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With a day of relatively low cloud in the Outer Hebrides, we decided that a wander along a (probably unpeopled) glen was on the cards. We headed to Harris to walk Glen Leosaid, inland from the Hushinish beach and parked up just before the weir above Amhuinnsuidhe Castle. There we booted up, picking burrs off our socks which were like mad burr-magnets.
I scrambled up the rock to get a bit of a look before we set off, looking over twards An Cliseam which was hidden in cloud, then down on to the weir and over to Taransay.
Before long on the track into the glen, a dipper appeared just before Loch Leosaid. Otherwise all was still, silent and calm.
In the loch itself, I had an eye out for otters, but we met these two goosanders instead...
... and in the grass, stonechats were chatting and watching us.
Then just as we were rising from the loch towards the glen proper, out from the cloud heading towards us soared this beautiful golden eagle. It flew over us, then as it turned back on itself it was soon joined by another one:
So from that point on, we found ourselves looking backwards as much as we were looking forwards. Who knew what was going to come at us from the skies?
018 View back down Glen Leosaid towards S HarrisNaturally, that meant that for the rest of the rise to the highest point in the glen, nothing arrived from the skies
, though there were carder bees and damsel flies keeping us company. The high point, with its view down to Loch a Ghlinne was a good spot to stop for a glug of coffee and a flapjack, and then, well somehow we ended up just gobbling our lunch rolls and enjoying the view.
019 Breakfast view to Loch a Ghlinne and seaFull and sated, on we went, down to the loch, at first enjoying the dragonflies and butterflies who were taking a break from the damp air...
020 Crossing the Allt a Ghlinne 022 Common hawker 023 Common hawker 024 Gatekeeper... and here we found remains of shielings and crofts. Tough living.
025 Croft remains at Loch a Ghlinne026 Old shielings at Loch a GhlinneA wheatear picked us up, as wheatears do, and guided us on towards the loch, while down in the burn were swimming busy little fry.
027 Wheatear guides029 Brown trout fryAbove us I was really taken by the buttresses. We wondered about striking up them, but the ground looked very lumpy, and E's knee was giving him jip, so we decided against it. There would be height as we carried on round the headland!
030 Huisabhal Mor032 Huisabhal Mor buttressesHere on the loch, we were suddenly surprised by a loud plopping sound, an otter diving underwater. We stopped, sank into the grass, and very briefly, too briefly for the camera, it popped up again, swam a stroke towards us, nostrils flared, and disappeared again. As we watched, hoping it would break surface again, E spotted movement over on the far side, and a peer through the binoculars showed we were looking at a little family of divers. I'd wondered if there would be red throated, but these were black throated. (The otter never did reappear.)
033 Diver in the distance034 Two black throated divers and chickHaving run out of loch, with no reappearance from our otter, we were now heading for the sea.
038 End o Loch a Ghlinne039 Looking N to Mealasta Island - cf timber murder On Mealasta Island, at which we were now looking, there's a horrible story of murder. In about 1785 a boat from the island was carrying a cargo of timber in a gale. It had arrived at the southernmost point of the Pairc, where it anchored to take shelter. And that was the last anyone heard of the crew. Then, the next summer, at a market day in Stornoway, someone was selling blankets, and a visitor to the market from the island recognised a unique ID mark on the blankets. The crew had been murdered for their timber, and the incident led to a confession of murder.
Here, meanwhile, at the beach, we found the remains of lazy beds.
040 Lazy beds for barley at Crabhadail beachWhat's more, we'd been hearing and had a quick and lovely view of a peregrine above us as we'd approach the loch and beach. Now, here it was again, soaring above the beach, its perch obviously somewhere up there in those glorious buttresses.
040 Peregrine041 Peregrine041 Looking east from CrabhadailAlso here at the beach was a kayaker, a couple who were doing our walk in reverse and had seen a white tailed eagle, and round the corner at the next beach a guy with a jet-ski or something and his girlfriend who presumably doesn't mind guys with jet-skis. (Chacun a son goût.)
042 Crabhadail beach with kayakerWe chatted with the WTE couple, greeted the kayaker - none of whom were chuffed with noisy jet-ski guy - and set off round the corner towards Hushinish beach. We had originally thought we were doing an out and back, because of the knee limitations, but onwards seemed too tempting, As a result, we hadn't really studied the map, so the track round to Hushinish was to be a bit of an exposure surprise - which at this point was yet to come.
Meanwhile...
043 Abandoned dwellings on Scarp044 Shieling - lazy beds - and lochan...and then... ah. Big cleft. I thnk I heard E's knee give a gasp of 'oh, sod!'.
044 Suddenrly less innocuousUp we went, and soon,as we looked over our shoulder, we could see the gleaming sandy Traigh Mheilein beach and the path leading to it. As we walked, various little groups and dog-walkers were taking that path below us - that was going to be a busy beach!
045 Path to popular Traigh MheileinI was enjoying all the Lewisian gneiss, and picturing in my mind the pond I'd just dug back home. If only I could carry out this load of lovely ancient stone! Heigh-ho... Anyway, here's E enjoying it too.
045 What could be gneisserBack on our track, away from the people, we had more stonechat company, and a good view down to a little raft of eider ducklings on the sea. We came to a white cottage marked on the map, looking as though in non-Covid times it's presumably rented out as a holiday retreat.
047 Stonechat zoom047 The watchful eiderling048 Holiday cottage presumablyOur path, meanwhile, had been twisting and turning, up and down, and slippery above the steep drop. I didn't mind it, but E's knee was screaming and it was with some joy that he saw the path level out ahead, with the Hushinish beach not too far away now (sort of)...
049 Approaching Hushinish round next bendHe brightened up particularly when we hit soft sand and a level road! Plus, it smelt absolutely gorgeous and vanilla-y honey-like from all the ladies' bedstraw in the verges.
050 The scented sandy Hushinish track051 Ladies bedstrawBut once at the beach, that was the knee done for for the day, so I offered to bring the car to the knee, and set off, rucksack free along the five miles of road. My head was full of eagles, divers, peregrine, sea and beaches and the nostrils of the otter, all of which made the journey quick.
052 My road-walk to the car053 Beinn Dubh055 Amhuinnsuidhe Castle- the ar--end067 Weir and Taransay068 Weir and Taransay colour069 Glad-to-see gatesI'd passed the WTE couple on my walk. They were cycling along the road by this point, having dropped their bikes off by the weir where we'd parked. Now they were cycling back to Hushinish where they'd parked. When I got back to Hushinish with our car, the coiple- now in their car with bikes on the rack, kindly pulled over to let me past but just that bit too far, and ended up stuck in the road-side. So after a bit of team-effort pushing and reversing their car back on to the road, we were all back on our way, in our case to hostel in Lewis, which for Covid reason we had to ourselves.