Fond Memories of Callanish

In the September of 2011, I headed up to the Highlands to wild camp and hike in the wilderness there. After a week on the mainland at the Cape wrath I caught the ferry and headed over to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. I caught the bus out to Callanish, a small village on the west side of Lewis with the intention of viewing the stone circles situated there. Callanish is a very ancient site and is said to date back to nearly 3000 BC. There is one main stone monument which is actually in the shape of a cross – and is said to align with the cycles of the moon rather than those of the sun as in the case of Stonehenge. It is generally understood that this is because the community that lived there at the time it was constructed was a fishing community rather than arable. There are also two other smaller stone circles that lie just a short distance from the main megalithic structure.

I got out to the stones around two O’clock in the afternoon and had a good look around. My aim was to camp on the site but around sunset the site got busy with photographers. So instead I opted to camp a short distance away at an old ruined house on the side of a loch. This was a strange place full of pigeons that kept flying out from the rafters momentarily. I pitched my one man Bivvy tent and the next day in strong rain made my way back to Stornoway on the bus then catching the ferry to the mainland the following day.