2nd July, Saturday - Harris and across to Berneray

I emerged in the morning to a very busy pier.  One group of Harrisions (made that up) were off to Benbecula to play golf (the men) while another (women) were off with the Minister.  Also lots of folk were coming the other way, presumably to spend the day in Stornoway.

I drove  to Rodel and visited St Clement church – it is unusual to find an unused church which has a roof.  This one is cruciform, unique in the western isles. 

Unexplained…

 

Massive fuchsia in the graveyard

It was built by the 8th MacLeod of Dunvegan in about 1500 and his effigy is there

 

An attempt at an artistic photo of loch, Rodel

I then drove up to Tarbert (the Harris Tarbert) along the east coast, famous having been used to depict the surface of Jupiter in the film “2001 Space Odyssey”

 

A lot of my photos seem to contain either a wheelie bin or a telegraph pole, sometimes, if you are lucky, both

I arrived in Tarbert just as the ferry was leaving – so another of the seemingly endless pictures of vessels arriving, leaving, etc

The pier, after the event

Tarbert is the largest place in Harris, lodged in a gully – if the ferry is in and you are approaching from the south it is a wonderful sight (I just couldn’t stop to take a photo!)  There are a couple of shops, a hotel, a cafe, a tourist office and a waiting room with excellent toilets and a shower.  In the waiting room was an old chap with a collection of bags and a lit cigarette.  He was there when I arrived and still there when I left.  I suspect he always spends his day there.

The main road in Tarbert

Tarbert Stores

I went to the Seallam museum in Taobh Tuath – they had pins in maps showing where people had emigrated to:

Note Falklands and St Helena (someone from St Kilda!)

Beautiful beach and machair (“sand enriched coastal grassland”) at Taobh Tuath

The award winning MacGillivray Centre - seriously closed i.e. not just because of the time of day.  No one had bothered to cover up the signposting.

I then went back to Leverburgh and crossed to Berneray.

Leverburgh was named after Lord Leverhulme – he had planned to make this the largest fishing port on the west coast of Scotland.

Berneray pier