Walk to Carloway - 07/03/05

 

Head into town at 11, to use the library and buy a few bits and pieces. I have a bowl of soup and a piece of bread in the library coffeeshop, and at midday I head out for today’s walk. The route starts through the Castle grounds, where a man lets his dog out of his car. The animal makes a beeline for my legs as I walk past him at my usual speed of 4mph. He crouches low, growls and I can feel his teeth against my legs. I yell at the owner to call the b***** animal off as he is biting me. Jayz. Continue, unhurt, towards Marybank and the Pentland Road. After a few hundred yards, I leave Stornoway behind and head out onto the moors. The road runs parallel to the track I walked on February 27th, and I can see the quarry, the radio transmitter and the Bennadrove rubbish tip behind Loch Airigh na Lic. Arrive at the junction for Achamor at 1.15, and head into the island’s interior, along the old Pentland Road. This was intended as the trackbed for a railway linking the harbours of Carloway and Stornoway. Catches landed at Carloway were to be transferred to the sheltered harbour at Stornoway by rail. Like so many of Lord Leverhulme’s projects, this one never came to fruition. Another example is the road linking (or more to the point not linking) Tolsta and Ness. It now stops just behind the bridge by Garry Beach. The Pentland Road is level, hugging contours and going up or down only mild gradients. The Barvas Hills loom up to the north, but after half an hour they recede behind me as I cross the bridge of the Creed River. The radiomasts at Èitsal stand tall 3½ miles to the south. The journey continues west, past a succession of low hills, with lochans glinting to the right in the moors. The hills of Uig tower up ahead, Great Bernera in front. Reach another junction at 14.55: it’s left to Breascleit or ahead to Carloway. I go full steam ahead towards Carlabhagh. I get told off by a passing motorist for tossing bottles into the verge of the road. There are literally thousands of the things knocking about. Have to reach Carloway before 5pm, but I’m doing fine. Kids jumping on a trampoline outside a house on the Pentland Road in Carloway itself, which I reach after 4. Follow the road as far as the bridge in the village center. Once there I only have to wait 25 minutes for the return bus to Stornoway, leaving at 4.55. There are actually twobuses: one goes back through Callanish, the other takes the route through Shawbost and Barvas. I choose the latter, like it better, and I return to town at 5.45.