A ten-day adventure in the Hebrides guided by Marc Calhoun.
Marc has been exploring the Hebrides for over thirty years and has guided cruises on Hjalmar Bjorge since 2016. He will be leading walks to historic sites on some of his favourite islands. This will very much be an adventure cruise with no fixed itinerary, instead the weather and sea conditions will determine which way we will go. The following is a sample of the possible adventures in store.
A two-night anchorage at Rum: This will give us a full day to make the 12-mile roundtrip walk from Kinloch Castle to the Bullough’s Greek-Temple Mausoleum on Rum’s remote west coast. On the way back we’ll go a bit off the track to search for the beehive cell dwellings of Loch Monica. A suggested reading is the late John Love’s Rum: A Landscape without Figures.
Ensay in the Sound of Harris: Ensay is home to two extreme examples of medieval chapels. The first, the restored Teampull Easaigh (also known as Christ Church), has roots dating back 1000 years. The second is Manish Chapel, buried in the sand for the past 300 years. The best preparation for a day on Ensay is to read Ken Duxbury’s enchanting Lugworm Island Hopping, which describes his stay on the island in the 1970s.
Shillay in the Sound of Harris: It was on Shillay that Robert Atkinson, author of the classic Island Going, camped to study seals. He describes his adventures there in the 1980 book Shillay and the Seals.
Pabbay in the Sound of Harris: Visiting Pabbay, with its many abandoned settlements, and the exquisite ruin of St Mary’s Chapel and the Cross that Would Frighten Giants, is a day to be remembered. If time permits, we’ll climb to the summit to take in the stunning view, described by Ken Duxbury: "Such a view you have not seen, nor ever will see, save you have the luck ever to stand on the tip of Pabbay on a golden summer day."
Ceann Ear of the Monach Isles: Also known as Heisker nan Cailleach, the skerry of the nuns, Ceann Ear was home to over 100 people in the 1890s. These days its residents are mainly seals, which can often be seen surfing the sea as it flows over the sandbars connecting the islands. Reaching the Monach's will need fine weather.
The Barra Isles: We may also visit the islands south of Barra, with the primary goal of landing on Sandray. If conditions permit, we’ll set foot on its northwest corner to explore the ruins of Sheader. It is at Sheader that you’ll find the remains of settlements dating from 1500 BCE to those of some of the ‘Raiders’ from Mingulay who tried to make a go of it on Sandray from 1907 to 1911. We may then climb to the high fortress of Dun Sandray, a broch ruin that overlooks the islands of Pabbay and Mingulay. Good sources of information on Sandray are Ben Buxton’s The Vatersay Raiders and Mingulay: An Island and its People.
As always, if you prefer not to go on guided walks you can explore on your own.
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Marc's brand new book - Thirty Years of Adventures in Search of the Past - The Outer Hebrides. £20 from the publishers - Islands Book Trust.
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