Day Nine--A Little Ancient History

As I am unable to write daily, this post is post-dated for Friday, September 7, 2007. Pictures to follow...
We're off to Stornoway (again), but this time to the MacLeod Butcher to get some heather honey and shortbread. We thought we'd bring home some heather honey, since I've never seen it in the US. Next to the butcher is a post office that sells liquor. It gives going to the post office a whole nother meaning. After that we took the road that cuts over the island of Lewis to the west side. From there we thought we'd work our way south along the coastline where there seems to be a gathering of the ancient sites on the island. The road west is near the top of Lewis, where the mountains have receeded and all that remains is bare, open flat land. Like their version of the prairies. It felt a little like Kansas, only heather covered and rusty in color. The sun was out on this portion of the island, and the beaches were so close that this uneventful side of Lewis was easily overlooked. Because there are few rocks in the landscape, there seemed to be alot of peat farming. There were stacks of it drying out everywhere. The landscape, as predicted, poured us out on the sandy western shores--as prisitine and white as their Harris counterparts. On the curve southward we passed two Volkswagon vans with surfboards strapped to the top, so I assumed they were headed for the famous Lewis surfing waves to the north of the island. I couldn't imagine surfing in water this cold. You'd have to be pretty die hard for that. The only times I've surfed were in warmish Southern California water, and even that was a bit too cold. So on to our first stop...the Norse Mill and Kiln, a small walk from the road towards a small stream. These rectangular stone structures were still in use as mills until the 1930s, though their creation predates the Norse inahabitants of Northern Lewis. Scholars think that these are probably of Irish, and not Norse, design--though archeological evidence has shown these same structures as far away as Turkey and Asia. The roofs are about 2 foot thick thatch held on by a webbing of ropes tied to large rocks draped over the thatch. there are sno windows. so it's ver dark inside--dark and damp. I couldn't imagine volunarily spending half of my day in such darkness grinding oat and barley and drying it. We left here with a new appreciation for windows and headed towardst he Garenin village of black houses. Garenin holds the only intact black house village on the whole of the islands. This village was last inhabited in 1974. The houses here look very similar in design and appearance to the Norse mill and kiln structures. The only difference was occasional windows or “sky lights” in these homes. Grouped tightly together, this cluster of houses must have made a very fine working village on the sea. There is a small museum inside one of the homes that was made up to look like the inside of the last inhabitant’s home. Quite cozy with two fireplaces, I was amused at the sloping foundation that allowed for water to gather down at the furthest end and be directed back outside. They had a tweed loom inside and a demonstration was given to us by a very aged tweed maker. The contraption is quite old—looks as if it came out of the early industrial revolution. It’s quite complex, though, and made of iron and is manually powered by the movement of the maker’s feet. Like riding a bicycle. It’s like getting exercise while you weave. In fact, the old man was a little out of breath after the demonstration. But he explained to us that tweed makers were sent a pattern and dyed yarn by the mills and were paid on every 100 meters they produced. Most people, he said, were crofters AND weavers. So when the weather was bad they’d head indoors and weave. People all over Harris and Lewis still have one of these large looms in their homes. He showed us the cheaper make shift version of the loom which he used when he was a kid—made out of an upside down bike frame, the petals, and a single wheel. It was rigged to be a more laborious loom and the weaver told us he remembered having weavers pay he and his young friends to take their turns at weaving so to give the older weaver a break. It was a quick way to earn pittance. The new looms were noisy and I couldn’t imagine weaving on one all day and having to hear the racket they make. I’m surprised an entire generation of weavers isn’t deaf. So our next stop south was Dun Carloway Broch, only a few miles away. This broch, or fortress, was built in the 1st Century but lived in until the Norse inhabited the island. It’s the most intact broch in the islands, and since the brochs are only found in the islands, it is the most intact broch ever found. The conical shape of the four-story structure is still partly intact, with the walls around one side only standing about 5 feet high. People would have lived and worked in these dark stone structures when they were in threat or when they needed—for whatever reason—to