22nd May 2024

Packed the van and left well before 10 am. Weather was windy and cold, looked nothing like the previous day. Back all along the single lane road. Thankfully, there little traffic coming towards us, except for a dustcart with a revolving body to crush the waste. Passed again through the grounds of mansion-type house. How can you live in a mansion with gates, and have cars pass between the house and your lawn, within a couple of meters of your home?

We joined the main road and headed on up North, retracing some of the route we had taken the previous day. We were heading initially to the Calanais standing stones.  The drive was long, I didn’t realise how large this island is. The roads were good, but a tad dangerous, we saw some great examples of dangerous overtaking. We also came across cyclists on an incline on a sharp corner two abreast. Some heavy breaking required.

We made the trip ended up at the standing stones of  Calanais 1.  There were a great array of stones, and a visitor centre. The visitor centre is at the start of a two-year revamp which meant the café was already closed, and the shop and museum were going to close in June, all moving to temporary accommodation. The whole place is being enlarged, and we were told to come back in three years to see the final product.

After ‘1’ we did visit ‘2’, ‘3’ and ‘4’ there are some others.  ‘2’, and ‘3’ are in walking distance, but we drove.

We then headed on up the West to Bosta, where there is a very interesting Iron Age House, complete with a well-informed guide, on the island of Great Bernera. All on single track roads. Going back we stopped at the bridges. Tw0 bridges side by side. The old, now pedestrian only. The new bridge, a steel one, started construction in 2020, finished in 2021. This is where the Calanais 8 circle was. While I was photographing that, R had spied an albino seal. We then went past Calanais 1 stones again, thead up to our new campsite.  Quite a nice site, seems to have good facilities, but is rather windy at present. Across the hedge to us, was a football pitch, and the entry to the campsite was past a school. There was some sport when we were there, though no balls came flying over the hedge.

A large white van parked next to us, and put up a large tent which we later realised was for his vintage motorbike. He pitched over our pitch, not an issue to us as there was plenty of space. The site owner had told him as he had told us, to park in the middle of the pitch, so there was no alternative but to place the tent over into our pitch. Site owner came around the next day and told him to move off our pitch, also he then charged the bike owner for pitching the awning.

Fried bacon butties for supper.

Before bed, we put the roof down because of the wind. Had the fan heater running to keep us warm.

Track