Castles & Clouds

Between our visits to Skye and Mull this summer, we took a detour north by ferry to Scotland's largest island, Harris/Lewis. We previously stayed a few days in the main town, Stornoway, in 2024. While there, Robin picked up a detective novel called "The Black House" by Peter May. Since then, we've both read several mysteries in that series, with the settings of each story on these islands in the Outer Hebrides. Robin especially was keen to return and visit some of the locales in the books. I agreed to go along, and I'm glad I did because I enjoyed Harris & Lewis even more on this second encounter.

Our lovely rental cottage was midway between the island's two main towns of Tarbert and Stornoway, overlooking Loch Seaforth. A local stag graced our view the first morning.

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As usual, the weather was variable with clouds, wind, and rain most days. However we were lucky during our July stay, as the rain was mostly brief and sunny blue skies even made some appearances. But I've noticed that many of our UK photos seem to include dramatic clouds, and Harris/Lewis is no exception.

We had few firm plans when we arrived on the island other than a one-day driving tour of the northern island, Lewis, which was to include several sites from the Peter May stories. The day before, I was in the mood to hike, so at random I picked one from All Trails just a few minutes from our AirBnB. It turned out to be one of my favorite hikes ever ("Bogha Glas to Uilt nah-Airigh Moire"). It was so atmospheric and scenic, and in four hours, Sophie and I encountered no other souls. At the turnaround point, I didn't even realize I had reached the viewpoint for the isle's largest freshwater lake, Loch Langabhat. No roads lead there. One day I hope to return and further explore this wild and beautiful place.

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  the trail up the valley

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  looking back at Loch Seaforth

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  almost missed the cairn and trail to right

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  first glimpse of Langabhat

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  misty Loch Langabhat

The next day, we had a guide/driver for our sightseeing excursion, to give Robin a break and the opportunity to look around without paying attention to the roads. Our guide Gordon was a fine driver and showed us some of the scenes around Ness, a town at the north end of the island where the May characters lived. (A fictional murder victim is found in the boat house!) Then on our final day, Robin drove us to the famous Luskentyre Sands Beach, thought by many to be the most beautiful beach on the island.

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  The beach at Ness

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  The Ness Boat House

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  Ness Church (Donald Murray's)

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  Luskentyre Sands

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  tasty treats in Stornoway

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  Bar at the Harris Hotel

If you go to Harris & Lewis, you'll want to visit the ancient stone circles at Calanais, but we saw them in 2024 so didn't go again. They're very worth it though! Now, I promised you some castles in this post - so let's get to the part of our journey where we drove through Scotland and northern England on our way back to London.

Castles -- both ruins and those that have been maintained enough to remain open -- are plentiful in this part of the world. I love the ruins the most - they're so evocative of a bygone era. I think we found some really cool castles on this trip -- what do you think? My fave was Kilchurn (first image below) and I even bought a photo print from the neighboring landowner! (2nd image). Robin was pleased to realize that Doune Castle (3rd photo) was used in filming "Monty Python & the Holy Grail." The final image here is the iconic Eilean Donan near the Skye Bridge, which we loved visiting in 2023.

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  Kilchurn Castle from across the loch

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  Kilchurn for framing later!

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  Doune Castle, near Stirling Scotland

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  Castle Bolton, Yorkshire Dales England

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  Eileen Donan near the Skye Bridge

Note, Scotland has around 1,500 castles, and while we've seen a few others along the way, clearly we have only scratched the surface in castle-viewing!

Dear Reader, if you haven't been to Scotland and have a mind to travel, I encourage you to place it atop your list. Just bring your rain coat and enjoy the escape from any heat waves your friends might be suffering. (Yes, London has been really hot this summer!) Meanwhile, you can join some of the "Traveling in Scotland" Facebook groups for ideas or just to daydream. I am already looking forward to going back.

Typical highway view heading home from Scotland

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