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Our Lady of the Isles, South Uist
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We left our Airbnb in Balivanich on the small island of Benbecula shortly after nine to do some more exploring before heading south to Lochboisdale, South Uist's main village and port. This is where we were to take another ferry across to the mainland and eventually continue on to Glasgow. For our first stop we saw visible from the road a granite statue visible on the slopes of Ruabhal hill, Our Lady of the Isles. This is a sculpture of the Madonna and Child that was commissioned and constructed in 1957 shortly after the Minister of Defence proposed a missile testing range be constructed on this site. This obviously caused concern it would destroy much of the island's way of life, culture and language but the military prevailed, though very much scaled down, and I guess it is up to the residents here to determine if it has affected them at all. Later we found a sign leading to the site of some ancient chapels but there was really little to see except remains of weathered stone walls and sheep grazing close by. We went instead into the small Church of Scotland there and signed the visitor book. Next stop was at a ruined Ormacleit Castle. Nothing much to see here either, no accompanying plaque or notice, just a shell of an old stone structure adjoining a farmer's rather ramshackle buildings. We did find a very interesting museum near Lochboisdale, the Kildonan museum. It has a large collection of items from and about South Uist collected by a local parish priest Father John Morrison, a great collection of bronze age and Vikings remains and is home to the Clan Ranald Stone which has a very interesting Canadian connection. We arrived thirty minutes before the ferry left and joined the small line of cars and were on at the scheduled time. The crossing was a long 3 1/2 hours but smooth and relaxing, as there were very few passengers aboard we had the lounge to ourselves. I went on deck to watch the Small Isles of Canna, Rum and Eigg pass by to starboard and then the tiny port town of Mallaig appeared in the distance. At 5:30 PM, right on schedule, the ferry tied up, and after stopping in the local co-op to pick up our supper we were off, following the A830 to our next stopover for the night.
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| site of Tobha Mor Ancient Chapels |
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| Ormacleit Castle, South Uist |
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| Kildonan museum, South Uist |
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| leaving Lochboisdale, South Uist |
The drive to Banavie, near Fort William, was difficult, with winding hairpins and typical rough Scottish asphalt but with lovely scenery. We stopped once along the way to look at a monument in Glenfidden on Loch Shiel. It was here in 1745 the Jacobite rising began when Princes Charles raised his standard on the shores of the loch. The Monument was built in 1815 as a tribute to 'the generous zeal and undaunted bravery' of those Highlanders who 'fought and bled in that arduous and unfortunate enterprise'. One of the scenes from several Harry Potter movies was filmed here using the 21-arch viaduct where the West Highland Line steam train crosses over the River Finnan. Not surprisingly, more people come here to gawk at the viaduct and wait for the next train to cross than gaze up at the lone, kilted Highlander staring silent across the deep blue waters. Our Airbnb in Banavie was delightful and very private and had a wonderful view of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK. The sun was setting and reflecting off the the last of the winters snow, the rest of the Grampian mountains marching off in the distance. A perfect backdrop to end another full day. GWS
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| arriving Mallaig |
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| Glenfinnan Monument, its all Gaelic to me |
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| Glenfinnan Viaduct, in the distance |
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| Loch Shiel |
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| Ben Nevis |
