Thursday 17/03/05

And as yesterday was such a complete waste of time, I’m heading off for Harris today with the sole aim of finding Molinginish, which means shingle beach by the heathery headland. It requires a bustrip to Tarbert. Two folk get off at Balallan, one person alights at the Huisinis roadend. The cloud is low today, and rain is forecast. Driver stops to take fuel at the Ardhasaig services and drops me off in Tarbert at 11.10. I set off to Urgha, along the Scalpay road, with birds singing and daffodils blooming. It feels quite mild, at 13C. The Scalpay bus overtakes me just short of the Lacasdale Lochs, so that would not have saved me an awful lot of time. One gentleman in a car offers me a lift further up the road, but I’m due to turn off it only ¼ mile further on. He says it will clear up later. Sure! Go up the path towards Reinigeadal, towards the pass at 950 feet. This I find wreathed in fog at 12.15, as the cloud has decided to lower itself. The view disappears as I step up to the cairn, visibility down to about 150m. Three hundred metres along (400 steps), a little cairn sits at a junction of paths, with the Molinginish path branching off to the right. It’s not very distinct, but a compass bearing of 110° confirms that it goes in the right direction. I follow it down, and I emerge from under the cloud and the drizzle. A fence marks the township boundary, and a hand-scratched sign welcomes the walker into Molinginish. Nobody lives there. The path is markedly wetter after the stile, but there are no great problems. Three houses still have a red, corrugated-iron roof, one has no doors or glass windows. A number of miserable looking sheep scurry about. Two of the usable houses are located near the shore. One looks quite prim inside, from what I can see through a window. It has a marine signal lamp, two notebooks + pens, a stove, oil lamps and a bunkbed. A minute little garden, 2 m2, with fencing that is higher than the garden is long. The other house is a building site with a wheelbarrow with a flat tyre sitting inside. Both buildings are locked. There are remains of 5 or 6 other houses, only walls still jutting out of the grass. Wall height 1 to 5 feet. A seal pops out of the water to look what is going on. Sacks of household coal from a Stornoway coal merchant lie on the shingle above the floodline. It’s quite a secluded spot. View goes right out to the Shiants, which are wreathed in sealevel fog. A sheep nibbles away at grass, perilously close to the shoreline slabs, but I hear no splash. I leave Molinginish at 1.15, about half an hour after arrival. The rain starts as well. Discover a little bench above the hamlet, with a very nice viewpoint. The fog is now right down, as is the visibility. Struggle down to the main road across some very slippery stones, but make it to Lacasdale Lochs at 2.30. Brief cuppa on the bench there, in the pouring rain. Then along to Tarbert. Warm up in the waiting room by the busstation. There is this slightly annoying chap who keeps suggesting I go to Leverburgh, although I repeatedly tell him that I’m heading for SY (local code for Stornoway). Bus arrives at 3.45, and the driver is in a right foul mood. On board is also the lady who alighted at the Huisinis road end this morning. She was going walking, but the weather closed in. On passing a lorry in the roadworks above Ardhasaig, the bus driver opens his window and mutters to the lorry driver “I’ll be so [expletive] glad when this is done”, referring to the roadworks. Return to Stornoway at 4.50, to pop into the library to look up Molinginish. It’s only mentioned under the SYHA and Gatliff Hostels sites, people’s holiday plans, a genealogy site and a site about Gaelic names. Nonetheless, a pretty little place, that has stolen my heart. Like so many places in the Hebrides do.