When you live here, it is easy to forget that the Western Isles is a world class walking destination. The combination of huge moors and high mountains, wild rocky coastlines, stunning beaches, countless lochs and lochans, widespread and accessible archaeology and outstanding wildlife together produce a landscape as rich, dramatic and varied as anywhere on the planet.
And yet…..how many of us really know our islands, away from the settlements and tarmac? In this monthly column I will be encouraging you to pull on your boots or wellies and explore our islands on foot. You won’t only feel healthier for the exercise, you will encounter eagles and otters, red throated divers and grey seals. You will feel the wind on your face and hear the surf exploding onto sea stacks. And you will discover many, many evocative traces left by previous generations - abandoned villages, collapsed shielings, isolated ruins and the corduroy furrows of hard won lazybeds tracing the lines of hillsides.
Some of the walks will be gentle strolls on obvious paths and tracks, others will be more challenging, taking you off to the wilder parts of the islands. Some may be familiar, whilst others will probably be unknown to all but local residents. I have had a wonderful time walking these routes over the past 10 years – over the coming months I hope I can inspire some of you to explore these fabulous walks for yourselves.
TOLSTA HEAD WALK
There is so much more to Tolsta than a couple of great beaches, as this fantastic walk around its prominent headland shows. There is no obvious path on the ground, but the route is clearly waymarked with wooden posts and sign posts. If in doubt, follow the cliff tops where the ground is drier and the going easier– though don’t go too close to the cliff edge, as some of the rock here is unstable.
Setting off from the new housing scheme at Cnoc an Runaire, head over waste ground just before the first houses, then go through a small gate and follow a quad bike track down to the end of the croft fields. Once through another gate head right through the heather, past some old lazybeds, until you get to the cliff edge.
Way below you is Cladach Ghioradail (1), Tolsta’s forgotten beach, which is usually overlooked by visitors flocking to the better know Tràigh Mhòr and Tràigh Gearradha. The long concrete pier at its far end is a clue to its former importance as the village’s main fishing beach – open boats used to operate from here until the middle of the 20th Century.
Now it is just a case of following the cliff tops and admiring the fabulous coastal scenery and distant views to Tiumpan Head and the mainland hills. Fulmers and the occasional kittiwake are nesting on the steep cliffs as I write, and Great Skuas – or bonxies, to give them their Shetlandic name – patrol the moor and the cliff tops. Looking like large, brown gulls with distinctive white flashes on each wing, bonxies are vicious aerial pirates, stealing food from other sea birds, and perfectly capable of killing smaller species like puffins and guillemots. Don’t get too close to their moorland nests, unless you are wearing a hard hat….
Every stack, cove and inlet here has its own name and stories – an excellent leaflet published by the local historical society gives more information on some of these, and is available at Tolsta post office.
For those short on time (or stamina) a short cut across the headland is marked by a wooden finger post. However it is worth keeping on, if your legs can manage it, as the coastal scenery around the headland itself is very dramatic. Once you reach Tolsta Head (2), it is worth sitting down for a rest – especially on a calm day. Jutting out into the Minch, this is one of the best spots on Lewis for spotting whales and dolphins.
As the path swings round to the west keep an eye open for the numbered marker posts; near post 12 you can still see where the initials JF have been cut into the peat – a memorial to John Finlayson of 10, Tolsta, who lost his life whilst bird nesting on the cliffs nearby (3). The cliffs along this part of the walk are immense and very, very steep – the idea of scrambling down them for bird eggs is too awful to contemplate. Vertigo sufferers be warned!
Further along, the vast sandy expanse of Tràigh Mhòr appears, but the view from here is very different from the usual tourist photographs, which are almost always taken from the small road to Tràigh Ghearradha. This time, the foreground is dominated by Heisgeir (4), a line of dramatic, spiky sea stacks that extend out from the main cliffs like the dorsal fins of a fossilised sea monster.
Continue on until a finger post points the way back across the moor (5). The way here is not obvious, but just keep walking over the rough heather in the general direction indicated, and 10 to 15 minutes will bring you back to the gate at the end of the croft fields, from where it is a short stroll back to the start.
If you want to discover more of the amazing walks the Hebrides have to offer, you may be interested in my website: www.hiddenhebrides.co.uk
