Leaving Lewis and heading to Aberdeenshire

Iolaire Memorial

On our last day in these beautiful islands,  we explored Stornoway a bit. We parked right at the harbour and were able to get a close look at the Iolaire Memorial.  We had seen it the night before when we were with Jean.  This is a memorial to a very sad story involving the young men coming home from World War I.  According to the information plaque at the site, the ship ran aground at 1:55am on January 1, 1919.  They were so close to shore that they could see the lights from building there. Most of them could not swim and they drowned, so close to home.  I have read that families had tables set for a meal to welcome their sons home but instead had to run to the harbour and watch this tragedy unfold.  This memorial is meant to be a temporary one, but is so simple, moving and beautiful that people have asked for it to stay.  I believe it will be subject to nature though and leave on its own time. The 280 sticks represent the number of passengers on board, the 79 white ones represent the survivors.  There are little lights on the sticks so it is illuminated at night and must be so beautiful. The tide covers the sticks completely when it is in.  There is also a memorial in the exact place where the Iolaire sank. This can be seen clearly when taking the ferry out of Stornoway. Alan saw it, I was inside the dog friendly area with Kenzie!

We also found MacNeil's Bar as mentioned in Peter May’s book The Blackhouse!   It has been a long time since I read the Blackhouse Trilogy by Peter May, but those books made the Outer Hebrides come alive for me and I knew I had to visit them one day.  Sorry it took so long though.

The sign outside the door to MacNeil's offers a husband creche!

MacNeil's is not dog friendly nor does it serve coffee, so I just stayed in long enough to find that out. Maybe one day we can go there and have a drink!  

I think this is The Narrows!

There is also a mention of The Narrows when characters from book "The Blackhouse" take the fight started in MacNeils out to the street - The Narrows.  I accidentally took a photo of what I think is The Narrows.  However, if I had known, I would have taken it at a different angle!

Since we had traveled at such a pace and covered so much in so little time, I was seriously running out of clothes and had no opportunity to do any laundry.  Even if the weather had been better, the only time I could have squeezed this in was when we were located in an area where hanging out washing on a Sunday was frowned upon, and it was Sunday!  So I had the perfect excuse to go to M & Co and buy some new tops!  AND they had a sale on so it was great timing.

Interesting shops all over Stornoway!

Alan and Kenzie had to wait for me
while I enjoyed a bit of
retail therapy!

I love the local butchers in Scotland.  They always
have items that make me what to host a dinner party!

Sad to leave these beautiful islands but it was time to catch the ferry out of Stornoway and head off to Ullapool.  This ferry is only 2 1/2 hours so Kenzie didn’t suffer such boredom as the 5 hour ferry from Oban to Barra.

At this point in our journey, we had no idea where we were going, but this is not unusual. Alan really wanted to return to Aberdeenshire, so we headed east!  I got online and discovered a place to spend the night in Hopeman and it was absolutely wonderful!  West Beach Caravan Park was right on the beach just like it said!  It is darling and well maintained, the management was fantastic and we hope to return here one day.   Alan was out front on "our" beach and discovered a Plover's nest!  I would never have seen it if he had not patiently pointed it out to me!

View from our campsite!