L2L Day 94 Scaladale to Baile Ailein - 10 miles

This may have been our penultimate walking day but there was no let up on the 'bog quotient'

The weather forecast for the day suggested that it was going to be a complete change from yesterday - at least for the morning but with strengthening winds throughout the day.

It being a Sunday, there were no busses on Lewis so Norman our host at the B&b offered us a lift back to Scaladale to resume our walk.

On the way, he showed us two memorials, both moving testimonies to the ordinary people of the Hebrides
- the first commemorating the Pairc Raiders, local crofters from Baile Ailein who in 1887 took on the landowners and agents who were denying them access to the their rightful lands.




the sights on the top of the walls pointing towards the locations of key events in the raid, including the reading of the Riot Act.

- the second, commemorating the spot where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed on Lewis, 18 days after his defeat at Culloden. " to the eternal honour of all Hebrideans that regardless of their loyalties, he was not betrayed to the authorities"



Norman dropped us off close to the Harris/Lewis boundary and we walked in to the Aline woodland where in the 1970s, the Forestry Commission had planted sitka spruce that had become prey to an invasive moth and as a result had died.

The plantation is now in community ownership, looking much more healthy and efforts are being made to encourage biodiversity. Certainly, the new trees looked healthy.


At about 500ft, it was very windy on the top of Griamacleit but the views were good in every direction.




The area is known for its ravens.




On leaving Aline, the trail passed parallel to the Sunday quiet main road


and then the route became decidedly boggy.

The main power cables run from Skye and then power is distributed across the island. All the posts and pylons are in the process of being upgraded and this is the kind of machine the contractors have to play with!


Now you're talking!!!



...it must have been the wind that blew the door open to allow me to climb in.....Honest!!!

The route became very very boggy and our progress slowed.



It became a game of choose your tussock!!!




And we were distracted for a while by trying the find the Golden Plover as they issue single note decoy whistles - sometimes of a slightly different pitch while scurrying through the undergrowth. They are really difficult to spot.


All of this excitement interrupted by occasional rain showers.


Beautiful lichen on a footbridge handrail.


Such a range of colours......

Bell heather


Lesser spearwort


Heath bedstraw


and Bog Asphodel (apparently sometimes known as the bastard asphotel !!)


It seems every day, there'll be a sheep that wants to reenact a scene from High Noon!!!!


Fortunately, unscathed, we were accompanied safely back to the main road by a couple of chatty Stonechats.



Back in Baile Ailein, as Bob Dylan would say..."you don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows"







Comments

  1. Tony30 June 2026 at 23:12

    Good luck for your last day! Well done both of you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David's 2022 Walk1 July 2026 at 10:46

      Thanks Tony and many thanks for your great company over some of the long and high bits. I trust you're both home safely from the High Seas!? Time to plan the next trip??

      Delete

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