The Sights and Sounds of South Lochs

Lewis is much bigger than you expect. The West coast is laced with white sandy beaches, sheltering in secluded coves. The North is flat and green with strips of crofts leading down to flat shores. But the East coast is craggy with pebble beaches and natural habour villages for fishing boats.

Marvig - fisherman's village

Harris to the south sets a mountainous barrier between Lewis and Harris - in fact they should really be one island, but it wasn't realised until 1935 that there was a pass through the mountains and the land was actually connected.

The highest peak, An Clisham, between Harris and lewis

 So heading south from Stornoway towards Harris and its main town Tarbet, you take a left turn halfway between our two capitals, to South Lochs.
Its a pretty drive with, as the name suggests, lots of lochs. The small freshwater lochs are covered in lillies in spring and summer, and attract returning pairs of hooper swans at the end of February.

First stop on the map is in the village of Sheildenish, home to the Loch Erisort Inn, or the Cleitcher as all the locals prefer to call it.  They do food, have rooms, a pool table and peat fires.

The stretch from Sheildenish to the next village Habost passes through a wild corridoor of moorland where you often see eagles catching a thermal, or resting on a fence post. The eagles are either Sea/White tailed eagles, or Golden eagles and they are HUGE. 

Habost is the home of Hebridean Sea Salt, destination for my daily commute and as work environments go its a very pretty setting. The business units were designed by our local councillor during his day job and they sit quite neatly amongst the scenery.

The Secretary of State for Scotland at Heb Sea Salt's official opening

 Running from one into the other, Habost becomes Kershader at a small river surrounded by polytunnels. Two belong to the village and residents of Habost, and two belong to the recurrent winner at the Lochs Agricultural Show.  The Habost tunnels sell strawberries and pot plants in the summer, both at their gate and at the local shop.

From the far end of Kershader, looking back to Habost

As you drive along the shore of Loch Erisort through Kershader you will see the shop, hostel, museum and cafe at Ravenspoint.  The name comes from the piece of our croft just beyond it, in Gaelic Rubha An Fhitich (pronounced Roo-an-yeech). Last year they also installed a 24 hour petrol pump, which has
proved invaluable to the local community who would otherwise have an hour round trip just to get fuel. Unfortunately the tank is bright blue and above ground - not the best design for a scenic area, but needs must I suppose.

Just before the next village Garyvard, off the road down by the shore are the remains of a Norse mill. Dating to about 800AD, the stone mill wheels are clearly identifiable amongst the tumbledown stones of the building which used to surround it.

At Garyvard is an art studio and residential artists retreat.  The road bears inland and there is a nice pathed walk from the pier up to the village of Caversta accross the croftland.

Garyvard

At this point the road turns single track, with plenty of passing places, so more time to take in the scenery.
After the Caversta village turn, where theres a particularly abundant water lilly loch, the road runs up the hill with the first of the visible peat cuttings on the right. At the Marvig/Cromore turn you are well into peat cutting land and the slabs of dark fudge are laid out at any time from April through 'til August.

Peat cutting

Note the nuclear-blast-resistant bus shelter at this turn, cut into 4 quadrants to cover any wind direction and bear right which will take you to Gravir, where we first lived when we arrived on Lewis.

 Its a beautiful view as you pass over the cattle grid, accross to the hills of the Eiskein estate.  The local primary school, doctors surgery and post office are in Gravir, as is the stunning Kebboch head at the end of loch Odhairn.

The road carries on to the furthest villages of Lemreway and Orinsay.  As you climb up the hill out of Gravir and wind along more peat cuttings, you will come around a final corner and see an impressive sight. The Shiant Isles, wallowing in the Minch like a great sea dragon stretch out about 4 miles from land.

 Orinsay is a turn off just at the bottom of the Lemreway hill and enjoys the same phenomenal views of the Shiants.  There is a path near the end of the road which leads to the deserted village of Stemreway, a well worn path taking you accross to the other side of the bay and back in time.

Returning to Gravir the way you've come, turn right into the village and down to the head of the loch.  You can park at the bridge where there is a small slip, a perfect entry point for kayaking. The loch is often flat and calm and used by seals and otters who will come to see you.  You can park at the slip and walk up past the old school to the 'Toiun'. There are a few houses and crofts along the way but many many more blackhouse ruins from Gravir's busier times.

Loch Odhairn at Gravir

Along the side of the loch, you can see a wrecked boat's hull on your walk, dating back to C    it was called the Roselea. All along the south facing hill are the old lazy beds up on top of the hill more ruined blackhouses.

At the top you is Kebboch head, an impressive jut of Lewisean gneiss and on a clear day you can see accross the Minch to the mainland.

Kebboch head, watching over the cages of the fish farms...

Following the road on the other side of the loch will take you past the pier, a number of holiday cottages, the home of Island Flies and up the (steep) hill and off to Calbost.

Much has been written about Calbost thanks to the local historian Angus Macleod who has an archive in his honour at Ravenspoint.

It is a stunning discovery as you recover from the roller coaster single track road and drop down into the village.  If you park near No. 8 where there is a holiday house, you can follow a path, past a magical house we wanted to buy and find a secluded pebble beach.

The pebbles make an incredible sound as you walk accross them - they are large at the shoreline and get steadily smaller towards the back, where they have ground against each other for decades, steadily, smoothly getting smaller and lighter and getting tossed backwards by the sea. The west may have the white sandy beaches of postcards, but this is an equal yet opposite experience.

Following the circular road through Calbost will take you past Marvig next. The old schoolhouse is a spectacular B&B - Heather will also cook an evening meal if you can't leave the tranquil setting.  The village has a natural harbour and many fisherman have their homes here, going out for prawn or mackerel which they sell jst up the coast at Stornoway.
The final village in South Lochs is Cromore - as you follow the roller coater road to the village, you can see far into the distance - the 3 mock turbines on the road to Stornoway and the TV aerial at Achmore. It is a surprisingly well populated village for one of the most remote places, but the roads can be awful in wintertime - the Council has downgraded the gritting priority of the road so that it doesn't get gritted until 9.30am - not good for workers or school children on the bus.  But perfectly picturesque for visitors to the area enjoying the sights and sounds of South Lochs in plenty of their own time.