Another walk during the Braxony tour of the Outer Hebrides. Following an inspection of the peat bog near our B & B and then a wander around the Church of St Clements at Rodel, we visited my Grandparents old house and their neighbours and then headed off to Scarister.
Just before reaching Scarister we turned off the road to Northton and parked. We then took a small track leading towards the peninsula of Toehead which is home to some of the most rare and precious machair grasslands and breeding birds in Britain today. By heading away from Scarister beach we reached the southwest side of the peninsular and then headed across flat ground towards the ruin of a 12th century chapel (Rudh'an Teampull) and remains of an ancient Broch.
After parking at Northton we headed over the machair to the temple trying not to disturb the birds - The Lapwings were however pretty flighty and flew pretty close over our heads.
Looking across the machair.
The chapel is situated in the shadow of Ceapabhal hill. It is medieval, (some say late, some early), and was built on the site of an Iron Age broch. The church was probably built re-using some of the same stones. It has a window in each of the four walls. The wall at the east end has two niches where religious vessels were kept. There are remains of a graveyard surrounding the ruined church. Nearby, archaeologists have found the remains of the oldest known settlement in the Outer Hebrides which dates back 9,000 years. Looking out over the Caolas na Hearadh, (Sound of Harris), you can see the island of Pabbay in the distance.
After looking around the ruins for a while we decided to walk around the peninsula, Toehead following the coast line. So we followed a faint path along the coast until we found a number of caves.
At this point the hill drops sharply into the sea and the cliffs begin to get so steep that there seemed to be no way of continuing around the coast.
So we headed straight up and over the top of Ceapabhal hill. The ground was pretty boggy and we met an inquisitive group of Highland cows.
After heading straight over the top of the hill we came across gorgeous views of Scarister beach below on the northeast side of the peninsular.
B. above Scarister beach.
Looking back towards Northton.
We then headed straight down to the beach and came across large groups of Oystercatchers
Machair - incidentally the other Machair was a Scottish soap opera produced in the 1990's in which my uncle Iain acted!
Message?
Scarister
J. on Scarister
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