Overseas Adventure Travel: Scotland Revealed, July 29-August 18, 2025

Our pre-trip from Nairn (near Inverness) to the Isle of Skye, the Islands of Harris and Lewis. Only four single women and our wonderful trip leader Dominic Youe began Monday, June 29.

We stayed one night at the beautiful 1650 old mansion, now the Muthu Newton Hotel in Nairn, which Charlie Chaplin considered his favorite hotel in Scotland. We enjoyed our walk along the seafront with views over the Moray Firth (Fjord) and were invited to watch a lawn bowling competition.

During WWII the iron from the walls, etc. was taken for the war effort

    Karen and Valerie are San Francisco Bay Areans, too!

A very welcome bed after a long flight from SLC to Dallas, to London to Inverness. 

June 30th our delightful driver Claire drove us to the Inverness train station for one of the (voted) most beautiful train journeys of the U.K.

She drove us over the Skye Bridge, had lunch, walked across the Thomas Telford Bridge and toasted the trip, then took a muddy walk to see the waterfalls in Glen Sligachan.

Next we drove to the lovely capital of Skye, Portree to our gorgeous hotel The Cullin Hills, with a great view of the painted houses/shops across the firth.

Our hotel (below) and the view towards downtown Portree (=Port of the King after James IV who invaded in 1540). Population is about 13,000 today, 18,000 in 1970's. High school students from Harris and Lewis used to board here before 2018 when they got a school there.

Our local guide Rob took us all over Skye (75 miles, north to south), including St. Columba's Island burial ground mostly covered with grass. St. Columba brought Christianity to Scotland from Ireland, first to Iona and the Highlands came to Skye in 518 AD. Vikings controlled and inhabited the North and West of Scotland from 8th to 12th centuries, and fought the Celts. The Romans never controlled or settled what is now Scotland. Norse names remain.

We visited a large croft, where we learned about sheep herding from Seamus, and more about the Highland Clearances which were a period in Scottish history (roughly 1750-1860) where large numbers of people (usually poor tenant farmers) were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in the Scottish Highlands and Islands to make way for sheep farming and other more profitable ventures for the landowners.This resulted in widespread displacement, cultural disruption, and emigration (to lowlands, America, Canada, Australia, etc.), leaving a lasting impact on the region. 

We stopped at the grave of Flora MacDonald (1722-90) (below), heroine who rescued Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Edward Stuart), disguised as her maid, after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden by the English army in 1746. He was able to escape to France, she was taken to London under house arrest, and not freed until the amnesty for Jacobites in 1747;  and the grave of fashion designer Lee Alexander Macqueen.

The scenery was spectacular, with blooming pink heather and ancient gneiss rock. The waterfall and Kilt Rock behind were amazing

    Local guide Rob and Dominic showed us so much!

The Old Man of Storr impressed me so I bought a poster now framed

That evening in Portree I joined Dom for fish and chips and watched The Skye Pipe Band. The kilt-clad pipers and dancers were young students and very enthusiastic! I loved it!

The next morning, Dom, Karen and I took a steep but lovely hike in Portree along the Scorrybreac trail with beautiful views of the Isle of Skye. 

We took the ferry over the Minch (sea) from Uig (east coast of Skye) to the port of Tarbert on Harris Island, which connects on the north to the larger Isle of Lewis.

These outer Hebrides Islands are sparsely populated and so beautiful. I started reading Peter May's trilogy (The Black house, The Lewis Man,  The Chess Men) which take place and are based mostly on Lewis Island life, culture, geography. He describes Island life there perfectly.

July 2 we arrive in Stornoway, the largest settlement on the islands. Our cozy Royal Hotel is on the main street overlooking the inner harbor and Lews Castle, the impressive Gothic-revival style castle built in the mid 1800’s by Sir James Matheson, opium baron. Since then this beautiful Victorian building has also served as a hospital during WWII, a college, a school and now as an iconic wedding venue.

A highlight of the trip was a visit to the 50 Callanish Standing Stones (older than Stonehenge), whose origins and purpose are still a bit mysterious. They are over 5,000 years old, made from Lewisian Gneiss, black stone which is over 3 billion years old, the oldest stone in the world.

Also on the west coast of Lewis we visited a 2,000 year old Iron Age Broch, a fortified tower on a hill. The seaside grassy plots are called machair



I loved the nearby Black house village, which was inhabited from the early 1800's to as recently as the 1970's. An elderly man, Donie Angie, who had spent his childhood in a black house similar to these at Gearrannean, sang us a Gaelic song for which he has won awards in competitions all over Scotland. Some homes are still lived in, though modernized, which chimneys instead of hole in the center of the roof.

This is peat country, still used to heat homes. A peat bog is a wetland ecosystem characterized by acidic, waterlogged conditions where partially decayed plant matter accumulates.  It is cut with a special tool (a tarasgeir) into triangles and dried in a specified effective manner. Peat absorbs carbon dioxide (50% absorption!). It lessens the threat of flooding and filters water of chemicals. It is often used as fertilizer.

In Seaforth we met Iain, a fourth generation Harris Tweed weaver and watched him expertly work on two of his Hattersley Looms. Harris Tweed is the only fabric protected by British law. 

Some of us enjoyed a fun pub impromptu Gaelic musical ceilidh at the New Lewis Bar. A Scottish ceilidh (pronounced "KAY-lee") is a traditional social gathering, often involving lively music, dancing, storytelling, a vibrant part of Scottish culture, typically featuring Scottish country dancing and Gaelic folk music. Ceilidhs can be held in various venues, from homes and community halls to pubs and larger concert spaces. 

We spent July 4th at the Port of Ness, the northernmost tip of Lewis, with the Butt of Lewis Lighthouse, then the Stephenson Lighthouse, the last lighthouse in the British Isles to be automated in the late 1990's

The boathouse and Port of Ness figure in Peter May's atmospheric Blackhouse

We met Dods, the inspiration behind the character Gigs, in the Guga Hunter and Blackhouse, a long-time leader of men from the town of Ness who go off to a nearby island called Sula Sgeir, to hunt young gannets known as Guga. It's a controversial topic and an occupation fraught with much danger.

In Stornoway we had lunch and visited with Tearlach who is involved in promoting Gaelic and Lewisian culture, especially for the local youth. He has created Scrabble in Gaelic.

We visited the Lews Castle Museum where we saw replicas (?) of the famous chessmen carved of walrus ivory by Norsemen in the 12th century, discovered on the island in the 1800's. There were 82 in the British Museum and 11 in Edinburgh Museum.

What a great pre-trip! We flew on Saturday, July 5th to Glasgow to meet the other 10 members who will join us on the base trip.