August 12, 2023 Stornoway, Isle of Lewis and Harris, Scotland

This morning we are anchored in Stornoway Harbour on Lewis Island, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The sky was overcast, the clouds were greyish, threatening rain, temperature 15° C wind SE 18 km/hr. After last evening’s dinner, when Zuiderdam reached the Atlantic Ocean, the swells were three meters high and two meter waves rocked the ship. We were glad that we were on a lower deck and our stateroom location is between the front and middle of the ship.

By morning the rolling was long past. We had breakfast up at Lido Market then walked the Promenade Deck on Deck 3 in a light rain, but the walking deck is mostly sheltered with an overhang or lifeboats. Toward 9 a.m., the crew had cordoned off the area under the tender boats to prepare to launch them, once Zuiderdam was anchored.

Larry met the golfing group at Billboard Onboard, where they got tender tickets together for the first tender which left just after 9:30 a.m. Most of the morning there was light rain, but heavier at times which continued into the afternoon. Due to the rain the 16 golfers only golfed nine holes. An 18 hole par 68 course, Stornoway Golf Course has been located within the rolling Lews Castle grounds since 1947. It is a short par 68 course, just 5,252 yards in total. The holes go up, down and sideways on the hills rarely level. The golf group were picked up at the Ferry Terminal, the tender drop-off spot, driven less than two kilometres to the nearby golf course, given a set of golf clubs and a pull cart followed by a light lunch after golf. Most golfers took a ride back to the Ferry Terminal, but Larry walked for 25 minutes back to the Ferry Terminal as the rain had stopped.

He passed the area in the castle grounds where Tattoo activities had started after a parade of kilted bagpipe and drum bands which marched through the middle of Stornoway in rain. It is the 100^th anniversary of 300 Lewis islanders boarding a ship in Stornoway to emigrate to Canada to find work. There was a midway set up which by mid-afternoon was busy.

Later in the morning Claire tendered into the Ferry Terminal and walked up to Lews Castle, which is really a large manor house. After getting a city map, Claire walked in a light rain along the waterfront and shopping street to Bayhead following the signs to the castle. Near the Ferry Terminal is a statue of a herring girl. Stornoway had a herring fishing industry. Across the street was the old City Hall with its clock tower. Around the corner there was a local Saturday morning indoor Craft Fair. Along Kenneth Street was Martin’s Memorial Church, which is Church of Scotland (Anglican).

Lewis Island was purchased by James Matheson in 1844, who demolished the old Seaforth Lodger and commissioned a Glasgow architect, Charles Wilson, to design a centrepiece mansion and grounds. Lewis Island was sold after World War One to Lord Leverhume, who broke it into estates which were sold after 1924. The castle remained empty until the 1990s when it was restored to its Gothic Revival grandeur. The main hallway on the ground floor is painted green with gold stars. To its left is the former ballroom and on the right is a staircase, with 30 cm tall carved lions, leading to second floor private residences, the café, gift shop and museum. The Museum nan Eilean is a modern extension which was added in July 2016. There is a history of the Outer Hebrides and the culture of the islands. On permanent loan from National Museums Scotland and the British Museum are six world-famous Lewis Chessmen. The detailed carved walrus ivory and whale tooth pieces were found almost 200 years ago on the west coast of Lewis in a sand dune on Uig Beach. They had been hidden in a small chamber for centuries. There are 93 chessmen from four incomplete sets. They were probably carved 800 years ago in Trondheim, Norway. Before leaving I paused for a cappuccino and shortbread in the café.

From the front patio of Lews Castle Zuiderdam could be seen in the harbour. There are several paved and crushed rock walking paths varying in distance from one to eight kilometres that meander through the grounds which were laid out in the 1860s in the forest. Claire followed one that just had an arrow pointing to the left. There was no master map nearby. It circled past the castle gardens and went slightly uphill. Thinking that it might have a view of the golf course she strolled along it, fortunately the rain had stopped. About 45 minutes later, only having viewed a stream and the forest and no one else, there was a large sign and two posts with numbers, one each at the fork in the road. She chose the one that seemed to go to a road. The road was the highway which was way over near the castle grounds perimeter, past the golf course. After another hour of walking along the two lane highway toward Stornoway the familiar sign to the bridge for a path to Lews Castle appeared around a bend and there was still almost two hours before she needed to meet for her excursion. Then it started to rain heavily passing the Tattoo main stage and midway so Claire returned to the Ferry Terminal, to dry out and read until her excursion tour began at 3 p.m. Claire’s walk had covered about nine kilometres.

