Got up at 7.30 this morning after an excellent night’s sleep. There were a few more clouds in the sky today, although the weather was still fine, but looking at the weather forecast on our Samsung phones, we could see that intermittent showers could be expected later on.
We decided to go to the Britannia Restaurant for our breakfast this morning, instead of the self-service. When we arrived, the guy at the door asked if we wanted a table for two, or did we mind sharing? As interaction with our fellow passengers is part of the joys of cruising, we said we’d be happy to share.
We ended up on a table with an American couple and a Tasmanian couple; both of whom would be staying on in Britain to explore further once they’d disembarked this cruise. You couldn’t really blame them when they’d come so far. We enjoyed interesting conversation as we ate our breakfasts, and Trevor and I said afterwards that if we hadn’t been with Billy and Carole we would quite happily shared our dinner table with these two very pleasant couples. As it was, I enjoyed porridge to start, followed by Eggs Benedict, both of which were accompanied by fresh orange juice and coffee.
Back in 4066, we pondered whether or not to take the shuttle bus back into town and have a look around, before our organised excursion at 1.30pm. We decided, however, that we’d seen as much as we could on foot and, if last year was anything to go by, the queues to get back on board Queen Anne might have been horrendous, and make us late for our excursion. We therefore decided to spend the morning at leisure on board. 🙂
Because we were in port, there wasn’t a lot going on around the ship; no presentations or talks and the shops were closed. We therefore just did a couple of laps around the deck, wandered around the ship and spent some time sitting on our balcony reading and generally whiling away the time.
At 12 o’clock we went to the self-service buffet and had some lunch, before returning to 4066 and collecting our tour tickets, money, cagoules and other things. I also changed from my flip-flops into my trainers. Knocking on Billy & Carole’s door we asked if they were ready, then all we made our way to the Queen’s Room for 1.20pm, to await the call to disembark, which came almost immediately.
We had a very pleasant and informative guide (whose name unfortunately eludes me) who explained a little about life on the islands and how it has evolved mainly from herring fishing and crofting to the tourist destination it is today. I certainly hope it never gets too touristy; one of the many charms of Lewis is its remoteness and unspoilt wild ruggedness.
Today we were going to visit a blackhouse village which was typical of life in the 1950s on Lewis. Blackhouses were generally built with double wall dry-stone walls packed with earth, and were roofed with wooden rafters covered with a thatch of turf with straw or reed. The floor was generally flagstones or packed earth and there was a central hearth for the peat fire which served as the main source of heat and was used for cooking and light. There was no chimney for the smoke to escape from, only a sort of “funnel” in the roof through a small hole. This resulted in soot blackening the interior, hence the name “blackhouse”. Blackhouses were shared by both human families and their livestock, with the people living at one end and the animals living at the other with a partition between them.
Later on, “whitehouses” became more prevalent. These had proper chimneys and the livestock lived in different buildings. It is quite incredible to think that people were still living in blackhouses in the 1970s.
Meanwhile, on the way, we passed through the amazing wild Lewis countryside, consisting of miles of fertile “machair” as the soil is known and lots of mountains and hills and little lochs. Sheep were dotted around the hills and here and there we could see little farm buildings. The sea was never very far away.
Soon we arrived at our first stop, which would allow us to climb up to Carloway Broch and give us a fantastic vantage point over the picturesque landscape.
We alighted from the coach and followed our guide up to the broch, which we could see perched on its hill. A “broch” is an Iron Age structure designed and built for defensive purposes and were probably the homes of tribal leaders and important members of the community. They are built with two concentric walls of stone, with a stairway or gallery within the walls to the upper floors. We remembered visiting the Clickimin Broch in Shetland on a visit there in July 2023.
The Carloway Broch is one of the best preserved in the Hebrides and dates back over 2000 years. It is approximately 9 metres high and 15 metres in diameter. It was in quite amazing condition considering its age. I wanted to go inside but a lady was standing at the entrance and said we had to wait until it was our guided party’s “turn”, as only a few could go inside at the same time.
Instead, I just viewed it from the outside, as I couldn’t take my eyes of the wonderful landscape and scenery spread out before me. What must it be like to live here. 🙂
After spending some time up there, enjoying the fresh air and the smell of the sea and the countryside, we made our way back down again and onto the coach for the next part of our trip, to the Gearannan Blackhouse Village.
