Outer Hebrides by dinky little van...

The islands of Lewis / Harris looked well worth exploring but when we checked the bus timetable courtesy of the very nice lady in the Tourist information office we found that they are pretty scarce (and of course non-existent on Sundays). The nice lady printed out the most complex  timetables we've ever seen for so few buses, called them "the bum timetables" and then went bright red and giggled a lot. Very helpful though, ideal person for that job. Interestingly, she was also not a native of the island and had an English accent. Is this a repetition of our Mallaig thoughts on "customer facing staff"?

Having realised that you would have at least 3 hours at every local attraction if you used the bus service, many of which need significantly less time, we decided to rent a car instead. Naturally the cheap cars had gone so instead of going for an upgraded and more expensive one, we just had a cheapo little van instead. A little bit elderly, a little bit sad but just fine for what we wanted:

The rental folks were amusing. When asked "do you want the DVLA code that lets you check my licence" (like the other companies we've dealt with) the reply was "if you have no points on your licence then that is fine". We reassured her that we had no points (and were telling the truth before you ask!) and she added the crew onto the rental agreement without even checking her licence. All most casual and nice compared to the queues and "processing" that we experienced in Glasgow airport last year.

Well, where did we venture? Firstly, the islands must visit standing stones at Callanish:

These were erected rather a long time ago as you can see:

Nobody seems to know why they expended huge amounts of energy preparing and erecting them though. The end result is quite spectacular and thought provoking:

Mind you, a few folks were either overwhelmed, lazy, contemplative, unfit or just determined to spoil everyone else's photos:

The stones are set in some lovely scenery too, this yacht had a wonderful anchorage to enjoy all alone:

Another must see is the broch at Carloway. It apparently has survived better then many of the others that were built in Scotland - it dates from around 100AD! Read Wikipedia information for more background.

Here is the remaining wall structure - double skinned with the two walls cleverly tied together for rigidity:

Of course, trying to see stuff on a Sunday is strange here. Everything shuts (even Tesco have had to accept the local norms!) and the roads are deserted until shortly before the church service times. It was so strange to see full church car parks, folks dressed in their "Sunday best" clothes and some walking to the church carrying their bibles. No buses and only one petrol station that opens briefly (and is probably hated by some locals for breaking the Lord's day observance). So unlike the situation in England.  Norn Iron starts late on Sunday so folks can go to church but then it gets very commercial.  Here, the island just sleeps and worships.....

On the "ought to go and see" list are the Blackhouses. Traditional crofters cottages with dry stone walls, thatched roofs and very "low slung" to resist the local winter weather. One example is at Gerrannan website and we went for a wander around whilst it was "shut" on Sunday:

The construction of the houses is quite simple but effective:

It is quite amazing to think that people lived and worked in these houses util the mid 1970s!

For information, the nice golf umbrella that we were given in Norn Iron is still awaiting its first unfurling. The penguin scarf that the crew bought in Fort William languishes in its packing. However, the penguin rucksack got an airing:

Classy, isn't it?