Callanish
By: roughseasinthemed
Tags: avebury, callanish, callanish stones, children of the stones, hebrides, scottish hebrides, wild camping
Category: Architecture, History, Photography, Scotland, Travel
Callanish Stones.
For some reason I always thought these were the ones used in the childrens’ TV serial, Children of the Stones (1977). Anyone who remembers that will know what an excellent adventure story it was, although set in Avebury. (Not sure where my Avebury pix are but I did go there when I walked the Ridgeway).
This is not about Avebury or Children of the Stones, so let’s get back to Lewis.
The Callanish Stones are on the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides or Western Isles, and we visited them as part of our idyllic Islands tour (see previous guys post).
Although there are no bright clear blue skies, the weather was warm and sunny, as it was throughout the holiday, hence returning home and people disbelieving we had been to Scotland, saying instead that we had acquired Mediterranean tans. Hidden secret, known only by canny Scots – they get a lot of sun up there, along with midges and rain.
After wild camping up through the previous southern islands we arrived in Lewis to find total civilisation. Supermarkets. And camp sites. With toilets and showers and everything we had missed for a long while. After raiding the supermarket, we checked into a camp site.
It was pleasant, level (we’d already rejected a sloping midge-infested one), open, and grassy. The woman was very friendly and offered to do our washing. We gladly accepted.
My white knickers came back PINK!! (didn’t she know how to wash coloureds and whites ffs?), and somewhere along the line we lost two towels. Oh well. Not quite as bad as the drunk falling on top of us at the beginning of the holiday.
And Callanish was well worth the visit. According to Wiki, built between 2900 and 2600 BC. Wow! Link here.
One of many reasons why it was one of my best holidays ever.
Every picture tells one 
Ahhhhh Scotland I love it!!!!!!!! I’ve never had bad weather there, unlike another country attached to England. I intend to spend a lot more of my retirement up that way :-). You’ve really made me want to dig out some old pics of my own that have a story attached 🙂
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One of the advantages of living in Newcastle, apart from the proximity to the beautiful Northumbrian beaches, was the proximity to Scotland. I figured if we moved back down south again, I’d never make the effort to get back up there, so we covered pretty much most of it in our years up north. We had one week in that rather gloomy wet other country and that was more than enough!
I did have quite a few camera-free years though when I put my foot down about the processing involving gelatin. Digi cams had just come out but were in their real infancy and probably overpriced and not very good, so there is a real gap in my photographic history book.
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Phew, that’s getting deep into the photographic knowledge of silver halides & gelatine, I wonder if Debs ever looked at the uses of gelatine that deeply, I know she did in the making of wine.
Digital is far easier and far more folk have taken to photography because of it, this became really obvious in the years I was working in the photo lab.
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Not getting deep into my knowledge as it is non-existent 😀
The big one in wines was often isinglass. I was quite into it all by then, so got any wine/beer/etc by vegan/veg mail order 🙂 (Leeds-based co natch :D)
I have a Jessops tale for you (a good one) – I’ll mail you the link or whatever when I have done some chores/tasks/boring stuffs.
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Ooo, yes please 🙂
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But not now, it’s nearly sleepytime here 😀
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Missed this post when it first came out, somehow. Very surreal.
And of course it brings back to mind a week I spent in Scotland some 100 years ago or so, more or less 🙂
Definitely long before the digital camera era…. i never knew gelatin was used in film processing. hmmm…..
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I’m convinced it’s the Scottish light. Warm, sunny, and yet, that slight haze. This was early nineties I think.
I don’t think anyone apart from vegetarians and Vicky knew that gelatin was used in it either 😀
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Always dreamt of going to the Hebrides and ever more so, after reading this..
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The Hebrides are beautiful, and Callanish had a lovely tranquil atmosphere. Nor was it busy. Not even a cow in the circle 😉
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Those windswept islands have always attracted me…
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Glorious sunshine when I went! It’s a little-known secret that they have good summers and mild winters.
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Before, I didn’t even know that Lewis was as big as it is … that was until I met a fellow blogger from there.
Have you ever considered ‘self-hosted’ WordPress blog?
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No.
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