to get heaps of photos taken of them. It wasn’t just us!! Again we are surprised to find a couple of paddle boarders enjoying the beach – its certainly gaining popularity here in Scotland.
Bosta Beach is home of the Iron Age village excavated by archaeologists in 1996. There is a reproduction stone house with turf roof built for visitors to see what these unique dwellings are like – however at the moment it is still closed. We are interested in the beach – beautiful white sands and that gorgeous turquoise water.
We decide to aim for a paddle from the beach at bosta over to the smaller island of little bernera which also has some beautiful sandy beaches to explore – if the wind drops below 25 km p/h that is!! In the meantime there is always the cute hairy coos to watch – this one seemed particularly interested in the grill of this car.We decide to take a side trip to explore the area around Uig sands – a place we hadn’t spent much time on our last visit but the weather had other ideas. We discover a few more places to paddleboard – conditions allowing. Cliff beach allows camping for a small donation and so there are no fascilities. Uig Sands is a beautiful sandy inlet that seemingly stretches for miles. It is in these dunes where the Lewis Chess pieces were discovered in 1831.
The wind 42km p/hr is really howling and rocking Harmony all over the place. But our patience is rewarded – the sun comes out and lights up the landscape! It is still way to windy for us to paddle but if you are planning a trip to Lewis with your SUP – I think Uig Sands sells itself – sans wind of course!!We drive to the end of the road and find some information stones – you can never have enough information…And a monument to the ruins of an ancient nunnery – Scotland is full of history!!
It looked like we might get a break in the weather so we headed back to Bosta on our way back north towards the Callanish Stones.
As we’d seen a lot of the historical sites of Lewis on a previous trip and the weather started to look dodgy again we decided to start on our way back to Harris then on to the Uists and Barra. When we got to Harris we decided to check out Huisnis where there is a really awesome camper van facility run but the West Harris Trust. It has showers toilets and the all important chemical dump spot all with an overnight park up that is pretty hard to beat. There are a few more food trucks around the islands these days and we had a nice lunch at the one at Horgabost Campsite on our way to the North Uist Ferry. We see that Barra has some sunny weather forecast so make for Eriskay for the. Barra ferry stopping at the Hebredian Smokehouse for some peat smoked salmon on the way.If you look at a map of North Uist it may seem more water than land with many causeways linking it with the islands of Benbecula and South Uist and one really long one to Eriskay and the ferry to Barra.
42 kph – you need to get a windsup!
I am starting to think that too!!