Walkers should act responsibly when exercising their right of access, and follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code published by Scottish Natural Heritage and available at www.outdooraccess-scotland.com. For example, you should avoid walking across growing crops or croftland when there is a route round it, and obey advisory signs asking you to avoid certain areas at certain times for land management, safety or conservation reasons. Particular care should be taken during the deer-stalking season, which typically runs from 1 July to 20 October, and the grouse-shooting season which runs from 12 August to 10 December. During these times it is best to check with the local tourist information offices which will be able to give you contact details for any nearby estates.
An Cliseam from Eilean Anabeich (Walk 14)
Access rights extend to wild camping; as long as you have no motorised transport, a small number of people using lightweight tents can stay for up to three or four nights in any one spot. It is therefore possible to wander off into the wilderness of the Park area of south-east Lewis, or indeed any other remote area of Harris or Lewis, and simply lose yourself. Leave no sign of ever having been there by carrying out refuse and removing all traces of your pitch. I will not dwell on the risk of open fires because finding wood on Lewis and Harris is never easy; but if you are lucky enough to find something to burn, such as old woody heather roots, ensure that your fire is sufficiently isolated from surrounding heather so as to preclude a major fire. Uncontrolled fires burn very fiercely and can set fire to the peat in which the heather grows. Not only can these fires be very difficult to quench, but where the peat is burnt heather and other seeds are destroyed, and plant life is lost; erosion may follow and it will take many years for the ground to recover.
Maps
The vignettes from the Ordnance Survey Landranger 1:50,000 series that are shown here are included to give readers a feel for the overall course of each walk, but they are no substitute for carrying and frequently referring to a separate map. The OS Landranger series will stand you in good stead for most of the low-level walk, but it is advisable to use the OS Explorer 1:25,000 series for any high-level walk or excursion in the more remote areas where there are few marked footpaths. They show much more detail and will be far more useful in situations when you really need them, such as when finding your way across open moorland in a mist.
The maps needed for each route are listed in the individual route profiles. Collectively they are OS Landranger Series map numbers 8, 13, 14 and 18 and OS Explorer Series map numbers 455 through to 460. You will need to buy these from a bookstore that stocks a comprehensive range of OS maps – and even then they may need to be ordered. Alternatively purchase them from an internet bookstore or directly from the Ordnance Survey online shop.
Bhaltos in West Lewis – just one of the many place names with Norse origin
Place names
The use of Gaelic and naming conventions on OS maps deserves a comment. Gaelic is a beautiful yet complex language. Many words, including first names and place names, are pronounced and written differently according to what word or letter precedes them or how much emphasis is put on the word. For instance, ‘It is cold’ is Tha I fuar. But ‘It is very cold’ becomes Tha I glè fhuar and the pronunciation of the last word changes. Place names are the same: Beinn Mòr and Beinn Mhòr both mean the big or high mountain, yet are pronounced differently. And just to confuse, the Gaelic word beag actually means little or small, and not big as English speakers might assume.
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the Western Isles Council, has adopted the pragmatic approach of labelling place names in both Gaelic and English – and even when they are not you can generally work it out for yourself. Chàrlobhagh must surely be Carloway and you can be certain that Calanais is Callanish, although it is not always so straightforward. If you have time to spare and intend to return to the north-west of Scotland, the island folk will be delighted if you take the trouble to learn a few basics in Gaelic and can start a conversation with Ciamar a tha sibh? (How are you?), even if you dry up after a few everyday phrases.
Many guidebooks stick firmly with the English version of placenames. To me, this smacks of linguistic imperialism. It is also not very helpful for those using the guides. Most likely you are going to be using this guide in conjunction with an Ordnance Survey map, where places and features are nearly always labelled in Gaelic, Norse or some hybrid of the two. Following that convention, I have chosen to use names taken directly from the OS maps throughout the text, making it much easier to follow route descriptions.
However, despite Ordnance Survey’s laudable policy on using Gaelic or Norse places names and the lengths it goes to when updating maps, all of which can be read on the OS website, naming on OS maps is far from consistent. For instance, neighbouring lochs at NB128120 on OS Explorer series 458 are labelled Loch Mòr Sheilabrie and Loch Beag Sheilibridh. There are numerous other inconsistencies, and finding such anomalies can provide yet another diversion for days when bad weather keeps you indoors.
How to use this guide
The walks in this collection have been selected to take in most of the main summits as well as shorter, half-day walks exploring antiquities and places of interest. Each route starts with a box giving the highest point reached during the walk, the total ascent involved, the distance covered and a rough guide of the time it is likely to take. These times are based on covering 4kph on the flat with an additional allowance of an hour for each 600m of ascent. This reflects the difficulty of some of the terrain and in practice it has proved fairly near the mark. However, these timings remain an estimate and you should also take into account the fitness level of the least experienced walker in the party, the conditions underfoot and the visibility on the day. With few paths, it is remarkably easy to get lost in mist. Even with two GPSs between us my party still managed to waste an hour navigating a way off the summit of Uisgneabhal Mòr on a misty April afternoon. So if you are unaccustomed to walking in wild country, start with a low-level walk to assess your own speed over the ground before venturing into the higher hills.
HARRIS
Ceapabhal with the machair in full flower
INTRODUCTION
The hills of North Harris are the highest in the Western Isles, but none exceeds 3000ft so they are hardly a magnet for the committed Munro bagger. At 799m (2622ft) An Cliseam is the highest and the only Corbett – a Scottish peak between 2500ft (761m) and 3000ft (914m). In good weather it is a remarkably straightforward and easy approach, starting from alongside the A859 main road between Tarbert and Stornoway, which already knocks 150m off the ascent. There are three Grahams: mountains between 2000ft (610m) and 2500ft (761m) with a drop of at least 150m (492ft) all around; in descending height they are Uisgneabhal Mòr, 729m (2390ft), Tiorga Mòr, 679m (2228ft) and Oireabhal, 662m (2170ft).
Descending the south ridge of Cleit Ard (Walk 8)
Everything else is 2000ft or less and such a modest collection of summits may lull you into thinking that days spent in the mountains of Harris are carefree and do not warrant serious planning. If anything, it is the exact opposite. Once away from the roads, the North Harris hills are a wilderness with few paths and those there are have a tendency eventually to peter out. Under foot it can be boggy and there are numerous small streams to cross. After a sudden downpour these can quickly become major obstacles that can be tricky and potentially dangerous to cross. To the west are the impassable cliffs of the Atlantic coast and to the north is the difficult terrain of Lewis where endless peat bog is pitted with a maze of lochs and lochans. In addition, the weather