A Nice Relaxing Day!


 

Up this morning to another sunny day!  Wow!  After a nice, long soak in the tub (for me, that is), we eventually got moving on the way to the Island of Harris … but again, how one would know one from the other – I guess it would be the signage – and while the signage is mostly in Scottish Gaelic, which neither of us can neither read nor pronounce…but I digress.  This morning, Robert started reading about peat and the Island of Lewis … and surprisingly, he discovered that I was right all along!  Amazing!  Here is what he came up with!  

 

During yesterday’s excursion, Margaret and I stopped at one of the stone circles and, on the walk to the site, encountered some very marshy ground.  Margaret called it ‘peat’, I called it ‘mud’ but she was absolutely correct; it was peat.  It shouldn’t be surprising that we ran afoul of peat; it turns out that Lewis Island is home to the largest peak bog in Europe!

 

Peat is the surface organic layer of a soil that consists of partially decomposed organic matter, derived mostly from plant material, which has accumulated under conditions of waterlogging, oxygen deficiency, high acidity and nutrient deficiency; it accumulates at about 3 feet per 1000 years.  Peat bogs, among other things, are of interest to archaeologists because they have turned up numerous bodies, centuries old, that have been preserved in the oxygen-free condition, giving some insight to how people lived in those times.  See, for example, Tolland Man (4th century, B.C.) found in Denmark. (Margaret’s note here:  SO glad there aren’t going to be two new specimens for archaeologists to find thousands of years from now!)

 

For centuries, in this land devoid of trees and coal, peat has been a source of fuel.  People would cut slabs out of the bog, divide them into smaller pieces, and after drying, use them for fuel.  Peat is also in important part of the distilling of whiskey in this part of Scotland; it is used to dry the damp malt of the barley grain that is then fermented and distilled.  Laphroaig dries the malt for 18 hours over peat fires, which gives that brand of whiskey its distinctive, smoky character. (Margaret again:  Laphroaig also just happens to be R’s very favorite single malt whisky!)






 

The last picture below refers to the monument above!








So, back to me again.  Turns out, the two islands, as Stew had indicated, are indeed very different.  While Lewis is primarily peat, Harris is very mountainous and beautiful with lots of mountain lochs (lakes) and streams.  The interesting thing is that there are many  bicyclists here – and truly, they are adventurous, because with the way this wind seems to be constantly blowing, I don’t know how they can really stand up against it!  We made it to the one main town, Tarbert, population 480, home to the Isle of Harris Distillery, and had a quick look round, but there wasn’t an awful lot to see.  Then, after some diversionary side roads (although honestly, there aren’t even a lot of those on the island!), we headed back to the apartment for a rest and a quiet afternoon!  It was nice to take a nap and have a rather short day of it.  We’ve been doing a lot of driving for the past two weeks, and there are many more miles to go tomorrow.  

 

So, up and about again for dinner.  We went into town to the Cleaver Restaurant located in the CaberfeidhHotel.  It’s a lovely hotel, and the restaurant was excellent!  For starters, Robert had their local mussels in a cream sauce (and although he remarked that a bit of Tabasco sauce might have zinged things up a bit) he enjoyed them very much.  I had their fried polenta chips with aubergine and courgette (eggplant and zucchini) which I enjoyed very much.  For mains, Robert had their cod served in a seafood stew, which presented beautifully, and I had their beef “feather” (no idea what that was exactly) with mashed potatoes with broccolini, portobello mushroom and grilled beetroot.  Everything was wonderful!  The only downer was that the cheese board was only okay.  Back to the flat by 7 pm.  


Homemade sourdough with salt & pepper butter

R's mussels

My polenta chips

My beef "feather" is somewhere under the veggies

R's cod in fish stew

Cheese board with R's dram of Laophroaig

 

Our ferry leaves at 7 am tomorrow, so we’re up and about very early in the morning; definitely early to bed tonight.  Things are basically done in the kitchen, so just have to pack up the fridge and get everything into the car!  Tomorrow takes us back to Ullapool and then we start heading south.  It’s about 4½ - 5 hours down to Kilmartin Glen and then Lochgilaphead, where we’ll be staying for the next four nights in another apartment.  This particular area of Scotland is the focus of one of the biggest concentrations of prehistoric sites in Scotland.  Burial cairns, standing stones, stone circles, hill forts and cup-and-ring marked rocks litter the countryside.  Within a 6-mile radius of Kilmartin village there are 25 sites with standing stones and more than 100 rock carvings – so you see why we are looking forward to visiting!

 

More tomorrow!

m

xxx

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