After a lovely flight from Edinburgh to Stornoway, we arrived in the early afternoon.  We picked up our rental car at the airport, and the attendent was very helpful.  She came with us to the car and pointed out some things about the car we might not have noticed until later.  In Stornoway, our first stop, of course, was for Cream Tea at the Artizan Cafe.  The scones were fresh and the small coffee shop was comfortable and happy.  We then headed to the Stornoway Museum, where four of the Lewis Chessmen are dsiplayed.  These are pieces of a Viking chess set from the 12th century, discovered on a Lewis beach.  Some of these pieces are also on display at the National Museum of Scotland, but the Stornoway museum did a much better job with display and interpretation.  Next door to the Museum is the Lews Castle, which is pretty, but is really just a shell used for weddings and other events.  After buying some nice wine and cheese from the Good Food Boutique, we purchased our main groceries from Tesco and then headed to our remote and heavenly AirBnB cottage.  This was our first driving experience of the trip, and Kristin took the first shift.  The one-lane roads were intimidating, but there are many pull-outs along the way to allow for passing oncoming vehicles.  We rarely had to reverse into any of them.  We did, however, watch a few videos about how to navigate these roads before we left New Mexico.  Before sunset, we popped over to the Callanish Stone Circle #8 (there are a LOT of standing stones and stone circles on Lewis), where we were inundated by midges but still managed a few good pictures.

Above: Our lovely remote cottage on Lewis

Lewis & Harris is actually one island, divided into two sections.  The northern section is called Lewis and the southern section is called Harris.  Lewis has rockier coastlines and more historical sites.  Harris has famous tweed and stunning long beaches.  Though our beautiful shoreline cottage was in Lewis, we definitely wanted to get down to the beaches.  The drive down is longer than it appears on Google Maps (mostly because we drive slow on tiny UK roads), so this was a full-day expedition.  We started the day with breakfast at our cottage, and then I jumped in the drivers seat and we headed south.  About 30 minutes later, I realized that I forgot my drivers license at the cottage (oops), so Kristin had to drive the rest of the day.  Our first stop was a Harris Tweed store, which was somewhat busy.  Seems there are more tourists in Harris than in Lewis.  But despite the crowds, I managed to get a nice tweed hat.  We then headed down to the beach that is most commonly described as the most beautiful in the Outer Hebrides: Luskentyre Beach.  The parking lot was nearly full, and we were getting hangry, so we had a cheese & cracker snack in our car, right next to the cemetery by the beach.  The beach itself is quite beautiful, with a long swath of sandy shore spreading out in both directions.  However, it is also quite busy.  We love beaches more for their isolation and tranquility than their beauty, so we did not stay here long.  We hopped back into our rental Kia and drove to the southern tip of Lewis & Harris.  We stopped for a lunch of fish and chips at the Butty Bus, a foodtruck that I read good reviews of.  We were disappointed in the food, but we did have a nice chat with an English couple and their friendly retriever, who had just come off the ferry from Uist.  After lunch, we drove a few miles to St Clements Church, which was constructed in the 1500s by a clan chief.  Today it is no longer active as a church, but it is a beautiful place with fascinating tombs and carved stones.  We had the place to ourselves, which was nice.  By this time, we were ready for some peaceful beach walking.  So I checked my maps, and we pulled Sgarasta Beach out of the list.  It was a bit of a hike from the road, and that was promising.  Sgarasta turned out to be just as stunning as Luskentyre, but we had the entire miles and miles of sand to ourselves.  Bliss!  After lolling along, and taking some nice hair-in-the-wind pics of Kristin (she did not ask to take hair-in-the-wind pics of me, I might add), we drove a few miles to the North Saltings.  These saltings are channels of seawater that cut into the bogs, creating beautiful patterns and reflections.  I pulled out my tripod and managed to get a few good shots, though not the ones I expected to get.  By this time, we were exhausted, but still had hours to drive.  Kristin jumped behind the wheel and soldiered on, getting us home safely well after dark (those are not great roads to drive in the dark), where we had a late dinner and collapsed into bed.

Above: Luskentyre Beach

Above: Northton Saltings

Above: Sgarasta Beach paradise

Above: St Clements Church

Earlier in the week, we checked the forecast and found that our last full day on Lewis & Harris would be rainy and overcast.  Consequently, we decided to use that day exploring northern Lewis, which included fewer beaches and walks.  After our usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and cereal, we headed north, with our first stop being Gearrannan Blackhouse Village.  This village was constructed in the late 1800s, and continue as a community until the 1970s, when the few remaining elderly residents were provided more stable housing nearby.  The village was restored in the 1990s, and then opened to the public for visits and holiday stays.  This site provides an outstanding view of island life over the last century, including reconstructed living and working quarters.  The site can get a bit busy, with tour buses rolling through, but it absolutely one of the highlights of our visit to Lewis & Harris.  Moving on from Gearrannan, we stopped at the Wobbly Dog for lunch and cake.  As with other places, we chatted with a couple travelling through with their very cute pup.  Near the Wobbly Dog, we visited Moulag's Church along the northern tip of Lewis.  This church was built somewhere between the 1100s and the 1500s, and sits out on a plain, a few hundred yards from the road.  It is quite lovely, and again we had the place to ourselves.  The church is still active today, but only in the summer, since there is no electricity or heating.  Considering how exposed this church is to the rain and wind, I can only imagine how cold it gets in December.  Driving a few miles further north, we reached the northern edge of the island, the Butt of Lewis.  This rocky promontory is quite beautiful, with jagged cliffs, sea stacks, and sweeping ocean vistas.  The Butt of Lewis Lighthouse perches atop the cliffs, though it is not open to the public.  This area was heavily visited, but is large enough so that we did not really feel all that crowded.  After standing atop the precipice looking towards the Faroe Islands and the arctic ocean beyond sight, we headed around the coast to Dun Eisteen.  Imagine a sea stack separated from the main island by maybe 30 feet, with sheer cliffs dropping below you, and then imagine building a fortified clan defensive outpost on top of it, and that's Dun Eisteen. There is not much structure left standing on the sea stack, but use of the site goes back hundreds, if not thousands of years.  Also, there were some very inquisitive and photogenic sheep along the trail to the Dun.  We only saw two other couples during the hour we spent here, which allowed us to focus more on the site's splendor and history.  By the time we left Dun Eisteen, the only direction left to go was south, so we headed back to our cottage.  We stopped along the way at Steinacleat Standing Stones, but it was raining heavily by this time.  We gave it a go, snapped a few pictures, but then headed back to the dry and warm car waiting for us, and then back to our cottage to pack up for our departure the next day.

Above: Gearrannan Blackhouse Village