I have read the “Lewis trilogy” books by author Peter May. They feature the Scottish detective Fin McLeod and are set on Lewis, starting with the first book called The Blackhouse. The books give amazingly detailed descriptions of life on the island, as well as vivid descriptions of the land and seascape. The other two books are Lewis Man and The Chessmen. In fact, I have since discovered that Peter May has recently written a fourth book in the ‘trilogy’, called The Black Loch. I think that visiting Lewis again has made me want to re-read the books, and try the new one as well. I mentioned the books to our guide, and he had read them as well and agreed that they gave an accurate description of life in the Western Isles.
Anyway… we arrived at the coach park and alighted from the bus, following our guide to the village. A local man came to welcome us, and invited an elderly gent to sing us a lament in Gaelic, all about a man who had to leave Lewis to seek employment elsewhere. The man had a lovely lilt to his voice and, while we couldn’t understand the words, we enjoyed his a capella singing, and he received an enthusiastic round of applause from those listening. By now, the rain had started, and the main sound we could hear was the rustle of cagoules and rainwear as everyone donned their waterproofs.
We were then given an hour’s free time to explore the village, its surroundings and the souvenir shop and café as we wished.
The blackhouses, although they were simple buildings, looked cosy and homely and over all was the all-pervading, distinctive smell of peat smoke. Peat is still cut on the islands, and we had passed stacks of it out in the sun drying, before being used as fuel. I quite liked the smell, although I would imagine that it would penetrate your clothes, your hair and just about everything else.
Examples of black- and whitehouses at Gearannan Blackhouse Village
We were also shown into a building which contained a typical example of a pedal-driven loom for weaving Harris Tweed. The loom already had the warp threads (i.e. the theads running lengthways) in place. The building also contained the spools of hand-dyed yard ready to be threaded onto the loom and used as the weft thread. The patterns are usually determined by the use of punched cards, wherein the woollen yarn is positioned to ensure it is placed correctly according to the type of weave, e.g. herringbone or dogtooth. It was all absolutely fascinating, and wonderful to see that some of the old, highly skilled hand crafts still exist instead of everything being mass produced on machines.
It was about four o’clock before our guide rounded us all up again and we made our way back to the coach for the return journey to Stornoway. What a great visit! I love the outer Hebrides and would really like to spend a longer time there. We knew from past visits that the beaches are out of this world, and it’s a pity we didn’t have the time to see them on this occasion.
By the time we arrived back on the Queen Anne it was after 5.00pm, so we could either get ready for dinner in the restaurant in record time, or use the self-service. We decided on the latter, so we didn’t have to rush.
I didn’t pile my plate high in the Artisans’ Foodhall; it’s nice sometimes to leave yourself a little hungry as opposed to pigging out, which it is far too easy to do when you’re on a cruise. Whoever it was who said you join a cruise ship as a passenger and leave as cargo certainly wasn’t kidding, and already my clothes were feeling a little snug. 🙁
By the time we came out of the restaurant, we noticed that the Queen Anne was underway again, making her way down through the Minch towards our next port of call. 🙂
The entertainment tonight in the theatre was the talented MacDonald Bros. again, and we enjoyed their show immensely. Then we just did the usual: went along to the Golden Lion for the quiz (the topic tonight was Classic Cartoons) then up to the Commodore Club to meet up with B & C for a few drinks.
As the weather was still cloudy with intermittent showers, we couldn’t view any sunset tonight. We hoped the sunshine and fine weather would return tomorrow.
Once Billy and Carole said their goodnights, Trevor and I returned to 4066 and enjoyed some of the Bacardi and Coke that we’d purchased in Edinburgh. We had a day of scenic cruising through the Sound of Mull tomorrow, but it was also a big, big day for Sunderland supporters because we were playing at Wembley Stadium tomorrow against Sheffield United in the playoffs for promotion to the Premier League. If, by some extreme good fortune, Sunderland won, we would be promoted! 🙂
With that thought in our heads, we wedged our balcony door open and turned in, reading for a time while we enjoyed our rum and coke. Then we settled down and fell asleep to the gorgeous “sshhhhhh, sshhhhh” sounds of the sea washing against Queen Anne‘s hull. It had been a lovely day.