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A Trip to Scotland and the Western
Isles July 2000 
dansk
Iochdar on South Uist seen from Creagorg on Benbecula, Scotland
© Ole Jacobi July 2000
Saturday 8 July 2000
Today we start out in rain, and it never lets up all the way from the south
of South Uist to Benbecula. We only take two stops on the way to get out
of the rain, the first at Kildonan museum and café which turns out
to be very interesting, describing the lives of the crofters of the isles
in former times. A harrowing tale of hard, back-breaking work, fishing,
growing potatoes, sheep-shearing and dying, spinning and weaving the wool,
living in small, dark, unhealthy crofts, often with the cattle close by,
catching tuberculosis and living in fear all the time that the landlord
will put you out, enclosing the land for his sheep. You might regret the
ugliness of modern houses, when you see them besides the old crofts, but
there’s no doubt that life has become easier, and for many people better.
Out again in the rain after a cup of coffee with no stopping until
we reach the statue of "The Lady of the Isles", an imposing monumental
madonna halfway up a hillside with a radar installation at the top. Coincidence
or a clash between spiritual and technical forces? She’s been put up quite
recently with her large, pointing child, the stonework at the foot of the
statue is not quite finished.
After crossing the two causeways to Benbecula, we’ve had enough rain,
and start looking for a hotel. The first one, at Borgh, turns out to be
full, though I have a suspicion that the girl at the reception took one
look at our bedraggled state and pronounced that they were all booked-up.
I may be wrong, of course. The other hotel, which we passed on the way,
the Creagory Hotel, was more forthcoming, and gave us a nice room, not
cheap at £68, but with a good bathroom and TV. Just to get in out
of the rain is worth all the money.
The weather clears up in the evening, allowing us to trake a small
stroll before dinner at the hotel.
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text and watercolour by Susanne and Ole Jacobi