A week in Stornoway

Do you have a copy of Rough Guide Scotland? It will help.

You can fly Inverness-Stornoway, but I wouldn't fly via Inverness on this journey - Inverness is small airport with limited routes/airlines/frequency and hence getting there from Boston will likely take longer and be more expensive than flying through Scotland's larger airports.

I would've thought Glasgow would be a better option, but wherever you fly via you'll have to change to get there too so really it's Boston-(somewhere)-Glasgow-Stornoway.

I am not sure that I would use Stornoway as a base even with your connection to the Butte. More of the other things that you want to see are further south. Here's the trip that we did.

Ferry to Stornoway from Ullapool. Picnic lunch in Ullapool. An hour exploring and then off to see the Butt of Lewis. We went for a walk along the top of the hills.

Drive to Doune-Braes Hotel near Caroloway. This hotel was our base for a couple of nights. From here we did some walks near the Carloway Broch, we were able to visit the Callanish Stones and we went to the Gearrannan Blackhouse Village. There are also some lovely walks that you can do on the beaches and cliffs.

Drive to Tarbert to stay in the Harris Hotel. We explored Harris from this location. We were mostly walking, but we did go to Church of St. Clement--the drive is very good. The beaches are amazing. We went to see Donald Mackay's weaving shop and demo at Luskentyre Beach. One night in the hotel they had a wonderful lecture on St. Kilda that we attended. Amazing photographs.

We took the Ferry from Tarbert to Uig on Skye.

One thing to consider would be renting a car in Inverness. You can drive from Inverness to Ullapool in time for the early morning Ferry. We did it. You can also easily catch an early AM ferry back to Skye from Tarbert. We did it in August and saw an amazing sunrise over the harbor just as we were getting on the ferry. (Yes the Hotel provided breakfast to go. :) ) We had time to explore a bit of Skye and were back in the Inverness area by late afternoon.

BTW have you found Peter May's books?

Pam

Pam,
Thanks, and I have read Peter Mays books.Very useful advice.
Mark

mark,

If you want to spend some time on Harris, this B&B on Scalpay would make a nice home base. They get great reviews on Trip Advisor and the rooms are excellent. I've been doing some research for a trip in that area (probably next year) and this place is at the top of my list for accommodations in that area.

Hi Mark. My wife and I spent two nights on the Isle of Lewis in 2012. To get there, we flew Flybe from Inverness to Stornoway where we rented a car. We stayed at Auberge Carnish in Uig which has an amazing restaurant (haggis crepes!) but is a wee bit expensive. We visited the Calanais Stones, the Butt of Lewis, the Trussel Stone, and a Harris tweed weaver, did some hiking (or bog hopping as I called it), and relaxed, all on the west side of the island. We then drove back to Stornoway and flew to Edinburgh. Be aware that even by UK standards, the roads are extremely narrow, often only a single track with frequent pull outs for dealing with oncoming traffic.

Stornoway didn't make a positive impression. It's not particularly close to anything we wanted to see/do, and frankly, we found the people humorless and not very friendly. We coined the phrase "Stornoway scowl" while there. We had the same experience in the north around the Butt of Lewis. Obviously, it's not where I would suggest basing your visit but maybe others have had a different experience.

Are you planning to go directly from Boston to the Outer Hebrides? If so, you might look at Flybe's route map and choose a departure city that works best with your itinerary.

Have fun!