Rubh' an Teampaill South Harris

Looking north to Harris and Lewis

I spent a second day in at the southern end of South Harris and walked to Rubh' an Teampaill, much of the walk was on the machair grazing land with scampers on beaches at intervals.  The views were brilliant and the weather warm, I even saw what I thought was a Hobbit house at the end of the walk.  The pictures sum up the wonderful walk so the captions tell you about the area.

Machair grazing land and Ceapabhal (368 metres)

Ceapabhal from the north

The ruined chapel at Rhub' an Teampaill (15th or 16th Century)

Walks and runs in Scotland.

A walk on the east side of South Harris.

This was a short walk on an old track (an old corpse road) that runs from across the island from Aird Mhing, it's a very strange an wild landscape on this part of Harris as you can see from the photos.  There were very few people apart from my humans, there were sheep in some areas but I did get some time off the lead as long as I stayed close to the humans (I have to be very good and not disturb any ground nesting birds so close control of my humans is the only option, they are quite well trained).

Magpie Moths on Harris

Running near Aird Uig

I had lots of runs in the area of Gallan Head and around the Aird Uig area ranging from 3km to 7.5km, some with up to 239 metres of ascent.  The ground was great for running, not too wet and easy to run on.  The photos show the area where I did my running.

From Gallan Head looking south.

Rubha Mor(left) and Forsnabhal(right) a great hill run on 6th July.

Mountain walk - Suaineabhal(429 metres).

The views from this mountain are great, it was a huge adventure right from the start as I had to swim across a river to start the walk and then swim across the same river on the way back.  There are no paths on the hills here so it's a case of making your way to the summit using the easiest climbs and keeping an eye on your current position in case of bad visibility (but my human does that so I just scamper along with him).  As we progressed up the hill the views opened up across the beaches and the wild areas of Lewis.  The final climb to the summit was over some lovely grippy rock so even without a rope the scramble wasn't a problem.  The views from the summit were spectacular in all directions but unfortunately the clouds closed in and it rained ( and rained and rained). 

I curled up with my human in the shelter of a rock while we waited for the weather to clear, it didn't clear but this gave me time for a much needed cheese sandwich before we headed back down the mountain.  Another successful river crossing concluded a great walk.

Suaineabhal

Admiring the view.

Summit and rain!

Ascending Suaineabhal - view north.

I was wet anyway so might as well swim after my human.

Some other walks.

I walked up to Loch Reonasgall one afternoon, this was a fairly easy long walk on a track  with good views to the north and west (to Aird Uig & Gallan Head and Suaineabhal).  I was expecting to see more wildlife on this walk (having seen  3 eagles near the house) but there was nothing much to be seen. My humans were probably too noisy.

A very isolated Loch and very peaceful.

My human and I made an attempt to climb Mealaisbhal(574 metres) from the west (Breinis) but the weather closed in with torrential rain, low cloud and very strong wind. As the visibility was reduced to about 100 metres we abandoned the walk somewhere around the 200 metre contour and headed back down through the trackless peat and heather. I've added a picture taken on a sunny day to show the mountain.

Woofs and wags, 

Dexter.

Dexter heads north - more Scottish adventures.

June and July 2016

Some of you might have noticed that my run on 24th June was called 'Nessie', not because it was a monster run but because I was only a few miles from Loch Ness.  Once again my humans packed the car and we headed north to Scotland bound for the Outer Hebrides, last year I spent a week based at Bhaltos on the Island of Lewis, this year I spent two weeks at Aird Uig on the west coast of Lewis.  This was a a great couple of weeks with all sorts of adventures for me, best of all I did lots of running and walking.

I will add more to my blog over the next few days, the first part of the adventure began at a place called Ullapool on the west coast of Scotland.(Ullapool)  An early morning start from Inverness and I was heading north again; as it was far too early for me I maintained a dignified lack of interest by sleeping (otherwise I might have been a bit grumpy) until I arrived at Ullapool.  I had a scamper on the beach at Ullapool and enjoyed the sunshine, my humans seemed to be waiting for something but I couldn't work out what was going on.

Loch Broom - Beinn Dearg left of centre.

Then something appeared from out at sea, I think that I had seen one before but I was not sure  how it was moving, it didn't have any sails. It was explained to me (blah, waffle) that this was the ferry, a ship with engines and it was going to take us all to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.  So time for a another Outer Hebrides adventure - hooray!

East coast of Lewis - looking towards Stornoway.

I was staying on the west coast and when I got to the house I was amazed at the view,this was to be my home for two weeks, the picture below shows the view of the sea, cliffs and islands (Seanna Chnoc, Bearasaigh and Flodaigh) off the coast of Bearnara. 

My home for two weeks was situated very close to Gallan Head, an area where I did a great deal of running, Gallan Head has a very interesting history and is now owned by the local community www.gallanhead.org.uk/home who have great plans for the area.  One of the advantages of the area being owned by the community is that I was able to access the area with my humans for walks and runs.

Beach adventures.

The Island of Lewis and South Harris have some of the best beaches in the world for terriers to run around (humans are allowed too) and on my second day on the island I visited Traigh Uiga, look at the size of the beach on the photograph below.  The tiny speck in the middle of the picture - that's me!

My favourite toy is the squeaky green ball.

I also visited the beach at Bosta (Bostadh) which you may remember I visited last year, well it was just as good this year - the beaches are terrier heaven. I visited the Iron House at Bosta again this year Iron Age House, I wonder if there were any terriers around in the Iron Age?  The photos below are all taken at Bosta.

Can you see the roof of the house?

Chessmen, hairy cows and a roadside band.

The history of the islands is fascinating, around 1831 a group of 93 carved chessmen were found near Uig, they are carved from walrus ivory and whales' teeth (British Museum). The  pieces were made between the years 1150-1200 and at the time Lewis was part of the Kingdom of Norway.  Large wooden carvings have been made of some of the pieces and I found them in different parts of the island.

King - near Uig

Queen - grounds of Lewes Castle

Knight - entrance to Abhainn Dearg Distillery

The Berserker - outside the UIG COMMUNITY CENTRE
(wonderful cakes)

...and other great stuff...

This fantastic sculpture by Uisdean Paterson outside the Co-Op in Stornoway.

"You play it - I'll sing it"

Here's a roadside band at Cairisiadar, I felt the urge to sing.

I was woken at sunrise on the last day in Harris in order to get to Stornoway for an early morning ferry, sometimes a bit grumpy in the morning but the sunrise was fantastic, I sat watching it for a while.  I've never seen anything like it.

So with woofs and  wags it was bye-bye to the Isle of Lewis.

Dexter.