Hoots Mon, ah'm just goon ootside... Ah may be goon soome time...

[Dave W]

Very jealous here, my best holiday ever was being semi-"marooned" on Islay (Scottish Inner Hebrides) last year for 8 days, with only 8 distilleries on the island to keep me occupied.

What a terrible dilemma. 

[Pilgrim]

I hope you remembered your bicycle pump to top up the windscreen washer power?

Very jealous here, my best holiday ever was being semi-"marooned" on Islay (Scottish Inner Hebrides) last year for 8 days, with only 8 distilleries on the island to keep me occupied.

I think I need to invite you and BUFF to visit Fort Collins, heart of "the Napa valley of beer".

Local breweries include New Belgium (Fat Tire), Odell's, Fort Collins Brewers, Coopersmith's, Funkwerks, Budweiser (for the "macrobrew" crowd) and small additional ones seem to be appearing about once or twice a year.  Next week is Bohemian Nights and New Westfest, during which extensive research into the local products will be conducted.

http://www.bohemiannights.org/

http://www.downtownfortcollins.com/dba.php/nwfest/

In 2011 the lineup will feature over 80 Colorado bands performing on six music stages in Old Town Fort Collins as part of the 23rd annual NewWestFest celebration. Music starts with kick-­off concerts at 5:30p.m. on Friday night, all day Saturday there are music performances beginning at approximately 11:00a.m., and music begins again on Sunday at 11:00a.m., the three day Bohemian Nights music program is free to the public.

BUT.............................the venerated isles, it is not!

[Big_Stu]

What a terrible dilemma. 

BUT.............................the venerated isles, it is not!

Bunnahabhain Distillery, we tested quite a few "samples" here - and they have holiday cottages next door 

[Highlander]

8 days... 8 distilleries... I think I see a patttern here... (never been to Islay, nor the Whisky Trail... yes boys not with Scottish roots, there is such a thing...!)

Yep... 8 days... no internet, no phone, Atlantic views (sort of) from the 2nd house but, as Stu will understand, Hebridean weather...

I'll upload stuff and post as an "ongoing" so I can torture you over a period of days...

Oh yeah, Al, if circumstances were different I'd be over in a heartbeat...

[Highlander]

5th August...
Another dawn and more eye-candy for me... another few hundred shots...



We travelled down to the south of the Island today to Harris - further south than any of my family had previously travelled to visit a church that nearly predates "American" history - the foundations "may" date from the 11th century but the present walls were built in the early 15th...
On the way down we visited many places but some things jump out...

After the Rebellion, "Bonnie Prince Charlie" ended up here, friendless and with a price on his head (£30K in 1746 - what would that be now?), but he was not given away and spent 18 days on the Island before making his getaway - no one gave him away... this point commemerates where he landed...


Whaling was not a high point in Island history but it did take place - this site is significant as it contains one of the most complete "old" whaling stations in the Northern Hemisphere... there were three chimneys from the boiling plants...


The sign in one of the shots works for me...


This road just supports small villages; kind of goes nowhere... my kind of nowhere...


Same road has this tennis court - there is a house 1/4 mile away but nothing else anywhere nearby - anyone for tennis...?


This just works for... a rusty bench overlooking the Atlantic...


... and a beached fishing boat in a village once and now called An t'Ob but for about 100 years called Leverburgh after Lord Leverhulme (Unilever) who owned the Island but after his death things went wrong and it was "gifted" to Scotland...


Rodel is remote by UK standards and St Clement's church is small but imposing, built on a hillside from local rock and containing some fine medieval carvings...


... and at one point these grave markers were moved inside to protect them so no-one knows where the Chieftans now lay...


The trip back was meant to be a "scenic coastal road" but the weather changed (as can be seen), and when it clouds over the blue sea turns grey and the rocks loose there colour... I got some good sunset shots at the stones... 497 pictures taken today...

[Dave W]

Nice! Looking forward to more.

[Highlander]

6th August
Some shots just send you cold... that shiver down the spine kinda thing... this was our last morning staying at Calanais and it looked like it would be a good one, so... fresh coffee and off I went...


