The weather forecast for the weekend of Heather and Ewan’s visit to Ullapool was dire. But we didn’t want to stay indoors so on Saturday we decided to head for Handa Island, clad in waterproofs and our trusty walking boots. We were so lucky because although the skies were grey it didn’t rain, so we walked the 7 km around the island without getting wet. James and I have visited Handa Island a couple of times before; it is reached by a fifteen minute ferry journey in a small boat. The puffins for which it is famous in the early summer have long departed out to sea but there were plenty of other seabirds to watch, including fulmars, kittiwakes and great skuas (aka bonxies.)
The sea cliffs were spectacular with birds wheeling round from their nests, and we were surrounded by many smaller islands and we could see Lewis in the distance. There is a Rangers Hut where we were given a little talk before we set off along the path. I felt a bit conflicted about the well maintained path which included long sections of duckboards. It all felt a bit too curated. On the other hand, without it we would never have been able to traverse all the marshy bits of the island.
Back in the mainland we headed to Lochinver to purchase pies for dinner, and we planned to have a light bite to eat at one of the several cafés in the vicinity. It was by now about twenty to four, and the pie shop was due to close at four, but I thought that it would be ok for us to have a quick soup and a roll, or a scone and a cup of tea, right? Wrong! The lady who was serving in the café told me that they had “run out of nearly everything” and when I returned briefly (while the others were queuing for the pies) to ask if we could just have a coffee with biscuits she made an exaggerated face of disappointment and slumped her shoulders when she saw me approaching and told me that they were no longer taking orders. There was no point in arguing but as James commented later, I wonder how the owner of the shop would feel about customers being turned away when it would have been so little trouble to serve us four coffees - and to receive our money! We made our way to Delilah’s where we were able to get coffees but there was no food being served apart from a few biscuits which we devoured.
We were certainly more than ready for an early dinner of pies and mash when we got to the cottage! In the evening we went to see the traditional music group Ape House at the Ceilidh Place venue. They were very personable and i liked their music but all the fresh air and walking had taken its toll and a couple of us (who shall remain nameless) were snoozing, so after a quick confab we slipped away at the interval to have a nightcap back at the cottage.
The sea cliffs were spectacular with birds wheeling round from their nests, and we were surrounded by many smaller islands and we could see Lewis in the distance. There is a Rangers Hut where we were given a little talk before we set off along the path. I felt a bit conflicted about the well maintained path which included long sections of duckboards. It all felt a bit too curated. On the other hand, without it we would never have been able to traverse all the marshy bits of the island.
Back in the mainland we headed to Lochinver to purchase pies for dinner, and we planned to have a light bite to eat at one of the several cafés in the vicinity. It was by now about twenty to four, and the pie shop was due to close at four, but I thought that it would be ok for us to have a quick soup and a roll, or a scone and a cup of tea, right? Wrong! The lady who was serving in the café told me that they had “run out of nearly everything” and when I returned briefly (while the others were queuing for the pies) to ask if we could just have a coffee with biscuits she made an exaggerated face of disappointment and slumped her shoulders when she saw me approaching and told me that they were no longer taking orders. There was no point in arguing but as James commented later, I wonder how the owner of the shop would feel about customers being turned away when it would have been so little trouble to serve us four coffees - and to receive our money! We made our way to Delilah’s where we were able to get coffees but there was no food being served apart from a few biscuits which we devoured.
We were certainly more than ready for an early dinner of pies and mash when we got to the cottage! In the evening we went to see the traditional music group Ape House at the Ceilidh Place venue. They were very personable and i liked their music but all the fresh air and walking had taken its toll and a couple of us (who shall remain nameless) were snoozing, so after a quick confab we slipped away at the interval to have a nightcap back at the cottage.
No comments:
Post a Comment