The tour was called Historic Lewis. The tour guide, Colin, gave the busload of 44 some background of the island of Lewis’ history. First off he explained that the kilted people carrying bagpipes were here for a Tattoo, a Scottish festival with parades and concerts, as mentioned earlier. There are 19,000 inhabitants living on the island of Lewis with about 7,000 in Stornoway. Stornoway has a natural harbour still used for fishing today as well as a commercial port. The route was a circle which took about four hours followed by four full busses. In the morning there had been another four busses doing the circuit. Above the seats were speakers for Colon’s commentary to be easily heard. After leaving Stornoway, we drove on the narrow two lane highway through the rolling moorland and blanket bog. The bog contains peat, which islanders harvest and dry to use as their heating fuel. Once the turf layer is cut off with a special peat cutter, sliced rectangular bricks of peat are laid out to dry on the edge of a long trench, which many neighbours use. It takes about a month for the brick to dry, then they are packaged into large plastic bags for storage and transferred to the people’s homes. Most of the property is five to ten acres crofts, with or without a house. Over one hundred and fifty years ago, people lived on the croft as a tenant of the landlord and could be evicted without reason. The British government passed a law in 1886 that allowed the crofters to own their land.

The first stop on the tour was the Callanish Standing Stones or Calanais Stones. The location of Calanais 1 was used in the production of the TV series The Outlanders. The arrangement was created in the shape of a Celtic Cross. Within a kilometre, two other collections of standing stones are visible called Calanais 2 and Calanais 3. It is one of most significant megalithic complexes in Europe. The standing stones are 1,000 years older than England’s Stonehenge. They were quarried locally. There are four avenues of stones. Around the inner central tall stone is a circle of 13 stones, which could signify the 13 lunar periods of a year. Another avenue of 19 stones could signify the 19 years of the moon’s cycle. A team of experts from Edinburgh were hired by Lewis Island owner, James Matheson. They scraped away the peat to expose the stones as seen today. There were about 100 people milling about the area.

Just a 20 minute ride further along we stopped at Carloway Broch, which is one of the the best preserved brochs in Scotland. It is incomplete since over the centuries the stones have been used to build homes. You can see the staircase within the double wall. It had several floors to it with animals on the ground level and living quarters on the second and third levels. Like the broch on Mousa Island, it had no windows and only one small opening that required people to duck to enter. All around the broch were hillsides of heather beginning to bloom.

The final stop, which encountered a few rain squalls, was on the western coast of Lewis at Gerrannan. It is an example of a crofting villages of “blackhouses”. These were the standard house from 1850 to the 1920s. They were long with thatched roofs that had a hole in them for smoke from the peat fires to escape. Inside about one third of the area housed the family’s livestock in the winter and the rest of the living space was windowless two rooms. In the centre of one room was the cooking fire. The walls were thick. To supplement family incomes, women would card and dye the wool from their sheep then weave the thread into fabric known as the Harris Tweed. An authentic Harris Tweed is one in which the fabric was created on a manual loom operated by a woman in her home. The carding and dying can be done at a local mill but the material weaving cannot. It was in the 1920s that the local mills were built. After the First World War, new houses were built from poured concrete and had windows. People renovated their blackhouses adding windows in the roofs and walls. Gradually the old blackhouses were phased out and this villages is one of the last ones in existence. Someone decided that it should be kept as a reminder of the past. The houses closest to the water have been modernized with electricity and plumbing and now are self catering short term vacations rentals.

Continuing along the circuit the bus slowed for photos, from the bus, near Bragar. Here in the 1920s, the villagers found a large whale washed up on their beach and dragged it uphill to butcher it. Within four days they couldn’t stand the rotting smell and destroyed what remained of it. However someone saved the whale’s gigantic jaw bones and formed an arch which recently was encased in fibreglass to strengthen it. From the top of the arch hangs the harpoon that was found stuck in the whale. Then it was a 40 minute ride back to Stornoway through the hills of blooming heather.

Tender boats were waiting to take the people from two busses back to Zuiderdam. She was underway within 45 minutes, going into The Minch then the Atlantic Ocean. We climbed up to Lido Market for dinner since it was after 7 p.m and our set dinner time was 5:30 p.m. The show in the World Stage was the Holland America Story which we have seen.

Larry’s steps: 18,666 Claire’s steps : 23,505