Lambertian Rambling

This year Gerry and I were fortunate enough to visit the Outer Hebrides, a group of islands off the west coast of Scotland. They include the island of Harris and Lewis, which is one island with two names. This is the northernmost and largest of the chain that forms the Outer Hebrides, and we had visited there some years ago. This time we went to South Uist, which is one of the southernmost islands of the chain.

My brother John was kind enough to meet us at Glasgow airport at 7:30 in the morning. As we has a couple of hours to wait before our train north was due, we made the most of our chance for with a brief visit with my mother (whom we would be staying with at the end of our trip). Then John took us on to the Queens Street train station where our trip to Lochboisedale began in earnest.

In past trips to Scotland we had hired a car each time. But this is hard on Gerry as there is so much driving to do, and so we decided this year to go totally public transport. So the first leg after our flight was to catch the 11:30 train from Glasgow to Oban, which is a port town on the west coast of Scotland, a little north of Glasgow. We arrived in a rainy Oban at about 3 PM, and the ferry to South Uist that we were going to catch was not until 9 the next morning. So we had a B&B booking arranged. Though it rained all that evening, the next morning was dry, and we took a stroll though the sleepy town before we sailed.

Harbor in the morning

After our stroll we went back to the B&B, and headed down to the harbor to board the ferry. In fact we were just going up the ramp to board The Lord of The Isles when we heard the last call message on the ship’s PA. That was a little close!

After getting on board we were quite happy to simply relax for the next 5 and a half hours, which was how long the ferry ride was to be.  Next stop Lochboisdale, which is a quite pretty little town. It was once one of the many thriving herring ports on the west of Scotland, but those days are long gone. Uist is not very hilly, in fact much of the west coast is little more that 5 or 10 meters above sea level. As a result is it a land of big skies, as you can see here.