The Road to Balallan

Sunday 14th June 2015

When I awoke at the Rhenigidale Youth Hostel on this day it was to fantastic sunshine. I had been in Scotland for almost two weeks and I had not seen such good weather in all that time; I could hardly believe it could be this good. The weather had been very poor on the first week of my holiday, but for this second week of my holiday there had hardly been any rain with the weather simply getting better day by day until the fabulous weather that I was now enjoying on my second weekend in Scotland, unfortunately the weather would deteriorate as I moved into my third week. Due to its isolated location, when I left the hostel I had only two routes to choose from. There was the old postman’s path west to Tarbert that I had taken the day before or the modern road north, and since north has been my ultimate objective throughout this holiday then it was along the road that I started the day. I would end up spending most of the day walking alongside roads, which should have made for a poor day, but the day held far more interest that you would have thought.

The road out of Rhenigidale was pleasant to walk along in the warm weather as I passed several small lochs before descending steeply to Loch Mhàraig, an inlet of Loch Seaforth, before climbing to the main road below the imposing bulk of An Cliseam, the highest hill on the whole chain of islands that make up the Outer Hebrides. I walked up An Cliseam when I was on the Isle of Harris in 2011 and as I now walked passed this hill under glorious blue skies I longed to abandon my trek up the length of the Outer Hebrides and once more walk up An Cliseam exploring all the fabulous hills of Harris. Instead I resumed my walk along the Harris Walkway that I had started the day before by taking a track that comes off the road below the radio masts on Gormul Màraig. This is the final section, the northern tip of the Harris Walkway, but unfortunately it isn’t in a very good condition and is a poor reflection on the excellent sections of the walkway in South Harris. At one time I’m sure this was a great, well-made track, but it is now in need of maintenance as poor drainage has made the route very boggy in places. The poor state of the path was compensated by the stunning scenery with the awesome Harris hills looming spectacularly and the long, narrow Loch Seaforth glistening in the distance.

Eventually, and tragically with relief, I finally reached the end of the Harris Walkway beside the road above the valley of Gleann Sgaladail where I now had no alternative but to walk beside the road over the bridge that spans the Abhainn Sgaladail. After passing the Scaladale Centre I was able to walk along the remains of the older narrow road from before the present straighter, wider, two-lane road was built. This enabled me to keep off the road until I reached the car park at Bowglas where I could stop, have my lunch and consider my next direction. On this holiday I had taken my inspiration from two different sources, and was consequently always picking between two different routes up the Hebrides. Peter Clarke’s book, "The Timeless Way", describes a walk along the length of the Western Isles and suggests taking a track from Bowglas across the northern slopes of the Harris hills before descending to the bogs of the Morsgail Forest past Kinlochresort. However, by this point in my holiday I was beginning to feel like I just wanted to get to my destination, the Butt of Lewis, as soon as possible, so instead I decided try and find the route of the new long distance path currently under construction, the Hebridean Way.

That meant staying on the road into the Isle of Lewis, which you would expect would mean crossing the sea channel between the islands but that is not the case. Not far from Bowglas, and with a spectacular view south down Loch Seaforth I crossed a small bridge over a tiny stream and suddenly I was greeted with a sign saying welcome to the Isle of Lewis. The reasons why they are considered as two islands are lost in history, but suffice to say that I was now on my ninth and last inhabited island of my Hebridean trek. On the outskirts of the Aline Community Woodland I discovered a wide, gravel path under construction that plunged into the wood and climbed the steep hillside. Convinced that this was the new Hebridean Way I eagerly set off up the path wondering where it would lead me, despite starting to get a bit concerned with the path’s unrelenting climb. I was afraid this path would abandon me at the top of a hill beside a new communications tower, and eventually it did bring me to the top of Griamacleit with spectacular views overlooking the wood and the Harris hills behind, but it was also the end of the path. The contrast between the hilly Isle of Harris behind me and the much flatter moorland of the Isle of Lewis was clearly to be seen from this excellent vantage point and more than compensated for being abandoned by the path.

After looking out over my surroundings for a while I eventually saw red and white survey posts heading back down the hill that seemed to indicate the continuation of the path, so with renewed confidence that I was actually on the Hebridean Way I followed the pasts down the heathery hillside back into the Aline Woodland. A rough walk through felled woodland beside the Abhainn Ruadh brought me to a makeshift bridge over the river and the top of a pre-existing woodland path known as Steep Stag Hill. This good track was a pleasure to walk along as it took me through the woodland beside a river almost as far as the road where I took another path, the West Board Walk heading north, which brought me to the car park for the Aline Community Woodland. Soon after leaving the woodland I went onto a section of the old road where a new path is being built to link it with the pre-existing paths in the Aline Woodland. Excited that I had found the route of the new Hebridean Way I set off along this old road enjoying the sense of isolation as this old road keeps a sizable distance from the modern road and made for a pleasurable walk through the stunning Lewis moor until I eventually reached the township of Arivruaich.

On the outskirts I saw a sign that actually mentioned footpath construction and so after my success in the Aline Community Woodland I excitedly set off along this new path, only to have it stop a short distance from the gate. I attempted to follow a route beyond but  came across so many barbed wire fences for the crofts of Arivruaich that I eventually made my way back onto the road and dejectedly set off along the road to Balallan. Following this failure I had lost my heart for further exploration and since I could see no further sign of construction I concluded that there wasn’t any yet. As I made my way into Balallan I decided that despite a large amount of road walking the sunshine and stunning views had made this a great day. The great weather continued into the evening as I took a peat road out of Balallan to a spot where I could camp beside Loch na Craoibhe with stunning views across the Lewis moor.