Liuthaid on the island border

[nigheandonn]

Wednesday's plan was a return to Pairc, walking down the Eisgein road to the head of Loch Seaforth, but the weather forecast wasn't great at all - worst later in the day, but not very good for any of it. I also really wanted to get to a shop and try to replace the tablet charger that seemed to have got left behind in Berneray - I can live without the internet, but I had a lot of timetables and other useful things in there. And I needed more milk!

So I was looking for an alternative plan that would let me use the best weather in the morning and then catch the 14:10 bus up to Stornoway, and the map on the common room wall showed me sitting almost at the foot of a hill I'd never looked at - Liuthaid, more or less on the Lewis/Harris border.

Again, this is not a hill with many reports - I read Luckyhobbit's report using the two tracks, thought that was a good idea, and then did it the other way round more or less by accident.

The weather was looking surprisingly good as I set out to walk round the big bend to the start of the nearer track - and the hills looked surprisingly good as well.

Hills from the road

The track here is marked as a Bird of Prey trail - a way through to the eagle observatory behind Meavaig, I think - with a very artistic signpost and a map with information - it was obviously a more major route than I had realised.

Birds of prey walks

Unlike Sgurr, I took 'Walkers Welcome' on the gate as implying that other things were unwelcome here, not that I was unwelcome elsewhere - possibly helped by the fact that the Gaelic version says something more like 'welcome, walkers'!

The track was good, climbing steadily and then keeping to the edge of the hill alongside, always with the odd peak on Stulabhal ahead.

Miabhaig track

I had intended to go and start climbing from where the track meets the ridge of the hill, but once the track seemed to be taking me down as well as further from where I wanted to be I changed my mind and started climbing onto the ridge instead - not that it necessarily saved me any time.

Uphill

After heading more or less straight up through rough grass for a while I found myself in a little grassy groove which led round towards the main ridge of the hill, and followed it round.

Grassy dip

Coming onto the ridge brought me a change from dull grass to heather, a much prettier side of the hill.

Heather

I had a view now down to Abhainn Langadail between me and Stulabhal, as well as the slopes on the far side - an interesting looking hill for another time.

Stulabhal

Further up the slope I came out of heather and into scattered grey stones, which seemed hopeful - hills often keep their stones somewhere near the top.

Stones

But no, the stones just gave way to a dreary curve of grass - this was the kind of blind slope that I get really sick of, where you never have any idea what's coming next, and just seem to toil endlessly.

Grass

Up until now the weather had been pretty good - there had been clouds sitting on the top of Clisham and Uisgneabhal Mor all the time, but although the wind was blowing more or less that way none of it seemed to be getting any closer, or lower down. But now I turned and looked the other way, towards Loch Seaforth, and discovered a big grey cloud bearing down on me fast.

Approaching clouds

For a while I was completely swallowed up in the cloud, so that even the previous view of dull green slopes would have been welcome - and at least I'd still had the Uig hills in sight ahead.

Mist

By the time I came to the first little summit of Mullach a' Ruisg, though, the cloud was breaking just enough to give me hope - I hadn't been at all sure if this was it for the day.

Mullach a' Ruisg summit

As I left the summit a wider window in the cloud gave me a view not just of the Lewis hills again, but Loch Langabhat come into sight for the first time.

Loch Langabhat

The next glimpse of the wider world was in the other direction, down Loch Seaforth, now just visible all the way to the open sea.

The view returns

By the time I began climbing again towards Mullach Bhiogadail the mist was fading, but I also found that I was following a line of old fence posts towards the summit.

Fenceposts

This one isn't the highest top, but it definitely had the best built cairn.

Mullach Bhiogadail summit

As I headed on towards the main summit of Liuthaid the views went on improving, with a view opening out over the flatter land to the north.

Liuthaid summit

There were hills all around on every other side, though - the Uig hills in view again to the west.

Lewis hills

Down to the south was the main line of the Harris hills, with the cloud still clinging to the highest tops.

Harris hills

Getting that bit further north had opened out the view down Loch Seaforth even more, over the island and the southern hills of Pairc.

Loch Seaforth

The shortest way down to the northern track was also the steepest, so instead I took a slanting route down, vaguely parallel to the ridge which comes down from Mullach Bhiogadail. The track from here was on the far side of a deep river valley, and for a while I thought I would just keep going to the road, but further down an obvious way above the top end came into view, and it was much clearer how to get down to the track.

Abhainn a' Mhuil

So I slanted down that way instead - further down it was steeper for a while, and I was attacked by a sneaky rock which was sharper behind than it looked and caught my leg as I stepped over it with a blow that brought tears to my eyes - I still have the remains of the bruise three weeks later.

From down here there was a good view of the steeper edge of the hill, a more interesting shape than the slope I'd come down.

Liuthaid

I crossed the burn just at the top of the little gorge, another quite dramatic view.

View down the valley

The track was another good one, a good way down, although I cut up from it for a while to avoid young highland cows who looked like they might get a bit curious, and ended up higher on the hillside than I expected before finding a way back again.

Loch Langabhat track

I hadn't been very sure a lot of the time whether I was in Harris or Lewis, and on this hill I was even less sure - WH thinks it's in Lewis and SH thinks its in Harris - but soon after I got back to the road I passed the 'Welcome to Harris' sign at the Abhainn a' Mhuil, so according to the locals I'd been in Harris until the last minute.

Another thing I hadn't been sure I'd fit in was a visit to the little local cafe, but it was lunchtime as I passed by, so I stopped - it's really just a food van with a few tables, but good food and a *really* good view, right down Loch Seaforth.

Back at the centre I made the useful discovery that I didn't have to stand outside and wait for the bus, because it came into sight from the window, coming down the hill, in plenty of time to go out and catch it. I did my shopping in Stornoway and then went to eat cake in the Woodland centre cafe - I thought I might as well make the most of relative civilisation, but I didn't really feel like spending longer in the shops than I needed to. And it did start pouring while I was there, so my decision had been the right one, although it was a shame - I wouldn't have liked to be on the Pairc hills in the cloud anyway.

At Scaladale a group of four students had left and a German girl who I'd already run into at the Kingshouse had coincidentally turned up - there was also an Irish family who had stayed the night before, and the evening was much enlivened by the two youngsters building a sculpture park out of all the Jenga blocks in the place and giving their parents tours of it (one of the sculptures was 2000 years old, although the sculptor was still living, while another had apparently taken weeks to build from toothpicks!)

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