L2L Day 87 Liniclate to Cairinis (North Uist)

 A rest day.

Having walked the 12 miles of Benbecula yesterday, we decided against the 5 miles of road walking across the causeway to North Uist and arranged a taxi (it being a Sunday and there being no busses on the Sabbath)

First though, after a relaxed breakfast, we took a short walk to the nearby ruined Bhuirgh Castle though unfortunately, access seemed not to be possible off the road and the neighbour's yapping dogs discouraged us from persevering.


So, back to the hotel for lunch where we saw a copy of Sheila and Charlie Maclean's flavour wheel


..which was all it took for me to sample a local dram - Wheelhouse.


A dram on a Sunday lunchtime - isn't this a slippery slope????

The taxi at 2, took us across the causeway to Cairinis on North Uist where we checked in to our next hotel , The Temple View and walked out to Teampall na Trianaid. 


There isn't much remaining of the building now but there's evidence of it being a significant monastery from the C12th until the Reformation and it was further damaged in the Battle of Cairinis in 1601 - the last battle in the British Isles to be fought with bows and arrows. The Macleods were slaughtered by the MacDonalds - on the battlefield which became known as the 'ditch of blood' .





For our walk back to the hotel we were  accompanied by a wren sitting on the top of the wall singing his evening song. Wonderful.

Over dinner, I thought I recognised someone sitting on the adjacent table. Justin and Marie from Chichester are cycling the Hebridean Way. Marie a Paediatric Dietician at St. Richards, Chichester and Justin has just retired from his GP practice. It turned out we have a number of mutual contacts and shared interests. We may well have been at the same performances at Chichester Theatre, sailing members at Bosham etc.
We talked long into the evening.

My chosen charity this year is Medecins sans Frontieres, here's a link to my JustGiving page which should take you straight there



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