Mrs sheep is an escape artist... she seems to know how to get in and out but no-one knows how... the staff at the centre think she knows how to open the gate...
This was a multi-layered sunrise... by that I mean it went through so many changes... just as the sun broke through the cloud mist rolled in and...


A sea-loch view from the west "arm" of the site...


One of the "entry" stones to the north...


So, packed and loaded and off to the next house for a week on the west-side of the Island... There is a type of grass known as "Hebridean cotton" which made interesting pictures (at least to me... )


Sunset at Carlabhagh, the village we were staying in...


... and the moon over the roof of the local church...


Now, we discovered we sort of had squatters... I'll explain next time, maybe...

[Big_Stu]

fantastic! haste ye back with more tales!

Cullen skink for supper anyone?

They do say on the west coast that if you don't like the weather stick around for a couple of hours and it'll change.

[Highlander]

That long, Stu...?

I'll take the veggie option please...

The second week was a much more chilled out time (also the weather was more, err... more...)

[Highlander]

7th August
Ahh, the Sabbath in the Hebrides...

My father was a believer but steadfastly declined to attend church, even with his mother in her latter years; as a child I was sworn to secrecy over watching Thunderbirds on a Sunday. My aunt has only in recent years ceased to record things on her video recorder and actually watch them. You can now buy a drink in at least one bar (if not a resident) and buy a loaf of bread or some milk at a filling station - no other shops are open - there are a couple of flights in and out and the ferry does one run (but only in recent years) and only the "white-settlers" hang their washing out... A notable minister (I had and have a few in the family) noted in his article at the time "the shame" they should be feeling...
I used to sit quietly with my gran as she read from the Biobull (in Gaelic, of course) and the porride and broth was always prepared the previous day...
It was/is acceptable to go for a walk, in the castle grounds, or to the shore, but that is about it; for us it was to my favourite beach to try our luck with the weather, which was predicted to be bad, and it turned up remarkably on cue...






I have themes to my photography; passing places is one...

My daughter spent most of the remainder of the day entertaining the squatters...

[patman]

The pictures are awesome...

[Highlander]

Certainly something I enjoy doing... 

Work has been catching up with me so had no chance to look in at all - oh well, keeps the roof etc...

8th August... the Ui, or An Rubha, meaning "Point"... my maternal homeland...
The visit home always includes visiting family, past and present... the graveyards on the Island are all by the Sea and the Sea never sleeps...
This is looking along the shoreline towards St Columba's Church at Aignish... most of my mother's ancestors are buried here... the chuch itself is known as the "old" MacLeod church, predating the one at Rodel I visited earlier this trip, built in the 1400's and probably on the ruins of an older cell... Clan MacLeod has been trying to raise funds (interest) to put a replacement roof on the church but has failed - the relocated stones of numerous Chieftans reside with its walls, fading... The Sea has already taken most of the ancient graveyard to the left of the church...


My mother's parents reside in this graveyard too, not far from the old church but a significant story is my great-uncle's stone to the right... one of over 200 victims lost on New-Years morning 1919 when HMY Iolaire (Gaelic for Eagle) ran aground insite of land in the mouth of Stornoway harbour... in 1911 the cencus showed the population of the Island as being approx 29,000... 0ver 1000 islanders died in WWI - the greatest percentage loss per-capita in the Empire; this further loss struck at the heart and soul of the people... the story is not widely known these days unless you have Island roots...


My great-grandparents stone has been tipping over for some years but...


Between both graveyards proudly stands a monument to the uprising the people of the Island made to gain the right to the land they lived on - the seed that ended the "clearances..."


This is the house my mother was raised in... best it has looked in many years...


I have a great affinity for lighthouses and the camera is out whenever I see one and this one at Tuimpan Head is one I have many of...

[Dave W]

Ken, I really appreciate the background info with these.

[clankenstein]

Gle Mhath.

[Pilgrim]

Fantastic photos...what a great family/historic trip!