Dun Torcuill

Dun Torcuill is possibly the best of the causewayed brochs on North Uist. But don't take the route I did when you visit it. The broch lies a quarter mile off the A865 highway, and I thought it would be easy to get to the dun by leaving the highway at its nearest point. But barb-wire fences lined the banks of several streams, and it was a slow struggle to find safe places to cross the streams (and the fences). 

But I did manage to reach the dun, and carefully walked across the slimy stones of the causeway to get a close up look at this amazing structure.

Dun Torcuill


Inside Dun Torcuill

Instead of returning the way I came, I headed northwest towards a small hill called Laiaval. The OS map indicates there's a holy well on the hill dedicated to St Columba, Tobar Chaluim Cille, so I headed for it. But unlike Dun Torcuill, the well was a disappointment, a muddy pool near some rocks in a field trampled by cattle (see last photo). From the well it was an easy walk to the nearby B893. If you want to see Dun Torcuill, start your walk from the B893.

Tobar Chaluim Cille

Chapel at Rubh' an Teampaill

An easy, but very rewarding hike on Harris, is the two-mile stroll from Taobh Tuath (Northton) out to the medieval chapel Teampall na h-Uidhe, on the south side of Gob na Tobha (Toe head).

The chapel was built on the site of a broch, a stone fort about 50 feet in diameter, and many of the fort's stones were used to build the chapel. Bill Lawson describes, on page 27 of his book 'Harris in History an Legend', how the fort was one of several that could relay a warning along the coast of the Long Isle.

Below are some photos of a walk to the chapel in 2010. 

Uidhe Chapel - Pabbay in the distance (left), Shillay to the right

Northern Isles - Mousa Broch

I will be venturing to the Orkneys for a few weeks this spring. I have not been to the Northern Isles for nearly 20 years. So in preparation for the trip I'm digging out photos from my visit to Orkney in 1990 and Shetland in 1995.

I not only have to dig them out, but I also need to scan them. Although that's a pain, I do, in some ways, miss the film days. In my basement is a large set of photo albums of Scotland and Ireland trips from 1988 to 2005. But as I began to use digital cameras in 2006 I no longer added additional albums. And so from 2007 on all I have are collections of photo CDs and other file storage devices. I miss not having albums I can easily pull out and look through.

As I go through photos from 1990 and 1995 I will scan the more interesting ones and share them here on occasion over the coming months. We'll start with these photos of Mousa Broch, which as you can see my wife and I visited on a very gray day. The first photo was taken with one of those cheap throw-away panoramic film cameras. Back in those days I would always take one on a trip. These days photo stitching software can create much better panoramas out of two or three separate photos.