A Walk in the Woods

Tuesday 10th June 2008

A baby Skylark was in the garden at breakfast time. I wonder if this is the same one that crashed into the window yesterday. If so, it seems to have learned its lesson. A male House Sparrow was among the visitors sampling the bird seed.




GB left for the mainland to have his scans at Ayr Hospital and Pat took him and I to the airport. After GB had departed on the Glasgow plane we went to the Castle Grounds to take Briagha for a walk in the woods.



It threatened to rain at one stage but was kind enough to hold off and we had a most pleasant walk up Gallows Hill. Among the plants alongside the path were something that resembled Flowering Rush, Lupins, horsetails, and Bugle (Ajuga reptans).







Gallows Hill, as the name suggests, was where the town gallows once stood. Its Gaelic name - Cnoc na croich (Hill of the Hanging) also reflects the fact. It is 215 feet above sea level and the highest point of the Castle Grounds. The view of Stornoway from the summit is excellent - the whole panorama of the town is spread out below one on the other side of the harbour.






"There was prehistoric settlement in and around Stornoway, as early as 6,000 years ago. We know this because of the presence of a number of Neolithic and Bronze Age ritual monuments near the town, the largest and best known of which is the Neolithic (c. 4,000 BC) chambered burial cairn at Cnoc na Croich (Gallows Hill), in the grounds of Lews Castle. This cairn, which is about 30m in diameter, had a room inside it, which held the bodies of the dead. All that now remains of the structure is the huge stones of the chamber, with a scatter of smaller cairn stones spread around them." (From the Stornoway Historical Society Site) )



Briagha - such a clean and tidy dog.






Nothing like a little stick to keep a dog (and its owner) amused.





Briagha, five minutes later, a mucky pup!




Gallows Hill from Cuddy Point where we had left the car.