West Side VI - 26/02/05

In order to complete the westcoast walk link, I am returning to Dail Mor, just outside Carloway, and walk east to Dalbeg and Shawbost. Unfortunately, the first bus on Saturday doesn’t go until 12.45, so I’ve got very little time. It’s the long way round via Garynahine in partially cloudy weather. At the Carloway bridge, a bunch of teenage boys take so long to get on board, that the driver snaps “what’s keeping yous?” I get off at the top of the Dalmore road. A number of cars leave the village as I approach it. The blinded sheep has been removed from the field, and a flock has been put in. A campervan has been parked near the public loos at Dalmore beach, where I have lunch at the picnic bench. The I hit the trail and walk the mile or so across the hills to Dalbeg. Have a spot of bother with fences and stiles, or more to the point: lack of them. Go up the hill behind Dalbeg and follow the waymarkers as far as the wall that doesn’t have a stile to aid crossing. Get a shower or two. At the wall, I head due east, abandoning the line of markers, and make for Loch na Muilne, rather than northeast. It’s a bit boggy in places, but once I cross the stream leading into the loch, I can make for the track into South Shawbost. Walk to the main A858, just over a mile away, and go back west to visit the Norse mill and kiln, situated by a stream. This used to be the village mill. Then I return to the A858 to wait for the bus, which appears during a shower.