Isle of Harris - Tweed

Our trip to the Outer Hebrides took place in summer 2017 and we visited most of the big islands. While we were on the Isle of Harris we went to see this exhibition about Harris Tweed.

The making of Harris Tweed is all done in the Outer Hebrides, in fact there statutory Act of Parliament that says the weaving of Harris Tweed must be done in the homes of the islanders. If you want to know more about the whole process here is a link!

The fabrics we saw were amazing, I liked the chair and all the clothes are just spectacular too! I bought a small purse and my father bought a bunnit or bonnet (a flat cap)

The location of the place was fantastic, when we were there it was quite peaceful. Back in Tarbert the main town we went to a shop selling Harris tweed and Alessio got a bonnet too! I also bought a lovely purple/light blue cushion in another part of the island too.

In Tarbert we also visited another big tourist hit Isle of Harris distillery. We couldn`t get tour of the place as all the tours were booked out, but we did eat at their restaurant and bought two bottles of the gin! It is in a beautiful bottle, which I have kept! You can see it here

Both places a well worth a visit if you are in the area!

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Stornoway, Isle of Lewis

Last summer Alessio and I, along with my parents spent one week in the Outer Hebrides. For around 3 days we stayed in Stornoway, which is the largest town in the Outer Hebrides with around 8,000 inhabitants.

We visited Lews Castle, where we explored the new Museum am Eilean and it tells the history of the islands and we saw the famous Lewis Chessman.

We wondered around the shop and some of the buildings are colourful like in Tobermory, but not as nice! We spent most of our days visiting other sites on the island like Callanish Stones, Dun Carloway, Gearrannan Blackhouse and Butt of Lewis.

On Saturday I visited with Alessio my friend Katrina and her lovely little baby Ellie along with Hannah. On Sunday, my in-laws,  Luca and Andrea with their kids Valerio and Mattia came for brunch.

Have a lovely week!

North and South Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland

Our summer holidays last year were spent in Scotland and for one week we visited the Outer Hebrides. There are more than 100 islands in this archipelago and 15 of them are inhabited, we visited 8 islands on this trip. They are connected by either causeways, bridges or by ferry.

We left Leverburgh on the Isle of Harris by ferry and arrived in Berneray, we only stopped very briefly, driving over a causeway to arrive on North Uist. We had lunch at Lochmaddy, carried on driving through the island. We stopped a few times to admire the beaches and landscape. Our aim was to get to South Uist and our accommodation for the night. To reach South Uist, we had to drive over another causeway onto Benbecula, with a quick stop for coffee and cake. Finally only one causeway to cross over to reach South Uist and our stay for the evening. Our accommodation was the Orasay Inn, Lochcarman and basically was in the middle of nowhere, but very stunning views. We went for a lovely short walk after our dinner.

The next day we continued our drive down to the bottom of the island and to our final accommodation Polocher Inn. We visited the Kildonan Museum which has lots of information about the cultural, social and domestic history of South Uist. We all found it very interesting place and we had lunch there too.

We stopped off at Askernish Golf Club and my father and Alessio went for a bit of a wonder, myself and my mother stayed at the club for a coffee. The photos of the wildflowers is called the Machair (a Gaelic word) this refers to fertile low-lying grassy plains found on parts of Northwest coastlines of Scotland and Ireland. It was truly beautiful to see and it was everywhere.

The Polocher Inn is situated right on the sea and the view is just stunning, we went for a lovely walk along the beach. The last photo is at this Inn and Alessio looking for shells and stones.  The Inn is very good and would recommend it.

Callanish Stones, Isle of Lewis

One of the many highlights of our trip to the Outer Hebrides in the summer was visiting the famous Callanish Standing Stones. Situated on the west coast of the Lewis these amazing standing stones are 5000 years old and predate Stonehenge in England by 2000 years! They were erected in the late Neolithic era.

The standing stones are in a cross shape, but with a giant circle near the top of the cross. The stones are made from Lewisian Gneiss, which is one of the oldest rocks in Britain. Historians and scientists are not able to say exactly what they mean, the most probable reason is an ancient type of astronomical observatory.

Just thinking about how these huge stones were transported here and erected is completely mind boggling. There are other Callanish standing stone sites nearby but we just visited the main one which has a visitor centre with an exhibition. Here is a wonderful photo essay about the region, which may make you want to visit this area!

There is another standing stone site called Stenness Stones in Orkney and definitely would love to visit them.

Talking about Scotland, Alessio and I are off tomorrow for the Christmas holidays and looking forward to it!

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!!