The Island of the Dead

The view from the front of GB’s looks out over Bayble Bay on the Isle of Lewis.  To the left is the jetty built at the end of the Nineteenth Century and to the right two small islands. 

The larger island, the furthest from the shore, is called Eilean a’ Chaise which translates as Cheese Island but which is more likely to have originally been Eilean a’ Chais or Island of Sorrow.

The smaller inner ‘island’ is really a tidal stack but even when the tide is out it is inaccessible.  It is known as Eilean na Mairbh (Island of the Dead).  The remains of at least one stone building and a midden with animal bones, shells and pottery have been found on it suggesting an early Christian site or monk’s cell.  So far no evidence of any graves has been found.

Despite having visited Lewis many times over the years I only learned the story of these small islands this week when I read ‘A Guide to Point’, edited by Liz Chaplin (2014).  It is a great little book about An Rubha, The Eye Peninsula on the East side of Lewis.

Down at Stornoway Harbour

Scottish Post-boxes

The first post-boxes in the UK were introduced in 1854 in the Channel Islands thanks to the then Postmaster General, author Anthony Trollope.  They were sage green but changed in 1874 to the now famous pillar box red.   

With each change of monarch the royal cipher on the boxes changed throughout the country until the death of George VI when a problem arose.  

Queen Elizabeth is Queen Elizabeth II of England and Wales but not of Scotland.  At the time of the first Queen Elizabeth, James VI was the Scottish monarch.   

As a result the Scottish pillar boxes installed since the early 1950s have simply borne a crown and no royal cipher.

One of the lamp post-boxes on the Isle of Lewis has had its Royal Mail sign painted over and a new red crown on a silver background plate.  This is the first one of these I have seen.

At the kitchen table

It has been a very mixed week weather-wise as GB has mentioned in his blog.  As I began drafting this post it was cold and very windy.  Now it is muggy and cloudy and if one stepped outside the front door one could commit suicide by midges!  Fortunately GB keeps his windows spotless so taking photos through them is quite acceptable. 

GB and I share the kitchen table for blogging and, this weekend, watching Wimbledon and the British F1 Grand Prix.

 

When the weather is clear you can see the mainland mountains.

I am back

I’m back after a lengthy gap – the details of which I shall not bore you with. 

At the weekend, after a scary journey down from Scotland, GB came to The Wirral to pick me up and take me back North.  This is GB – brother, friend, carer, caterer, chauffeur, and host for the next few weeks.

We stayed on Sunday night at the Royal Dunkeld in Dunkeld and on the way GB found a spot from which I could photograph Stirling Castle, something I have never managed to do before.

On Monday we paused at The Blair Atholl watermill which I had never seen before.

This nearby building looks like a fulling mill.

One advantage of not being in a hurry and having an amenable chauffeur (as both GB and Partner are) is that one can turn around and take photos when you pass something attractive.  This is the old packhorse bridge at Carrbridge.

 

 

 

As we got further into The Highlands the patches of snow on the tops got larger and larger, even on South facing slopes.

This is the new ferry, MV Loch Seaforth, coming in to berth at Ullapool.  The cars were soon loaded and we were on our way across The Minch to the Outer Hebrides.

Hopefully there will be more blog posts in the near future including one on Scottish postboxes and another on some of the changes to the Island since I was last here a couple of years ago.