Jaunts around Lewis

We actually left the croft on Wednesday for the first time since we got here (I think Dave and Jane were shocked that we stepped off the croft). We took a bus to Stornoway, and from there another bus over to the west side of the island. The views from the bus of the mountains were amazing.

Most of our day was spent at the main Callanish stone circle. The area around Callanish is covered with stone circles and individual standing stones, but most of them have been completely or partially covered over by peat. The main site, however, is clear.

It is beautiful up at the Callanish stones, which are up on a hill over-looking the ocean and the mountains. It is quite a large circle (the second largest in the UK, after Stonehenge), with over 53 stones spanning 400 feet, and has been there for over 5000 years. Within the central circle, next to the central stone, there is a depression, within which people had been buried for centuries. I spread some of mom's ashes here.

We entered the stones with ceremony and attempted to be reverent and to open ourselves to the experience. It was hard, however, with all the other people there. Tourists!!!!!! We left just as a bus load of tourists arrived. Good timing!

Our next stop (by bus) was the Arnol Blackhouse. Blackhouses were the traditional building here in the Hebrides (especially amoung the crofters), and many people lived in them well into the last century. They were made out of stone and earth, with a straw and sod roof that was replaced on a regular basis. People, animals, and all their food (hay) lived within the same building. The Arnol blackhouse has been preserved as it was left when the last resident moved out.

It was much much bigger than I imagined it would be simply from viewing the outside of the building. It has 6 separate rooms, all of them quite large (this includes the living room, bed room, barn, and feed storage rooms). The peat fire (which is kept constantly burning at Arnol) is put simply on the floor in the middle of the living room, and there is no chimney (hence the word blackhouse). The smoke must find it's way out on it's own.

The house itself felt very cozy and inviting (not something I would think of a stone house). There was a good energy about the whole place. I love the smell of peat burning, and I spent a long time sitting by the fire. The smell seems so familiar and the smoke is not at all irritating. The picture shows just how thick the peat smoke is within the main room. It reminds me, in some way, of the smell of my dad forge from when I was a kid (I guess peat is on it's way to becoming coal).