Mangastadh, Mealasta & The Timsgearraidh Museum

[Gordon Ballantyne]

Sightseeing trip in the Uig area.....

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Drove down to the Uig beach and I can confirm that it is beautiful but exposed to the prevailing southwesterlies.
The approx location where the Lewis Chessmen were found is marked by a wooden effigy of one of the men.

Discovery place of the Lewis Chessmen

The Mangastadh cliffs and stacks were being lashed by waves driven in by a fairly brisk wind.
A family asked me where the bothy was, but I advised them against visiting it due to it's exposure to the wind.
I retreated after taking a few pics of the boiling water thundering against the rocks below.

Mangerstadh

Drove through the gate out to the comms mast at Gob rubha Phail ( doesn't need much translation - eh ? ).
The scene was repeated. An SSE van was parked outside the terminal building - it's occupants sensibly working indoors.

The comms station at Gob Rubha Phait

Skerries off Gob Rubha Phait

I then drove to the end of the road just beyond Mealasta.to get a good view of Griomabhal. An empty parked car made me think that someone was on the way up Griomabhal.

The end of the road just past Mealasta

Looking back up the road from the terminus

Griomabhal from the end of the road

On the way back I revisited Aird Uig again to get a pic of the painted building etc. Funnily enough the sea was still thrashing the rocks of the Gallan Head with the same ferocity.
Next on my tourist agenda was the Museum at Timsgearraidh. Following my lunch at the adjacent cafe, a tour round the museum was a delight. The local community had packed quite a lot of intersting exhibits into quite a small space.

Uig War Memorial

The Timsgearraidh museum

Outside the Timsgearraidh Museum

The overall impression I got was a community sick & tired of waiting for central governments of any persuasion to deliver improvements, who had raised cash for buyouts to take control for themselves - good for them, an exemplar for other remote communities !