Friday 1 June 2012

Western Isles tour - MacRaes day 1

Feasgar math dha-riribh dhaibh, an excellent good evening to you, blog followers and friends of the MacRaes (my private tour couple).

This evening I (Scot) blog from a fine stable courtyard B&B near Ullapool high on the west coast.  Braemore it is called.


I am guiding a custom designed, private tour based on our Journey To The Western Isles, with some old friends / previous tour guests John and Sally.  They've asked for this once-in-a-retirement tour, so I'll be tweaking the usual itinerary to suit them. 
I can't introduce you to them yet in pic as they are asleep after 23 hours awake and travelling to Scotland, plus far too long on the road today - we had a major road closure in the Highlands today causing a 4+ hour detour.  So I took no photos till we arrived at our B&B.
I chose this place to stay because it is a place people have felt at home in for at least 1000 years.  Wendy and Ed, keepers, have a Celto-Norse settlement in their field not far from the current house. 
There's little to see in the grass but there is a wonderful feel to the place, perhaps as much because of the old birch trees and bluebells that now cover the site.
Tomorrow we take to the raging main and go "over the sea to Skye", isle of Leodhais actually.  It's a long journey but a stunning island when the pilgrim makes it there.  You'll come along for the blog, aye?