the isle of lewis
by mikka
The Standing Stones of Callanish.
Iain's father's side of the family is from the island of Lewis, so we spent our first day being shown around the island by his second cousin once removed, who graciously picked us up and drove us around for several hours. We covered all the major roads on the island and saw a lot of the big sights, like the standing stones (above) and beaches at the northernmost tip of the island, all of which were beautiful, even in the freezing February cold.
The port of Ness.
Roderick MacLeod, a chief of the MacLeods who died in 1498. There's sort of a family resemblance if you squint?
The best part of the tour, though, was being shown all the places of historical relevance to Iain's family. As the MacLeods once controlled the island, you can't throw a stone without hitting a MacLeod, a truck with their name painted on it, a monument to a bunch of them who stole bunch of sheep back in the day, and of course, graves with their names on it, including Roderick, above, who was an ancestor of Iain's.
Not far from the crumbling ruins of the MacLeod chief's tomb, Iain's cousin walked us to a patch of grass that was the unmarked grave of another ancestor (they couldn't afford a headstone, and the stone they'd dragged up from the beach rolled away years ago); he also took us to the old houses of Iain's great-grandparents and great-aunts, including this tiny, abandoned blackhouse, above, which is now inhabited by some incongruously friendly sheep.
Anyway, more pictures of Harris to follow, and bigger, edited versions of photo will hopefully appear on the photoblog soon.