congregate in one place and live in community under one roof. From here we went further south to Callanish—home of the famous Callanish Standing Stones. Much like Stone Henge, these standing stones are large rectangularish pillars stood in the ground to form a pattern. These were set in a cross shape, with a circular center and a cairn in the center of the central circular stones. They think this central cairn was probably a burial cairn. No ones knows for sure why people set up standing stones. It’s a big mystery. They do know they are over 3,000 years old. These particular stones are made of Lewis Gneis—a super hard crystalline rock that is considered to be the most ancient rock in the world. We walked around and through the rock formation wondierng what exactly we were walking through. They had thought years ago that these must have been used for ceremonies and perhaps sacrifices. But archeology has never uncovered—at any set of standing stones--any pottery or other utensils regularly associated with sacrificial ceremonies in ancient times. So without further archeological evidence, they are left clueless as to why they exist. Perhaps it’s just a burial ground. Or perhaps, as we jested, the creators just wanted something pretty to look at--like a Feng Shui garden, or how the Japanese look at stones in their gardens, or how we create sculpture gardens. For whatever reason their original creation, they are now quite beautiful and seem to be a great feat of ancient engineering. We left here in search of a smaller stone circle called Achmore stone circle that is down the road from Callenish in the small village of Achmore. Found in 1981 by a peat farmer, these stones have been excavated and lie flat on the peat and bog, with only two of the stones remaining upright (albeit mostly buried in the peat). Most of the standing stones in these parts were found by peat farmers. Years—centuries, actually—of ground cover and peat had built up around the rocks till, in many cases, only the tips of these monolithic rocks remained above ground. It took peat farmers digging out peat to realize these were more than just rocky boulders—that there was a design to and for them and that the stones formed circles and straight lines. On our walk around Achmore we found a piece of peat and decided to take it with us to use in our fire back at Planasker. The smell of a peat fire is unforgettable and one of the scents that always reminds us of our time spent in Ireland. Peat is not used as much in the UK as it used to be. Coal is more readily available and so most people heat with coal. Far less people in the island used peat than we would have guessed. So when we got back we put the peat on the fire and prepared some tea. We wanted to call the US to speak with our son and so took a quick walk down to the local BT pay phone up the road (every village has one). This phone took no coins, only cards, so we spent about 10 minutes speaking to international operators trying to get the phone to call through to the US. After the third try we finally got through. We’ve noticed—through many attempts—that the BT pay phones here are tricky and we’ve had more than a few not let us call out except in case of emergency. Finding one that works is an effort in itself. So if you come here and need a phone consider a satellite phone or a SIM card for your cell phone. We tried to get both of these, but in our case our cell phone doesn’t work with a SIM card, and the satellite phone companies were unreliable this time of year to get the phone to us before our departure. Anyway, our last new experience for the day was with the notorious midges—those ferocious swarming bugs that bite and drive people near insane. We got out of the car today and were swarmed. I was wishing I had that Avon Skin-So-Soft everyone seems to think works against the buggers. I did reemerge outside later with some Bite Blocker and some pure essential oils by Young Living called Purification, and they didn’t seem to like the combination. We used both when we spend a month in Tanzania two years ago, and we did not get bit by a mosquito—not even one. Which was pretty remarkable in the wet season. Supposedly midges are worse here in the warmer months, but thankfully we were heading out of season so they weren’t bad. This was our first experience and our trip was almost done. So we were thankful our peaceful hikes thus far had not been interrupted by the annoying buzz of the swarm. Later in the evening Dave wanted to watch the opening match of the World Cup Rugby match between France and Argentina. It seemed very British to do and reminded my husband of when he played club rugby when at Oxford studying abroad. Dave relived “the good ol’ days” and then we ate another delicious 3 course meal and had our coffee while we watched another old movie. Then we realized it was terribly late and that we had to awaken tomorrow at 5 am to get to Stornoway for the ferry crossing at 7:15 am for Ullapool on the mainland. So we once more headed off to sleep.