Liz has researched a route into town, via the museum which is not along the main road. A bit dubious as the first part is through the middle of a council estate, and some interesting side passages. Still it's uphill which means we are getting closer to the feature that dominates the Stornoway skyline, the war memorial
War memorials are a big thing up here, most communities seem to have one.
Talking of communities as we pass through the council estate we noticed a community office, a community shop, and a community ceilidh (meeting place). Not things you'd typical find on an English council estate. The sense of belonging to your local community is so much stronger up here, IMHO no bad thing.
The walk then takes us through the castle grounds which are a great wildlife park with what also appear to be some interesting and possible part constructed mountain bike trails. Part of the park is also the local golf course and Liz's chosen route takes us on paths smack-bang through the middle of it. If you are reading this Malc, it's a hell of a lot hillier than Wellow!
The museum is free but a recommended donation of £5 each is suggested. Happy paying but the museum itself was plushy, full of multimedia but without the content and charm of those little rural community ones we've been visiting all week.
Still it does have some originally 1941 bottles from the SS Politician. The 'Polly' bound for the US hit rocks off the island of Eriskay and sank with her cargo, thousands of bottles of whisky (and a lot of push-bikes too). And of course, we all know the film, one of my all-time favourites
If you don't know the film then do go seek out the original 1949 black and white version (but for goodness sakes, avoid the 2016 remake!)
Far better than the museum itself was a little exhibition held by Scotland's Treasure Trove team. A couple of young archaeologists and a table full of assorted finds. How often do you get chance, nay are encouraged, to handle neolithic flint arrow heads and stone axes, or Georgian coins etc. Interesting chats about how to recognise worked flint and stone, neolithic traders compared to indigenous American Indian trading, what constitutes treasure trove etc
As we walk into town, we see the omen, a bus bearing the sign "Cruise Ship Shuttle"!
One of the items on the shopping list (apart from a couple more of the excellent steak pies) was to check if the local wool shop actually has local wool. However the entire shop seemed to be taken over by a group of women sitting around a square of tables, knitting - there must have been a dozen of them. I thought we'd stumbled upon a local Saturday afternoon knitting circle, but no, apparently the women were all from Sweden and come over twice a year to knit and natter with the owner. It's a strange world, the world of craft!
Final stop is Taigh Ceilidh the Gaelic meeting centre, because music was planned to happen. It was all very organic, two young lads with guitars, pulled up stools to close the small circle in this tiny coffee shop/Gaelic resource centre, and simply started singing folk songs, joined in by a young girl (Anna) who has a delightful voice. About a dozen us in all, were entertained for a good 90 minutes. It really was something special, magical, an honour, privilege, and treat to be part of. The tunes were simple and often seemed familiar, the songs were mainly taken from a book of gaelic traditional songs, but not just any gaelic traditional songs, the Isle of Lewis Gaelic traditional songs. There were spare copies of the songbook and page numbers were announced in English so occasionally I could follow along but translating sung (or spoken) Gaelic to its written equivalent (or vice versa) is not the simplest of tasks for a novice.
When we were in on Monday I'd mentioned I enjoyed Puirt à Beul, music where both tune and rhythm came solely from the singer. One thought of its origin of that after defeat to the English the Scots traditions and customs were banned including bagpipes, so the voice has to supply both worlds and the pipe accompaniment.
As the set wound up we decided we'd both buy something and leave a decent donation, only to discover that when we were in on Monday we'd failed to pay our bill!!! So it was settlement of debt, purchase tote bag, and then leave a donation!
I could have, and perhaps should have, recorded some of the session or at least taken a photograph or two, but y'know I felt it would be an intrusion of the intimacy of the session.
Anna did give us a few names of music to look up, especially for Puirt songs. Sadly I can't find any of the specific Puirt à Beul songs on YouTube so here's any good one:
It was fascinating to chat with one of the old islanders who was full of knowledge of the island and weaving and I think we could easily have made a friend.
Well that's it for Harris and Lewis (well Lewis mainly). We leave tomorrow for the Uists. A couple more days here wouldn't have hurt, it's all been a bit rushed on an island where rushing is definitely not the norm! A hint of sadness perhaps.
