Hebridean way trail Scotland youth hostel gatliff trust
howmore-hostel-south-uist-interior
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- In May 2018 the Kilbride cafe was open Monday – Saturday 10 – 4.30, and on Sundays 11 – 4. Unless you venture off-trail to Dalabrog this is the last refreshment for thirty kilometres.
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- New hostel under construction at West Kilbride (May 2018).
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- For hikers of a disrespectful bent and who are not afeared of ghosties this would make an excellent bivvy, although personally I draw the line at putting a tent up in a graveyard.
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- The little roofless chapel at Boisdale is a welcome shelter from the maddening wind and a great spot for breakfast. I find these war graves of unknown sailors very moving – what a terrible way to die.
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- Old fish farm nets merging into the beach environment.
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- The kelpy beach. This goes on for some considerable way.
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- Seemingly random patches in the dunes are ploughed and spread with rotten kelp.
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- The trail passes through typical South Uist crofts that might at times seem a little uninteresting to walkers not either agronomically or ornithologically minded.
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- Machair soil on South Uist – pure sand a few inches down.
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- Further north, the kelp on the beach peters out somewhat.
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- On top of that, the ruined chapels next to the hostel at Howmore are very interesting and atmospheric.
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- If you ask me, the lovely Gatliff Trust hostel at Howmore is a must. Apart from anything else, you get to sleep in an actual blackhouse. Just without the black.
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- The convenient rock pools of South Uist. That’s not my cooking receptacle, by the way.
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- Thank goodness for EU-funded boardwalks. Without them in these South Uist bogs a grown man on horseback could disappear without trace.
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- This nameplate is presumably either Uistian dry humour or one of a series of elementary English lessons for Gaelic speakers.
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- Our Lady of the Isles.
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- See that mist on those hills?
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- Approaching the A 865, an ecological case study. Left: with sheep. Right: without sheep.
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- Some sections of the raised turf path are more raised than others.
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- Some sections have been improved with plastic mesh.
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- To be fair, other sections are jolly nice and dry. Almost all the South Uist stage is easy walking.
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- These Hebridean reels gave some shelter from the wind for lunch.
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- The concrete bases of the towers came from Germany. To the Outer Hebrides.
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- Pretty restored blackhouse at Ardmore. When the sun comes out, the Hebrides are quite colourful!
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- For centuries Hebrideans turned sand into fragile soil with creels of kelp and backbreaking labour. Now they just buy three bags of compost for a tenner, like the rest of us.
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- I wasn’t entirely convinced of the authenticity of my Hebridean lunch at Lovats.
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- From the causeway to Benbecula. Isn’t this how the Hebrides are supposed to look?
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- Carry on along the pavement until you see this sign. Obviously I can’t guarantee the bizarrely blue sky.
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- I took a few photos of the sunshine in case I never saw it again.
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- Looking from the beach the white building is the campsite facilities block, the grey bungalow on the left the owners’ house where you check in.
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- Ditto the blue sky.
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- Enjoying my breakfast cocoa as the rain hammers on the roof of the shower block.
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- The rain had more or less stopped but this point but the wind was troublesome.
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- My rather splendid Hobbit House.
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- Seriously, freeze-dried chocolate mousse. Astonishingly good.
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- My view of the North Uist Shire
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- More Red Dwarf than Hobbit, if I’m honest…
An Oldie Outdoors 