Cycle: 76km//3hr43min//20.39km/hr
Thursday September 26
Some days you win the weather waiting game! Today was one of those days. Today is the day we were meant to visit Callanish. Consider this: clear blue skies, a warm sun, tail winds in both directions, and home cooked dinner upon our return ! Contrast this to the previous couple of days: ominously low lying grey clouds, gale force winds from all directions, and certainly no home cooked dinner.
Being midweek in late September, we had the Callanish Stones to ourselves for quiet contemplation and pictures. Calanais (Callanish I) is a well-preserved collection of standing stones, erected in a celtic cross shape ~4000 years ago. The main stone stands about 3 people high, while the whole site takes up the space of a soccer field. Although the stones purpose is not definitively known, the prevailing hypothesis is that they were used to keep track of the seasons, their shadows acting like a sophisticated year long sundial. In eyesight on a nearby hill are Callanish II and III, two other collections of standing stones we're convinced were practice runs for the construction of Calanish I.
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This is only a portion of the Callanish Stones, but you can see the shadows cast, and imagine the mapping of those shadows over time to develop a seasonal calendar for planting and harvest.
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| The blues of the sky were beautiful. |
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| Jenn considers the largest standing stone in the middle of the cross. |
Being the beautiful day that it was, we ambled northwest along the coast, accompanied by our ever present tailwind, and happened upon Dun Carloway. This is the site of a broch, a round tower unique to Scotland. Brochs are regarded as the most sophisticated example of drystone architecture. They are double walled (outside wall), multi-leveled, and have a central open living space. Somehow, they managed to build these things upwards of 25m tall with absolutely no mortar, just very careful placement of stones. We climbed around Dun Carloway, marveling at the spiral staircase built into the space between the two outside walls. Amazing. We walked away, still intrigued by the Scot's use of stone and the massive effort and ingenuity that went into building this broch.
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| The approach to Dun Carloway (a broch). |
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| Dun Carloway from the Iron Age, with its double wall structure. One of the best preserved brochs in Scotland (of over 500). |
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| Sitting on the remains of a staircase that spirals it way through the double walls of the broch. |
Moving along, again just down the road, we found the restored blackhouses of Carloway. Why are they black? Burning peat all day! Making the most of our visitors fee, we sat and watched a video on the ins and outs of Peat and Harris Tweed. Thankfully, we now know how to properly cut peat, lie peat, pile peat (blocks of 5!), dry peat, and stack peat in a big big pile. "Knowledge is power" (Bos J., 2013). Tweed is still too complicated for contemplation. Too many strings and knots. After a pot of tea at the blackhouses, we made our way back to camp. Of course, our lovely tail wind ushered us back to our final treat! Dinner.
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| A collection of Blackhouses (buildings) overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Ridiculously thick stone walls and chimney, but then a thatched straw roof.. Stones and an elaborate rope system hold down the thatch roof in frequently strong winds. |
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| Madalene inside one of the black houses. On her left, a traditional loom. |
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| Hebridean sheep wool becoming expensive Harris Tweed. |
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| Jenn grew up with a Mattenklopper (rug Beater) |
So, our tent was pitched beside a bunkhouse inhabited (temporarily) by an eight person drumming band from Ghana. The odds? In Northern Scotland ? You decide. We had been smelling their delicious food for a days now, dreaming of a taste. No sooner had we uncorked a pre-dinner bottle of nice red wine, did Cynthia (one of the drummers) beckon us to her kitchen. She insisted that we eat her spicy chicken and rice, and that we take lots as there was plenty of everyone. How is a hungry cyclist tourist to refuse such an offer? We don't We ate 1, then 2 servings... but managed to stop ourselves from taking a third. We were sad we had little to give in return, but, we did tell her the whereabouts of her band members (who were missing), so we hoped this was something!
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| Unexpected home cooking! Cynthia's spicy chicken and rice. We could smell the aromas blocks away. A treat. |
